The Last Time I Lied

My Rating: 4.5 Stars

It was a game played in a small cabin at a summer camp, Camp Nightingale. Two Truths and a Lie. This game was played between four campers, Vivian, Natalie, Allison and Emma. One night three of the girls snuck out. As the youngest then, all Emma could do was watch, ordered by the leader of the pack, Vivian, to remain quiet.

It is over a decade later and Emma has become an artist. The girls were never seen again, and Emma continually paints them in huge canvases, but then covering them with dark and knarled leaves and branches. These paintings have gained notoriety, and have even caught the eye of Francesca Harris White, who is the wealthy owner of Camp Nightingale. It has been reopened and Francesca begs Emma to return show more as a painting instructor. Emma find this a great opportunity to try and discover whatever happened to her friends, once and for all.

Things are just not right at the camp even now. Also, Emma is haunted by the events, especially when it comes to Vivian. Emma discovers clues Vivian left behind. Everyone seems suspect, including the son of the owner. All the while, Two Truths and a Lie cover every aspect of the past and the present.

This book was full of despair and suspense. Sad that three teens apparently died and suspenseful because Emma left no stone unturned during her time back at the camp.

Riley Sager did a fantastic job of keeping me guessing. In fact, what happened more than midway through the book was truly shocking, and actually gave me pause. I remember talking to someone at this point while reading the book and wondering if it was not just a bit fantastical and whether or not I had the guts to go on. Well, of course I did, and I am thrilled to have done so. The story was already written with superb character development and perfect pacing. That only intensified ad that point, leaving me with a rather insatiable desire to work things out to see who really was responsible for everything strange going on.

Without adding in any spoilers, I want to say something about Emma. She was a truly unreliable narrator, and we got the entire story from her first-person point of view. I admit to doubting her time and again. This plays well to the excellent writing style of Sager. Get me to dislike or distrust a character and you have my attention. I enjoyed The Last Time I Lied and I look forward to Mr.Sager's next book, Lock Every Door. As a matter of fact, I think I am going to backtrack and check out Final Girls.

Many thanks to Dutton and to Edelweiss for this ARC to review in exchange for my honest opinion. show less

Source: NetGalley
Rating: 4/5 Lying Liars Who Lie

Review: Things I Love: Creepy cabins in the woods. Summer camp stories. Secrets. Twisty friendships. Books that give me mysteries in the past and in the present. The premise of The Last Time I Lied was A+ MADE FOR ME. The setting is gorgeously described, the characters are frustrating and twisted and interesting, and though I expected more tension from the mysteries, the story itself was intriguing and entertaining and fun to read. I love unreliable narrators, and Emma is a pretty great one. (I did get tired of how many times she brought up, oh THING happened, but I’m not even going to think about it. We get it, you have secrets too, this is done too often to have any impact.) I love the show more slow build of the story and would have happily spent more pages letting that atmosphere get creepier and creepier (and spending more time in the past with Vivian manipulating everyone, because she is the greatest). show less

Emma was at summer camp as a teen when her cabin-mates all vanished without a trace. Fifteen years later, she's been invited back to teach art by the wealthy camp owner when the camp is reopened after being closed for fifteen years -- despite having accused the camp owner's son of being responsible for the disappearances.

Camp Midnight is the subject of eerie legends, and tales related to the disappearance of the three girls has been added to the camp's lore. When Lake Midnight was formed by building of a dam flooding the valley, what was there to be covered by the waters? Were the missing girls victims of a curse, a criminal, or their own inability to find their way back to camp from the surrounding wilderness?

Wow. This may be one of show more the most twisty, page-turning novels I've read in a while. It took a bit of time to get into, and I put it down for a bit, but once I got into it, I was hooked. It is written in first-person POV -- first-person-past for the section 15 years ago, first-person-present for the present-day sections. Normally that might seem gimmicky. But it's done so skillfully that I really didn't notice it for quite a while.

