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The Last Time I Lied: A Novel Paperback – April 2, 2019
Purchase options and add-ons
From the author of Survive the Night and Final Girls comes a tense and twisty thriller about a summer camp that’s impossible to forget—no matter how hard you try.
Two Truths and a Lie. Vivian, Natalie, Allison, and Emma played it all the time in their cabin at Camp Nightingale. But the games ended the night Emma sleepily watched the others sneak out into the darkness. The last she—or anyone—saw of the teenagers was Vivian closing the cabin door behind her, hushing Emma with a finger pressed to her lips....
Fifteen years later, Emma is a rising star in the New York art scene, turning her past into paintings—massive canvases filled with dark leaves and gnarled branches over ghostly shapes in white dresses. When the paintings catch the attention of the wealthy owner of Camp Nightingale, she implores Emma to come back to the newly reopened camp as a painting instructor.
Despite her guilt and anxiety—or maybe because of them—Emma agrees to revisit her past. Nightingale looks the same as it did all those years ago, haunted by a midnight-dark lake and familiar faces. Emma is even assigned to the same cabin she slept in as a teenager, although the security camera pointed at her door is a disturbing new addition.
As cryptic clues about the camp's origins begin to surface, Emma attempts to find out what really happened to her friends. But her closure could come at a deadly price.
- Print length400 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherDutton
- Publication dateApril 2, 2019
- Dimensions5.5 x 0.81 x 8.22 inches
- ISBN-101524743097
- ISBN-13978-1524743093
"All the Little Raindrops: A Novel" by Mia Sheridan for $10.39
The chilling story of the abduction of two teenagers, their escape, and the dark secrets that, years later, bring them back to the scene of the crime. | Learn more
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Get to know this book
What's it about?
A gripping thriller about a summer camp that's impossible to forget, and the dark secrets that lurk within its walls.Amazon editors say...
The Last Time I Lied is creepy and fast-paced.
Chris Schluep, Amazon EditorPopular highlight
Yes, boys can break your heart and betray you, but not in the same stinging way girls can.748 Kindle readers highlighted thisPopular highlight
What none of them understand is that the point of the game isn’t to fool others with a lie. The goal is to trick them by telling the truth.655 Kindle readers highlighted thisPopular highlight
“Everything is a game, Em. Whether you know it or not. Which means that sometimes a lie is more than just a lie. Sometimes it’s the only way to win.”619 Kindle readers highlighted thisPopular highlight
Although their eventual fate remains a mystery, I’m certain that what happened to those girls is all my fault.560 Kindle readers highlighted thisPopular highlight
But here’s the weird part. Vivian wasn’t wearing the sweatshirt when I saw her leave the cabin.352 Kindle readers highlighted this
Editorial Reviews
Review
“The author delivers the kind of unpredictable conclusion that all thriller readers crave—utterly shocking yet craftily foreshadowed.”—The New York Times Book Review
“Sager’s second thriller is as tense and twisty as [his] bestselling Final Girls (2017), but this one is even more polished, with gut-wrenching plot surprises skillfully camouflaged by Emma’s paranoia and confusion, the increasingly creepy setting, and a cast of intriguingly secretive characters.”—Booklist (starred review)
“Breathtaking—brightly written, scalpel-sharp, and altogether inspired. This swift, red-blooded thriller set my pulse thrumming.”—A. J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author ofThe Woman in the Window
"Sleekly written and involving . . . [The ending is] a startling, film-noir turn of fate."—The Wall Street Journal
“Another gripping thriller . . . intricately interweaves the past and present. . . . Sager remains a writer to watch.”—Publishers Weekly
“An edge-of-your-seat thriller full of twists and intrigue, The Last Time I Lied had me riveted from the first page to the stunning conclusion. A fantastic read—eerie, sharp, and all-around captivating.”—Megan Miranda, New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Stranger
“A haunted summer camp. A lake darker than midnight. This chilling tale will keep you awake long after you’ve turned the last page.”—Liv Constantine, national bestselling author of The Last Mrs. Parrish
