The Lying Game by Ruth Ware (2017) Review

Why I picked up the book:

Kate, Thea, Fatima, and Isabel met on the train ride, taking them to their final year in Salten. Despite their different personalities, they became fast best friends. They indeed made life interesting by playing The Lying Game, a game complete with rules, where they awarded each other points based on how good of a lie they told others for fun. As close as they were to each other, they were alienated from others. Halfway through their school year, following the death of a professor who also happened to be Kate’s father, all four girls are expelled from school.

Twenty years later, Kate’s dog finds something during their walk that makes her panic and sends a message to the three friends she hadn’t seen in almost as long: I need you. It’s all it says. Fatima, Isabel, and Thea drop everything and go to Salten to help their friend.

The book through my criteria lens:

I adore all of Ruth Ware’s books. Her prose is the perfect mash for my reading preferences. I love how all of her books are different. A few things you can count on in any Ware book you read are her signature fair and tight plotting, engaging prose that makes it impossible for you to put the book down, and relatable, well-drawn, multidimensional characters. The Lying Game is no exception. All her characters in the book had their own unique and strong voice, especially the four main characters. Not only did I feel like I was part of their group and knew them, their relationship felt like a character in itself. If I am a bit picky, I wish I had seen more of the academic setting and the game at play.

My personal feelings:

This book was fascinating to me, and I feel selfish for wishing for more scenes in the school because that wouldn’t have added to the story as The Lying Game is, ultimately, a book about four friends, their bond, and the way they interact with the world as individuals, but also as an entity.

I felt that Ware represented how secrets have a ripple effect in your life that goes so much farther than its starting point in a powerfully subtle way. The secret the friends shared had very impactful consequences in the life of each of them, and even so, they remained loyal.

How Thea, Isabel, Fatima, and Isabel’s bond remained strong despite their distance is something that I could one hundred percent relate to. I moved away many years ago, and even when I don’t talk to my best friends for ages, we pick up from where we left. Our friendship never wavered. If any of them sent a message saying they needed me, I would also drop everything and go – no questions asked. I bet my life they would do the same. The relationship between the four women was my favourite thing in the book and portraited accurately.

My total rating: 4.83

Review for this book is mentioned in this video: TBD

Until next book, be the hummingbird!