What was more noticeable was a growing awareness that the narrator may be a little unreliable. Or is she? Why is the only security camera pointed at her cabin door? Is she paranoid, or is someone constantly watching her? And what is the secret she hides, even from the reader, as she returns to camp? This is a novel of questions, releasing answers quite slowly. And just when you think everything is settled, there is one more mind-numbing surprise. show less

The more books I read by Riley Sager the more I fall in love with the writing style. Sager has the tendency to start the book off with a big traumatic moment and then jump into the present while giving tidbits of the past... until the moment when everything is brought into the open. I love it because with each new reveal you think you've figured out some crucial part of the mystery and then Sager throws another twist in and suddenly you have no idea. I really enjoy being kept on my toes like that. I have to say though of the ones that I have read so far... this book takes the cake. It was everything I could have wanted in a story. I really had to force myself to put it down at times. I kept thinking oh just one more chapter and then all show more of a sudden we have a new piece of the puzzle and I had to keep going.

I really loved this one because it's a return to a summer camp that closed down 15 years ago after some girls went missing. Our main character was friends with the missing girls and seems to have a lot of secrets surrounding what happened that summer. She also seems incredibly unreliable as the book goes on... and who doesn't love an unreliable narrator. The book has this element of mystery and uncovering secrets from 15 years ago with like minimal context, which I think makes it so much more intense. I love that it had the ability to make you suspect characters so easily because I mean they all seem suspicious to be fair. I think the ending on this one was phenomenal because it was a twist that I honestly did not see coming at all. show less

“Because the lake’s been lowered by drought, the farthest-reaching branches scrape the bottoms of the canoes, sounding like fingernails trying to scratch their way out of a coffin.”



Wow, this was an unexpected pleasure!

Coming from the background of having read too many difficult books lately, I chose this book because it sounded like an easy, light who-dun-it with an interesting premise. Two truths, one lie: a) I greatly enjoyed this book, b) it was an easy read, c) it kept me glued to my Kindle for hours.

Of course, b) is the lie because this book was an excellent blend of who-dun-it, thriller, adventure and near-insanity.

Emma, a young painter of 28 years gets invited back to the reopening of an exclusive summer camp for show more “rich bitches”. The camp was originally closed 15 years ago when – during Emma’s stay there – three of her fellow campers disappear without a trace.

Emma, traumatised by the disappearance and what happened afterwards, comes back to deal with a creative blockage and to finally find out what happened to her friends all those years ago.



The book starts slowly; we get to know Emma and get used to the wonderful writing style Sager employs:



“I’ve heard Randall boast to potential buyers that my surfaces are like Van Gogh’s, with paint cresting as high as an inch off the canvas. I prefer to think I paint like nature, where true smoothness is a myth, especially in the woods. The chipped ridges of tree bark. The speckle of moss on rock. Several autumns’ worth of leaves coating the ground. That’s the nature I try to capture with my scrapes and bumps and whorls of paint.”



We also learns what and, partly, why she paints and, thus, get a first glimpse at the shadows in Emma’s life: Even after 15 years she still feels guilty about the disappearance of her friends and tough neither kind nor extent of her guilt are clear at this point, we get a very good idea at the monstrous kind of feelings Emma harbours.



“Fifteen years. That’s how long it’s been. It feels like a lifetime ago. It also feels like yesterday.”



Thinking about that sentence, remembering the momentous events in my own life (first love, marriage, first child...), I found myself nodding agreement with that sentiment. In fact, it was quite often during the first half of the book that I found myself understanding our protagonist exceedingly, sometimes even shockingly, well.



It’s best not to talk too much about the plot because there are a few twists some of which I didn’t really see coming – that might, of course, be me but I really enjoyed them all either way.

The dense atmosphere of both the camp itself, the woods and the flooded valley helped greatly, of course, because just as my opening quote shows, the atmosphere is satisfyingly creepy at times and sinister, at least once even desperate.

All of that combined with using both traditional elements of the “great outdoors” stories as well as having Emma use her phone sensibly really kept me interested and at my Kindle with very few breaks for coffee, etc.