“Gripping and intense. Riley Sager paved his literary road with Final Girls. With The Last Time I Lied he tears up the pavement. One of my favorites of 2018 so far.”—J. D. Barker, international bestselling author of The Fourth Monkey and The Fifth to Die
“Final Girls was outstanding, but dare I say it, The Last Time I Lied is a next-level thriller. Crisp writing, perfect pacing, and with tension that never lets up, Riley Sager’s latest propulsive tale is a one-weekend read that will leave you chilled to the bone.”—Jennifer Hillier, author of Jar of Hearts
“No review will do this book justice. The author has done a fantastic job creating a tale that leaves you breathless. If not a fan yet, read this and you will be one for life!”—Suspense Magazine
“Read under the covers with the flashlight on.”—Family Circle
“A heart-pounding mystery.”—Bustle
"[The Last Time I Lied] might just be the perfect summer book.”—Providence Journal
“Need a good mystery to tide you over while you wait for season two of Big Little Lies?”—Apartment Therapy
“If you liked Final Girls, you will love Sager’s latest novel, which is a touch better and nearly impossible to put down. . . . Even veteran readers of psychological suspense will be blindsided by the jarring conclusion.”—The Real Book Spy
“Nothing short of spectacular . . . Sublime writing . . . and through a deliciously satisfying ending, [Riley] answers each question.”—Star-Ledger (Newark)
“Riley Sager has done it again! The Last Time I Lied hooks you in from the opening words and never releases you until the stunning conclusion. It’s an ideal summer read that allows you to participate in the action and try to determine what is true and what is a lie in the face of one of the most clever and unpredictable narrators in recent memory.”—Bookreporter.com
"Sager strikes a pitch-perfect balance between horror elements and a lighter suspense plotline in his newest book, and the result is an endlessly entertaining summer binge-read. Pick up The Last Time I Lied for its gorgeous cover, stay for its addictive and twisty story of years-old secrets and a summer vacation gone very wrong."—Crime by the Book
“Promises to be just as good [as Final Girls] for the beach (and even better for the edge of a lake).”—CrimeReads
“The Last Time I Lied has all the earmarks of a campy Friday the 13th-type horror flick, but Sager elevates the story with a strong lead character and a grounded, realistic threat.”—BookPage
“This story has so many twists and turns, the reader will be shocked by the truth of what really happened.”—The Parkersburg News and Sentinel
“The Last Time I Lied . . . is every bit as riveting as Final Girls.”—The Big Thrill
“The summer camp setting is beautifully haunting.”—Woman Around Town
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
I paint the girls in the same order.
Vivian first.
Then Natalie.
Allison is last, even though she was first to leave the cabin and therefore technically the first to disappear.
My paintings are typically large. Massive, really. As big as a barn door, Randall likes to say. Yet the girls are always small. Inconsequential marks on a canvas that's alarmingly wide.
Their arrival heralds the second stage of a painting, after I've laid down a background of earth and sky in hues with appropriately dark names. Spider black. Shadow gray. Blood red.
And midnight blue, of course. In my paintings, there's always a bit of midnight.
Then come the girls, sometimes clustered together, sometimes scattered to far-flung corners of the canvas. I put them in white dresses that flare at the hems, as if they're running from something. They're usually turned so all that can be seen of them is their hair trailing behind them as they flee. On the rare occasions when I do paint a glimpse of their faces, it's only the slimmest of profiles, nothing more than a single curved brushstroke.
I create the woods last, using a putty knife to slather paint onto the canvas in wide, unwieldy strokes. This process can take days, even weeks, me slightly dizzy from fumes as I glob on more paint, layer upon layer, keeping it thick.
I've heard Randall boast to potential buyers that my surfaces are like Van Gogh's, with paint cresting as high as an inch off the canvas. I prefer to think I paint like nature, where true smoothness is a myth, especially in the woods. The chipped ridges of tree bark. The speckle of moss on rock. Several autumns' worth of leaves coating the ground. That's the nature I try to capture with my scrapes and bumps and whorls of paint.
