The Last Time I Lied| At a glance
Title: The Last Time I Lied
Author: Riley Sager
Publisher: July 3rd 2018 by Dutton
Pages: 384
Genre: Fiction, Mystery, Thriller
Goodreads Rating: 4.2 out of 5 Stars
Y’all, I’m not sure if it’s me, but Book of the Month has been killing it with the picks recently. All five options for July were fabulous and one of them was already on my ‘To Read’ pile. Unfortunately, I couldn’t pick all of them and thus I had quite a time narrowing down my pick.
I was able to narrow down my choice, mainly because I have been on a thriller kick of late, to The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager. This being my July 2018 Book of the Month pick, I find the need to point out that Riley Sager’s first published work, Final Girls was featured in Book of the Month’s July 2017 box. Coincidence? I think not. Actually, I have no idea, I am just jumpy and full of conspiracy theories after finishing The Last Time I Lied. So much so that I thought my Roomba kicking on was an intruder in my house, smh.
The options:
The Summer Wives
Ghosted
The Girl from Blind River
Spinning Silver
The Last Time I Lied
Summary
Two truths and a lie is Vivian’s favorite game to play or should I say was. It has been 15 years since Emma, Allison, Natalie, and Vivian have played because it has been 15 years since 3 of the girls disappeared from Camp Nightingale. Now 28, Emma is a budding star in the New York art scene, and has used the events of that evening to inspire her massive canvas paintings. At her newest gallery showing, Francesca Harris-White makes her appearance and offers Emma a spot to teach painting at the newly reopened Camp Nightingale. In an attempt at gaining closure, Emma agrees to return to the camp. As Emma enters the camp, the lies she told so many years ago are starting to catch up to her and she soon realizes that the price of closure may be too steep.
“Sometimes a lie is more than just a lie. Sometimes it’s the only way to win.”
Pros
- I wish I had read this in a cabin on a lake somewhere because I felt as if I was back at camp. Granted Camp Nightingale seems fancier than any camp I went to growing up, it still gave me distinct flashbacks of my early teenage summers spent around bonfires. I could distinctly remember the cabins I slept in, the bath houses I used, and the bonds of friendship you make. Any book that can pull me so vividly back into my memories the way this one did, is a masterpiece in my mind.
- Without giving away any spoilers, I can say for a fact that I did not see the ending coming. I enjoy trying to guess who I think the culprit will be, but with this book I kept having to switch my answers. The amount of twists and turns you have to take to get to the end of the story keeps you on your toes for sure, which makes this book hard to put down.
- The imagery is top-notch. I appreciate that Sager does not try to fool the reader into thinking that Camp Nightingale is ‘innocent’ or ‘perfect’. From the start he uses words such as soberness, heavy, and aged to describe the camp. You are immediately completely absorbed by the imagery in this book and it pulls you into the story further and further and keeps you on the edge of your seat.
- Once again without any spoilers, the extra story pieces that are hidden throughout the book can definitely lead a reader astray. These side stories do a heck of a job of concealing the main story line, which I think is the point obviously, but that is all I will say about that.
- The development of the characters at first felt predictable. As I continued to read though, I felt as if I could not trust a single one of them. In turn each of the characters, for however long, had a slimy feeling to them. Even Emma, who is the narrator of the story, felt unreliable and chaotic. This made me like the book even more. For some odd reason, I generally enjoy disliking the main character more than I do when they are likable. I think it adds a more realistic aspect to the story and makes the main character more relatable. So the fact that I took turns disliking/being suspicious of almost every single character is a plus in my book.
Cons
- Half way through the book, I found myself annoyed. I think Sager could have done with less ‘reader baiting’. Basically, it seemed as if every page had a line alluding to what happened to the missing girls. I’m all for leaving clues and building the protagonist/suspense up but I do not need a reminder of it on every page. I half wanted to stop reading out of spite and half wanted to tell Emma to suck it up and just tell us what she lied about already. By the time we actually find out what the lie is, I was pretty over it and my desire to care was low.
- I feel as if there was one to many plot twists. There were too many all at once without enought time in between to digest them. Just my humble opinion. I cannot elaborate more without spoilers soooo I guess you will just have to read the book to get a better idea around what I mean.
TL:DR
I loved this book. I give it a 4 out of 5 stars. There were a few events I could not get on board with but the overall supsense was real. It left me feeling as if someone is watching me, which is exactly how I like my thriller books to leave me. Also, if you are hanging out with me and I make you play Two Truths and Lie, it’s because of this book. So what are waiting for? Get to reading and get the book here!
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Happy reading!