The Lying Game by Ruth Ware

“A lie. I'd almost forgotten how they feel on my tongue, slick and sickening.” ― Ruth Ware, The Lying Game

THE LYING GAME by Ruth Ware

3.5 stars ****

I am quite torn between giving this three or four stars (Goodreads- when are you going to give us our half stars?!) The first half of book was a real slog for me and I contemplated just abandoning it altogether. But suddenly it picked up pace and became interesting. The story is told from Isa's point of view, as she is called on by an old group of friends, with whom she has had no contact for fifteen years. She returns to the town where she went to school as an adolescent and met three other girls - Fatima, Thea and Kate. It is quickly clear that they share some big secret, and though I was intrigued by this, the slow pace and the characters, with whom I struggled to connect, made me almost give up on it. The title comes form a game the group played as teens, and it is evident that it has stretched into their adult lives as well. They are all keeping secrets and something that happened in their past is forcing them all to be liars still. While the ending and last third of the book picked up pace and grabbed my attention, I was not wholly surprised by the resolution. This sounds as if I have only bad things to say about the book, but it was just so hyped up that I was expecting something magnificent. It was not a bad book, and Ruth Ware is a good writer, I was simply a little disappointed. Also, I should mention, I listened to the audiobook and this may have made me dislike Isa more than was warranted, because the narrator has a very nasal, whiny voice and reads everything with an air of great gloom. This served to build an atmosphere, but after a while, it became irritating, because I felt nothing much was happening and the heightened sense of dread was unwarranted. Anyway... not my favorite by this author, though ultimately not a book I regret having read either. Still, if you are looking into her books, I would recommend the other two over this one.