So I add more and more, each wall-size canvas slowly succumbing to the forest of my imagination. Thick. Forbidding. Crowded with danger. The trees loom, dark and menacing. Vines don't creep so much as coil, their loops tightening into choke holds. Underbrush covers the forest floor. Leaves blot out the sky.
I paint until there's not a bare patch left on the canvas and the girls have been consumed by the forest, buried among the trees and vines and leaves, rendered invisible. Only then do I know a painting is finished, using the tip of a brush handle to swirl my name into the lower right-hand corner.
Emma Davis.
That same name, in that same borderline-illegible script, now graces a wall of the gallery, greeting visitors as they pass through the hulking sliding doors of this former warehouse in the Meatpacking District. Every other wall is filled with paintings. My paintings. Twenty-seven of them.
My first gallery show.
Randall has gone all out for the opening party, turning the place into a sort of urban forest. There are rust-colored walls and birch trees cut from a forest in New Jersey arranged in tasteful clumps. Ethereal house music throbs discreetly in the background. The lighting suggests October even though it's a week until St. Patrick's Day and outside the streets are piled with dirty slush.
The gallery is packed, though. I'll give Randall that. Collectors, critics, and lookyloos elbow for space in front of the canvases, champagne glasses in hand, reaching every so often for the mushroom-and-goat-cheese croquettes that float by. Already I've been introduced to dozens of people whose names I've instantly forgotten. People of importance. Important enough for Randall to whisper who they are in my ear as I shake their hands.
"From the Times," he says of a woman dressed head to toe in shades of purple. Of a man in an impeccably tailored suit and bright red sneakers, he simply whispers, "Christie's."
"Very impressive work," Mr. Christie's says, giving me a crooked smile. "They're so bold."
There's surprise in his voice, as if women are somehow incapable of boldness. Or maybe his surprise stems from the fact that, in person, I'm anything but bold. Compared with other outsize personalities in the art world, I'm positively demure. No all-purple ensemble or flashy footwear for me. Tonight's little black dress and black pumps with a kitten heel are as fancy as I get. Most days I dress in the same combination of khakis and paint-specked T-shirts. My only jewelry is the silver charm bracelet always wrapped around my left wrist. Hanging from it are three charms-tiny birds made of brushed pewter.
I once told Randall I dress so plainly because I want my paintings to stand out and not the other way around. In truth, boldness in one's personality and appearance seems futile to me.
Vivian was bold in every way.
It didn't keep her from disappearing.
During these meet and greets, I smile as wide as instructed, accept compliments, coyly defer the inevitable questions about what I plan to do next.
Once Randall has exhausted his supply of strangers to introduce, I hang back from the crowd, willing myself not to check each painting for the telltale red sticker signaling it's been sold. Instead, I nurse a glass of champagne in a corner, the branch of a recently deforested birch tapping against my shoulder as I look around the room for people I actually know. There are many, which makes me grateful, even though it's strange seeing them together in the same place. High school friends mingling with coworkers from the ad agency, fellow painters standing next to relatives who took the train in from Connecticut.
All of them, save for a single cousin, are men.
That's not entirely an accident.
I perk up once Marc arrives fashionably late, sporting a proud grin as he surveys the scene. Although he claims to loathe the art world, Marc fits in perfectly. Bearded with adorably mussed hair. A plaid sport coat thrown over his worn Mickey Mouse T-shirt. Red sneakers that make Mr. Christie's do a disappointed double take. Passing through the crowd, Marc snags a glass of champagne and one of the croquettes, which he pops into his mouth and chews thoughtfully.
"The cheese saves it," he informs me. "But those watery mushrooms are a major infraction."
"I haven't tried one yet," I say. "Too nervous."
Marc puts a hand on my shoulder, steadying me. Just like he used to do when we lived together during art school. Every person, especially artists, needs a calming influence. For me, that person is Marc Stewart. My voice of reason. My best friend. My probable husband if not for the fact that we both like men.
