The Lying Game
By Ruth Ware
Gallery/Scout Press, 9781501156205, March 2018, 416pp.
The Short of It:
School girls, up to no good.
The Rest of It:
The story alternates between the past and present. Isa, Thea, Fatima and Kate attended Salten, a boarding school for girls where they participated in “The Lying Game”. For kicks, they told lies to their fellow classmates for points. It was a silly game but kept them occupied and sometimes the consequences of such lies got them in quite a bit of trouble with administration.
One night, their loyalty to each other is called into question when something goes wrong and they are forced to do something that they hope will never resurface again.
Fast forward to adulthood. The girls are now women, some married and with kids but when Kate sends them a text saying, “I need you.” All three come running.
The Lying Game had a lot of promise but it was a bit long, over 400 pages and the secret wasn’t all that juicy. Perhaps the length of the book watered down the big reveal or I didn’t completely buy how close these girls were to each other. It kept me entertained and I was eager to turn the pages but so much of it centered around Isa and her infant daughter who required constant feeding and a lot of the same statements were made over and over again which made me think a good editing job would have really improved the reading experience.
I’ve read Ware before and some of her books are great and others just so-so. This one was good but it could have been a lot juicier, in my opinion.
Source: Purchased
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Book Chatter 
I agreed with your thoughts here, Ti. And then I went back and reread what I had written about this book a few years ago. I really liked Ruth Ware’s first two books and have liked the ones since this one. The Lying Game was good, but not my favorite. I got tired of the constant baby stuff and wrote ‘how many times did the reader need a detailed description of breastfeeding and a child crying’. I also wondered if the author had recently had a baby. Ha! As I said, liked all of Ruth Ware’s books, just some more than others.
I thought the exact same thing. Maybe she had a nursing infant during the writing of this one because all of that was so accurate, just too much of it.
The premise of this book sounds like it could be a page turner.
It was but a super slow burn. Plus, the one character and her kid always on the boob. I am a huge supporter of nursing. I did it for a long time but every paragraph was this kid on the boob. LOL. Maybe the author had a nursing child when she wrote this one. It was very accurate in that area though.
Good premise, but it sounds like it needed a better editor. Which of Ware’s books would you recommend?
Out of the three I’ve read (Woman in Cabin 10, The Turn of the Key, and The Lying Game), I liked The Turn of the Key best.
This author is not consistent. I’ve read all of her books but, this one wasn’t her best. I have a problem with books about young girls behaving badly….maybe I’m just too old for that kind of plot line LOL
With The Lying Game though, even as adults they make bad choices. I just didn’t think the reveal was all that surprising and, I didn’t like any of the characters. Somehow though I was still interested in turning those pages so for that I gave it 3 stars on Goodreads. I need page turners right now.
Yeah when this novel came out Ruth Ware came here & I heard her talk about it and sign copies. She seems a pretty young giving person. I haven’t read her books … but I’m having you vet all of them first to tell me which one is best, ha. A boarding school setting is always a ripe place.
I do enjoy here writing but some are definitely better than others. I have two more of hers to read and then I will let you know which one I liked best.
I think this is the only Ware book I either haven’t read or don’t own. Maybe I’ll just let it stand at that.
Which Ware book did you enjoy the most then? The Lying Game was just good. Not remarkable. Kind of long when it didn’t need to be. I thought the ending of Woman on Cabin 10 was ridiculous but I liked Turn of the Key.