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The Lying Game

Ruth Ware

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Aug 26, 2017 Kate rated it liked it

Shelves: 2017, age-adult, thriller, mystery

Isa has made a nice life for herself, with her husband and new baby Freya. Then she receives a text from her old friend Kate, and finds herself returning to the small town where she attended boarding school as a teen. Along with Thea and Fatima, the girls had instantly bonded and spent most of their time playing what they called the Lying Game. Now, Kate is experiencing vague threats and blackmail, and it all ties in to what happened that ended with them leaving the school. But who is lying, and ...more

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Sep 04, 2019 El rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: 21st-centurylit, library-borrow, read-with-ears

Ruth Ware's books are ideal for long walks and commutes, as the audiobook versions tend to fly by and don't require a lot of deep thought. I am often left feeling 'meh' by the end of a lot of these sorts of domestic thrillers, if that's what this constitutes as, and I often roll my eyes as I read/listen to them. They are generally quick and are nice palate cleansers before something else.

A friend and I talked this weekend about how a lot of these authors are interchangeable: Ruth Ware, Gillian F Ruth Ware's books are ideal for long walks and commutes, as the audiobook versions tend to fly by and don't require a lot of deep thought. I am often left feeling 'meh' by the end of a lot of these sorts of domestic thrillers, if that's what this constitutes as, and I often roll my eyes as I read/listen to them. They are generally quick and are nice palate cleansers before something else.

A friend and I talked this weekend about how a lot of these authors are interchangeable: Ruth Ware, Gillian Flynn, Paula Hawkins. There are others, too, of course, but these are the three that a lot of the people I know tend to conflate with one another. This isn't fair to any of the authors, and there's something to be said about how we, as a society, tend to conflate one woman with another, and perhaps treat them unfairly as authors.

That's a blog post for another day, however.

This story left me feeling the same as did In a Dark, Dark Wood and The Woman in Cabin 10. A lot of the issues in Ware's books stem from the fact that people do not talk to each other and communicate their thoughts and feelings accurately. Then there comes a lot of miscommunication and hurt feelings, and soon enough there's a dead body (or more) and the lies keep coming.

Of course in this case, the lies are the story itself, as evident by the title itself: The Lying Game. Four girls in boarding school years ago created this game of lying to other people, scoring points based on the lies. As one might expect, the women grow up and one of the lies comes back to haunt them. But as they come back together to decide what to do about this, they realize the lies continue until no one knows what is fact and what is (and possibly always was) the lie.

It's exhausting, really. Isa (short for Isabel) lies straight off to her husband, the man she supposedly loves, and then carts their baby along for the ride. Because that seems like a good idea. Actually, the baby is important for the author's plot device purposes which makes it almost more annoying to me than if Isa just made poor decisions.

The resolution to this story is about as basic as the story itself. I know people adore these sorts of mysteries but, as previously state, I often am left feeling cold, primarily because I don't believe any of the actions of any of the characters. Their motivations are cloudy, at best, and that's not to say that people don't have shitty or bad motivations all the time. That really is how people might behave. And I don't even believe in the argument that I can't like a book if I do not "agree" with any of the characters because that seems lazy and illogical.

But every time any of the characters did or said anything I found myself muttering, "Really!?" under my breath. The lies, all the lies, and they're not even good lies. ...more

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Apr 12, 2020 Lauren rated it liked it

Shelves: mysteriesforfun

Engaging enough and it passed the time, although it could have been shorter, and sheesh, lady, leave your baby at home when you are spending time with psychotic killers! I am looking forward to reading Mrs Westaway though.

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