I'm drawn to the romantically unattainable. Again, not a coincidence.
"You're allowed to enjoy this, you know," he says.
"I know."
"And you can be proud of yourself. There's no need to feel guilty. Artists are supposed to be inspired by life experiences. That's what creativity is all about."
Marc's talking about the girls, of course. Buried inside every painting. Other than me, only he knows about their existence. The only thing I haven't told him is why, fifteen years later, I continue to make them vanish over and over.
That's one thing he's better off not knowing.
I never intended to paint this way. In art school, I was drawn to simplicity in both color and form. Andy Warhol's soup cans. Jasper Johns's flags. Piet Mondrian's bold squares and rigid black lines. Then came an assignment to paint a portrait of someone I knew who had died.
I chose the girls.
I painted Vivian first, because she burned brightest in my memory. That blond hair right out of a shampoo ad. Those incongruously dark eyes that looked black in the right light. The pert nose sprayed with freckles brought out by the sun. I put her in a white dress with an elaborate Victorian collar fanning around her swanlike neck and gave her the same enigmatic smile she displayed on her way out of the cabin.
You're too young for this, Em.
Natalie came next. High forehead. Square chin. Hair pulled tight in a ponytail. Her white dress got a dainty lace collar that downplayed her thick neck and broad shoulders.
Finally, there was Allison, with her wholesome look. Apple cheeks and slender nose. Brows two shades darker than her flaxen hair, so thin and perfect they looked like they had been drawn on with brown pencil. I painted an Elizabethan ruff around her neck, frilly and regal.
Yet there was something wrong with the finished painting. Something that gnawed at me until the night before the project was due, when I awoke at 2:00 a.m. and saw the three of them staring at me from across the room.
Seeing them. That was the problem.
I crept out of bed and approached the canvas. I grabbed a brush, dabbed it in some brown paint, and smeared a line over their eyes. A tree branch, blinding them. More branches followed. Then plants and vines and whole trees, all of them gliding off the brush onto the canvas, as if sprouting there. By dawn, most of the canvas had been besieged by forest. All that remained of Vivian, Natalie, and Allison were shreds of their white dresses, patches of skin, locks of hair.
That became No. 1. The first in my forest series. The only one where even a fraction of the girls is visible. That piece, which got the highest grade in the class after I explained its meaning to my instructor, is absent from the gallery show. It hangs in my loft, not for sale.
Most of the others are here, though, with each painting taking up a full wall of the multichambered gallery. Seeing them together like this, with their gnarled branches and vibrant leaves, makes me realize how obsessive the whole endeavor is. Knowing I've spent years painting the same subject unnerves me.
"I am proud," I tell Marc before taking a sip of champagne.
He downs his glass in one gulp and grabs a fresh one. "Then what's up? You seem vexed."
He says it with a reedy British accent, a dead-on impersonation of Vincent Price in that campy horror movie neither of us can remember the name of. All we know is that we were stoned when we watched it on TV one night, and the line made us howl with laughter. We say it to each other far too often.
"It's just weird. All of this." I use my champagne flute to gesture at the paintings dominating the walls, the people lined up in front of them, Randall kissing both cheeks of a svelte European couple who just walked through the door. "I never expected any of this."
I'm not being humble. It's the truth. If I had expected a gallery show, I would have actually named my work. Instead, I simply numbered them in the order they were painted. No. 1 through No. 33.
Randall, the gallery, this surreal opening reception-all of it is a happy accident. The product of being in the right place at the right time. That right place, incidentally, was Marc's bistro in the West Village. At the time, I was in my fourth year of being the in-house artist at an ad agency. It was neither enjoyable nor fulfilling, but it paid the rent on a crumbling loft big enough to fit my forest canvases. After an overhead pipe leaked into the bistro, Marc needed something to temporarily mask a wall's worth of water damage. I loaned him No. 8 because it was the biggest and able to cover the most square footage.