“I run my finger from the spot that probably-is-but-might-not-be the gazebo to the ragged triangles nearby. I assume those are rocks. Which means we need to make our way northeast until we reach them. After that, it looks to be a short walk north until I find the X. Our route now set, I open the compass app downloaded to my phone the morning I left for camp, rotating until it points northeast. Then I snag a handful of wildflowers and, with Miranda, Sasha, and Krystal in tow, march into the forest.”



A truly enjoyable book with very few flaws. Recommended to any reader.





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"Everything is a game, Em. Whether you know it or not. Which means that sometimes a lie is more than just a lie. Sometimes it's the only way to win."

This was a great mystery! 15 years ago, Emma was at stay-away camp for the summer - 6 total weeks. People called it "Rich B*#%" Camp because it was expensive and exclusive - full of kids from a private school. Emma is not excited to be there - and to top it off, she shows up late. Because of her late arrival, she is bunked with 3 older girls. They are popular, beautiful girls....and one, the Queen B, takes her under her wing as a big sister would.

Only it's a just a few nights later - all three girls in the cabin disappear. All except Emma.

Fast forward to 15 years later, and they are show more reopening the camp and want Emma to return. As she re-bunks in her old cabin, again she is reminded about those she lost that night 15 years ago and she wants to find out what happened. Her journey to uncover what happened and to try to understand her memory versus reality, as she stumbles around not seeing things or seeing things that aren't real, you uncover the mystery along with her.

And this one had me stumped. I had a few ideas and even a few assumptions that were right but I did not guess the end. The best kind of mystery. I loved it! show less

Can I give this one a 5 1/2? It was that good. When I first read about this book, I was intrigued. After winning this as a Goodreads first read, I waited not so patiently for it to arrive and started it right away.
Fifteen years ago, three girls disappeared at a summer camp never to be seen again. Emma was the last to see her three bunk mates alive and was haunted by their disappearance and the portion that she left out when questioned by police over and over. The camp had closed but Emma remained tormented by what had happened. She is now a famous artist with most of her works being variations of the 3 girls in the order they left the cabin that night amidst the forest and lake.
Fast forward 15 years later. When Emma is approached by show more the owner of the camp wanting to reopen the camp and wanting her on staff, she is conflicted. She never thought she would ever return to the place that caused her such anguish and why would the owner Franny even want her there after what had transpired? Finally resolving to the possibility of going back being a healing experience, Emma agrees to go back as an art instructor and is determined to also find out what happened to her three friends all those years ago.
But something is wrong at Camp Nightingale, something feels off. There are some faces from 15 years ago but Emma is wary and doesn’t know who among those she can trust, including the camp owner’s son who was her childhood crush. Trying to find the answers Emma inadvertently involves her three young bunk mates she has now, trying to make sense of all of it and what she discovers.
So many things inspired me to read this book. While nothing so sinister happened to me, I have had 20 years of camp experience and that may have been what drew me to the story. The title “The Last time I Lied” also had me interested, even as I was reading this book. What was the lie? I devoured the book, wanting to know what the lie was and how it affected anything or everything in the story and will Emma ever come clean about the truth? Add that to three missing teenage girls that disappeared without a trace and I was hooked.
I read this while on vacation, up at a lake cottage and stayed up until the wee hours of the morning unable to put it down; most of it enjoyed in one sitting. I love Riley Sager’s storytelling. It is engaging, descriptive as if I were there, with a little bit of creepy added in. It wasn’t just wanting Emma to solve the mystery; I really needed to know what happen to Vivian, Natalie and Allison and I couldn’t stop until I had all the answers.
There were a few surprises. Sometimes I thought I had all the answers but I didn’t know who to trust either. Everything isn’t always what it seems. There were a few curve balls thrown my way to make me question everything I thought.
If I had to recommend only one book this year, this would be it. If I could give 5 1/2 stars I would. I dare anyone to read this one; you will not be disappointed and will love the ride as I did. I am a little saddened that my copy of Final Girls is at home and I have to wait until the end of vacation to read it; I am so looking to reading another of Riley Sager’s books.
I received this book free from the publisher and Goodreads in exchange for an honest review. show less