General Fiction | Book Chatter

If It Bleeds
By Stephen King
Scribner, 9781982137977, April 2020, 448pp.

The Short of It:

Once again, I was thoroughly swept up with King’s writing. I don’t know what I will do when his books stop coming.

The Rest of It:

If It Bleeds is a collection of novellas. It contains four stories. Four really good stories and one is a little tidbit of goodness that you will enjoy reliving. Think, familiar character.

I won’t tell you what each story is about because it’s more fun to go into them totally blind, like I did. I was happily surprised that many of the themes explored are timely for our “safe at home” / quarantine pandemic days. Views on technology, mortality, desperation, all have their time in the spotlight.

King is an excellent storyteller. His set-ups are so good. Just a few lines in and I’m hooked. I really enjoyed this collection. It made me wonder what I am going to do when he isn’t around anymore and I don’t even want to think about that.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

Chatting with friends about books and life…