That right time was a week later, when the owner of a small gallery a few blocks away popped into Marc's place for lunch. He saw the painting, was suitably intrigued, and asked Marc about the artist.
That led to one of my paintings-No. 7-being displayed in the gallery. It sold within a week. The owner asked for more. I gave him three. One of the paintings-lucky No. 13-caught the eye of a young art lover who posted a picture of it on Instagram. That picture was noticed by her employer, a television actress known for setting trends. She bought the painting and hung it in her dining room, showing it off during a dinner party for a small group of friends. One of those friends, an editor at Vogue, told his cousin, the owner of a larger, more prestigious gallery. That cousin is Randall, who currently roams the gallery, coiling his arms around every guest he sees.
What none of them knows-not Randall, not the actress, not even Marc-is that those thirty-three canvases are the only things I've painted outside my duties at the ad agency. There are no fresh ideas percolating in this artist's brain, no inspiration sparking me into productivity. I've attempted other things, of course, more from a nagging sense of responsibility than actual desire. But I'm never able to move beyond those initial, halfhearted efforts. I return to the girls every damn time.
I know I can't keep painting them, losing them in the woods again and again. To that end, I've vowed not to paint another. There won't be a No. 34 or a No. 46 or, God forbid, a No. 112.
That's why I don't answer when everyone asks me what I'm working on next. I have no answer to give. My future is quite literally a blank canvas, waiting for me to fill it. The only thing I've painted in the past six months is my studio, using a roller to convert it from daffodil yellow to robin's-egg blue.
If there's anything vexing me, it's that. I'm a one-hit wonder. A bold lady painter whose life's work is on these walls.
As a result, I feel helpless when Marc leaves my side to chat up a handsome cater waiter, giving Randall the perfect moment to clutch my wrist and drag me to a slender woman studying No. 30, my largest work to date. Although I can't see the woman's face, I know she's important. Everyone else I've met tonight has been guided to me instead of the other way around.
"Here she is, darling," Randall announces. "The artist herself."
The woman whirls around, fixing me with a friendly, green-eyed gaze I haven't seen in fifteen years. It's a look you easily remember. The kind of gaze that, when aimed at you, makes you feel like the most important person in the world.
Product details
- Publisher : Dutton; Reprint edition (April 2, 2019)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 400 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1524743097
- ISBN-13 : 978-1524743093
- Item Weight : 11.2 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 0.81 x 8.22 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #4,613 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #235 in Murder Thrillers
- #549 in Psychological Thrillers (Books)
- #847 in Suspense Thrillers
- Customer Reviews:
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About the author
Riley Sager is the New York Times bestselling author of seven novels, most recently The House Across the Lake and Survive the Night. His first novel, Final Girls, has been published in more than 30 countries and won the ITW Thriller Award for Best Hardcover Novel. His latest book, The Only One Left, will be published in 2023 by Dutton Books.
A native of Pennsylvania, he now lives in Princeton, New Jersey.
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Customers find the writing style excellent, mind-blowing, and excellent. They also describe the plot as compelling, engrossing, and natural. Readers describe the book as amazing, perfectly executed, and hard to put down. Opinions are mixed on engagement and pacing, with some finding it hard to stop reading and others saying it's boring.
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Customers find the plot twists in the book to be the best they could have imagined. They also say the author has skills in building the story and making twists. Readers say the book holds their interest, with mystery, drama, action, and seamless transitions between the past and present. They say the story keeps them turning the page.
"Loved the setting and the atmosphere here, favorite part of this was the infamous legend behind the creation of Lake Midnight in Camp Nightingale &..." Read more
"...I was hooked from the start. This story weaves so perfectly through the past and present depicting the setting, the characters and the mystery so..." Read more
"Well done. Nicely written. Surprise ending was great...." Read more
"...and coming of age problems that women experience in a way that is so endearing and engaging...." Read more
Customers find the book amazing, well-written, and believable. They also appreciate the setting of summer camp and find it hard to put down.
