The Lying Game
by Ruth Ware
Blurb:
On a cool June morning, a woman is walking her dog in the idyllic coastal village of Salten along a tidal estuary known as the Reach. Before she can stop him, the dog charges into the water to retrieve what first appears to be a wayward stick, but to her horror, turns out to be something much more sinister...
The next morning, three women in and around London—Fatima, Thea, and Isabel—receive the text they had always hoped would NEVER come, from the fourth in their formerly inseparable clique, Kate, that says only, “I need you.”
The four girls were best friends at Salten, a second rate boarding school set near the cliffs of the English Channel. Each different in their own way, the four became inseparable and were notorious for playing the Lying Game, telling lies at every turn to both fellow boarders and faculty, with varying states of serious and flippant nature that were disturbing enough to ensure that everyone steered clear of them. The myriad and complicated rules of the game are strict: no lying to each other—ever. Bail on the lie when it becomes clear it is about to be found out. But their little game had consequences, and the girls were all expelled in their final year of school under mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of the school’s eccentric art teacher, Ambrose (who also happens to be Kate’s father).
My Reaction:
No, sorry, I didn't like it! I knew early on that I wasn't enjoying it, but stubbornly kept with it, because I didn't know what else to read instead. However-many pages later... Nope, still didn't like it.
Reasons for my dislike:
- Couldn't stand the characters, most of whom are some combination of horrible, annoying, and stupid. Obnoxious teen girls who lie for no reason, just to make fools of people and secretly mock their gullibility? Gee, I wonder why other people didn't like them! They seem delightful.
- Got really tired of reading endless, pointless descriptions of the baby and breastfeeding. (Who cares?! So monotonous.)
- Sick of how things draaaaaaged, with the more interesting bits doled out excruciatingly slowly.
- Frustrated by characters who refused to just spit it out, face the music, and SPEAK to one another. Clearly. Concisely. Honestly. I know it's called The Lying Game, but come on!
- Irritated because, hello! Drinking and smoking are not personality traits, and they don't make your characters more interesting to read about. Exactly the opposite.
- Grumbling after finishing because too many things don't make sense, under the slightest scrutiny. Stupid decision after stupid decision!
- Getting no sense of why I should give a single solitary flip about any of these characters. (Ok, maybe I could be persuaded to care ever so slightly about Owen and Fatima... And it's not Freya's fault that she's boring to read about; she's only six months old, after all.)
- Disappointed by the predictability. Lack of a satisfying mystery.
- Not buying the ultra-strong bond of four 15-year-old girls who were only together for one school year and have rarely met up since, but yet are still so incredibly close all these years later.
This bit is a spoiler, so... look away, if you care!
- Wanting to scream that, no, Kate and Luc aren't actually siblings! I don't think they even spent much of their childhoods growing up together. I don't think it's that big of a deal, honestly, that they ended up in a relationship, and it's kind of funny (make that "annoying") to me that Ambrose- - the grown man who smiled benignly as 15-year-old girls-- his students!-- sneaked out of school, spent many nights in his home without any parental awareness, much less consent, drank booze and smoked, skinny dipped, etc.-- the man who sketched these vulnerable teens either in the nude or in such a way that they looked nude in the drawings-- that this absolute paragon of virtue was so terribly shocked (and disgusted?) that Kate and Luc were romantically involved. Really? Again, who cares? So what?! No, I wouldn't be happy they were sleeping together at that age. I certainly wouldn't want them living together and "indulging" under my roof, especially if I felt like a parent to both of them, but his reaction seems somewhat over the top, given everything else he was perfectly okay with them doing. He could have laid down some rules, told them they had to wait until they were older, something other than acting as though this was actually incest or criminal behavior.
One positive-- I think the tone and atmosphere were effective. The visual of the Mill House was striking. The problem is that nothing else really worked for me. And the last few lines were just a slap in the face. UGH. Ready for something completely different! I think I need a break from modern so-called thrillers, after this one.
