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3.38 AVERAGE
3.38 AVERAGE
Hated this
I’ve enjoyed many other Ruth Ware books (Woman in Cabin 10, Death of Mrs Westaway) but this one I just found infuriating. The supposed big secret that the four women share turns out to be relatively not that significant, and I was just left frustrated by why the narrator doesn’t come clean with the truth.
I’ve enjoyed many other Ruth Ware books (Woman in Cabin 10, Death of Mrs Westaway) but this one I just found infuriating. The supposed big secret that the four women share turns out to be relatively not that significant, and I was just left frustrated by why the narrator doesn’t come clean with the truth.
This started out strong for me. An out of the blue text saying, "I need you." Three words powerful enough to make three girls drop EVERYTHING in their adult lives to travel to their friend who needs them. A flashback to when they met.
Nope. I'm going to stop it right there. There was nothing that happened for me to believe that they would drop everything (jobs, husbands, children) - repeatedly - to travel to this friend.
The same crap was just repeated over and over. I had to hear about Isa breastfeeding her daughter more times than I actually breastfed my kids. Letters and notes and drawings and sheep and all these "clues" were brought up so many times lest we forget they occurred earlier in the book. My memory isn't quite what it used to be, but I'm not daft.
And then when they FINALLY piece something (which really isn't anything astounding), it may as well have read as:
...maybe it was - DUN DUN DUN - murder. GASP!
2 Stars
Nope. I'm going to stop it right there. There was nothing that happened for me to believe that they would drop everything (jobs, husbands, children) - repeatedly - to travel to this friend.
The same crap was just repeated over and over. I had to hear about Isa breastfeeding her daughter more times than I actually breastfed my kids. Letters and notes and drawings and sheep and all these "clues" were brought up so many times lest we forget they occurred earlier in the book. My memory isn't quite what it used to be, but I'm not daft.
And then when they FINALLY piece something (which really isn't anything astounding), it may as well have read as:
...maybe it was - DUN DUN DUN - murder. GASP!
2 Stars
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Four girls at a boarding school bury the body of one of the girl's father, who died by suicide. Story takes place many years later when the body is found. Had a few twists I didn't see coming.
This was a major drag. I love Ruth Ware, but this is absolutely the weakest book I've read from her.
Four friends meet up as the possibility of the biggest lie they ever told appears to be catching up with them. They're all nervous about a body being discovered and their secret getting found out and what that could do to their lives. But they were young teenagers when this happened, so the sense of danger and foreboding about their secret getting found out felt so, so dull. And as my friend Pam put it, it's mundane. And then it just continued. Even with the last chapter to read, I still could have put it down as a DNF.
Isa, the main character, is really unlikeable with the "woe is me" and "I love my not-husband, but certainly not like I love my daughter." Well, duh. And that's literally the note it ends on, too, so there's no growth in her character (and shocker! The other characters don't have any development at all either!). How she treated Owen the entire book was sheer nonsense, too, and she really justified her actions the entire time, and how dare he think ill of her when she does no wrong (meanwhile she thinks their entire relationship is built on lies because of the secret she's held since before they met; therefore, her feelings for him must not be true). That man deserves much better, even if he didn't get any development either.
I guess the point of this story is if you tell one big lie, just stick to it and eventually something will happen to take the fall for you, so you can just keep living that lie.
Skip. Skip this book.
Four friends meet up as the possibility of the biggest lie they ever told appears to be catching up with them. They're all nervous about a body being discovered and their secret getting found out and what that could do to their lives. But they were young teenagers when this happened, so the sense of danger and foreboding about their secret getting found out felt so, so dull. And as my friend Pam put it, it's mundane. And then it just continued. Even with the last chapter to read, I still could have put it down as a DNF.
Isa, the main character, is really unlikeable with the "woe is me" and "I love my not-husband, but certainly not like I love my daughter." Well, duh. And that's literally the note it ends on, too, so there's no growth in her character (and shocker! The other characters don't have any development at all either!). How she treated Owen the entire book was sheer nonsense, too, and she really justified her actions the entire time, and how dare he think ill of her when she does no wrong (meanwhile she thinks their entire relationship is built on lies because of the secret she's held since before they met; therefore, her feelings for him must not be true). That man deserves much better, even if he didn't get any development either.
I guess the point of this story is if you tell one big lie, just stick to it and eventually something will happen to take the fall for you, so you can just keep living that lie.
Skip. Skip this book.
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Got a bit slow towards the middle and I felt like it raced at the end. Was a good story that ending differently than I anticipated.
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Yes
I enjoyed the flawed characters and friendship of the 4 main girls. Really interesting story! I don't love a motherhood storyline though. Bland ending.
I have now officially read all Ruth Ware's books and this one was hands down my least favorite. We follow a group of four friends who when in boarding school played a game called the lying game. It is exactly what it sounds like. During their senior year something happens and the four of them are forced from the school and go their separate ways. Now almost twenty years later three of them receive a text saying that Kate, the only friend who stayed in the local town of school, needs them. All of the friends reconvene in the town trying to determine why they are back and then who knows their secret. The one positive thing I enjoyed was the closeness of the friends even though in past years they had grown apart. Other than that this book was a waste of my time and I struggled so much to get through it. The reason I forced myself to read it was A) I wanted to be able to say I have read all of Ruth Wares books and B) since I am self isolating I might need to read all the books I have. The mystery aspect wasn't mysterious to me because there was nothing sinister or thrilling and the explanation that was being given made sense. I would not recommend this book I would instead recommend The Death of Mrs. Westaway or the Turn of the Key.