The Lying Game by
Ruth Ware
About
the book:
IT ISN'T A GAME WHEN SOMEBODY DIES
The text message arrives in the small hours of the morning: I need
you.
Isa drops everything, takes her baby daughter
and heads straight to Salten. She spent the most significant days of her life
at boarding school on the marshes there, days which still cast their shadow
over her.
Isa and her three best friends used to play the
Lying Game, competing to convince people of outrageous stories. Now, after
seventeen years of hiding the truth, something terrible has been found on the
beach. The friends' darkest secret is about to come to light...
About the Author
Ruth Ware is an
international number one bestseller. Her thrillers In a Dark, Dark Wood, The
Woman in Cabin 10, The Lying Game, The Death of Mrs
Westaway and The Turn of the Key have appeared on
bestseller lists around the world, including the Sunday Times and New
York Times. Her books have been optioned for TV and film and she is
published in more than 40 languages. Ruth lives near Brighton with her family.
My take
This is a story of
four friends, Isa, the protagonist, Thea, Fatima and Kate, who have spent a year
together in a boarding school in Salten, each landing there due to different
circumstances, but gelling to each other for life. They are so stuck to each
other, that they alienate themselves from everyone around them. Nor is anyone
of high opinion about them, especially because of the lying game they play with
people around.
Something terrible
happens in that year, that forces the girls to drop out of school before the
scheduled time, and the four decide to carry the secret to their graves. But
seventeen years later, something happens, and circumstances force the four of
them, each busy in her own life, to come and face the consequences of their
past actions.
The way the author
writes a story is definitely very engaging. She describes everything in such
vivid details that it is impossible not to form a mental image. She describes
the coastal region of Salten with the salty waters of the Reach and the marsh
land, the old dilapidated Tide Mill that is home to Kate and foster home to the
others during that one year they are together, the Salten house, which in
itself is a mysteriously intriguing place for girls, in such a way that I
actually felt as if I was there, experiencing the humid, salty air and feeling
the marsh beneath my feet.
There are not many
characters, and there isn’t really a lot of suspense other than what exactly
happened all those years ago. The build up is very slow, and rather than the
suspense, descriptions take up most of the part of the story. Another downside
was the repetitions, and ill developed aspects of the characters. The
relationship of Isa with her partner Owen could have been given some more
space, and the way she treats him, that would have actually warranted him
leaving her, has been ill explained. Even Mark Wren never actually comes alive,
he is just always in memories or background, and whatever footage he receives
in the book doesn’t make justice to his character. Luc was another character who
was confusingly picturized, so didn’t know whether to like him or not.
As a reader, I
developed a liking for Freya, the six-year-old daughter of Isa who has been
greatly described, but the point is, she is just a major distraction from the
whole plot. I also developed a dislike for Thea, who seemed like a pampered
spoilt brat right from the beginning, and I attribute Fatima and Isa’s wayward
behaviour to Thea’s peer pressure and influence, and I believe both would have
led better and meaningful lives had they not met Thea in the first place.
I have read Ruth Ware’s novels before and I love her descriptive way of writing. But even though I loved the descriptions in this book, the suspense was not strong enough to keep me hooked, and the end, even though twisted, seemed far too stretched and unrealistic.
I rate it 3/5.