"...The theme is effective and conceived/executed by the author quite well...." Read more
"...I cannot express how crazy wild the ending was!!! This book was truly flawless, it is hands down, my favorite by Riley Sager but also one of my..." Read more
"Well done. Nicely written. Surprise ending was great...." Read more
"...He is a master craftsman and an inspiration. Kudos, man. I nearly cried at the end of The Last Time I Lied. Damn, that was one good book...." Read more
Customers find the writing style excellent, seamless, and real. They also say the dialogue feels incredibly real. Customers also mention that the story grips them and is twisted and unexpected till the very end.
"Well done. Nicely written. Surprise ending was great...." Read more
"...here is another winner, with mystery, drama, action, and an unreliable narrator...." Read more
"...Let me just say, this is a mind blowing, nerve racking, nail bitting book that left me shocked and speechless...." Read more
"Read this book in a day. Very well written and kept me guessing" Read more
Customers find the characters in the book amazing.
"...Chapter-by-chapter he creates three-dimensional characters that are recognizable to me...." Read more
"Great book! Many twists, strong characters, and so well written. A new favorite author I’ve found! I couldn’t put it down." Read more
"...The writing is very good, the characters are well drawn, the background of the camp is vividly described, and the plot will capture the reader...." Read more
"...issues with the lack of direction in the plot, a lack of motivation in the main character and a lack of tension and danger...." Read more
Customers are mixed about the pacing. Some mention it's excellent, quick, and makes their heart race, while others say the beginning is a little bit slow.
"...comes in the final handful of chapters, but admittedly, the action is done very well.The ending...." Read more
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"...The book is absolute brilliance, in terms of pacing, use of different timelines (and we see this as a writing device a lot, but not always done well)..." Read more
"Really loved this impeccably paced, twisty story! Kept me turning pages all the way, and never guessed the twists...." Read more
Customers are mixed about the engagement. Some find the book engaging and hooking in the beginning, while others say it's boring, ridiculous, and repetitive. They also mention that the book has very little world-building.
"...age problems that women experience in a way that is so endearing and engaging...." Read more
"...However, the story it took to get there was not the most entertaining...." Read more
"...Its unpredictable, tense, visual and there is never a dull moment...." Read more
"...Very little description, no character development whatsoever, very little world-building...." Read more
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Em’s art and subsequent success are based on these traumatic events 15 years ago. But her muse and subject matter are both growing stale and she can’t progress personally or artistically. Then she receives an invitation to return to the camp of her nightmares, this time, as an art teacher. She sees the opportunity to confront the demons that linger there and break from her artistic slump.
At the revived camp, Em is reintroduced to many of the people who were present 15 years earlier, all with their own mysterious motivations. She also finds that she, again, is bunking with three young campers who are under her supervision. Em, in her quest to confront the past, makes a series of discoveries that point to much darker secrets that surround the camp. Soon, mysterious events begin to unfold, forcing all the characters to confront the ugly past. These events culminate in the disappearance of Em’s three bunkmates—a repeat of the terrifying events that happened years earlier.
The title of the book reflects the theme, lies. The book is built on lies—the ones characters tell each other, the ones Em has kept secret for 15 years, even the lies of the dead. This theme is also reflected in a re-occurring game the campers play: two truths and a lie. The theme is effective and conceived/executed by the author quite well. The author reveals these secrets in slow, agonizing-yet-eye-popping, increments.
The author is Riley Sager, an established writer. Male. I’ll get to why that’s important later in this review.
The writing is solid throughout. The author is not hung up on his own style and doesn’t weigh us down with over-writing or silly verbiage. He’s not a literary writer, but definitely “up market.” His talent is to get out of the way of the story. His dialogue is mostly spot on, strong descriptive skills without being overbearing. And he can build a proper mystery with dynamics throughout to keep the reader interested. I’ve been struggling to find a mystery writer this good for some time, and this guy has the chops.
It’s taken some time to digest the ending. You’ll have the same reaction if you read this book, but I’ll start with a few issues I had with the story up to the ending.
The author has a ���umm…limited view of women. They are portrayed as scheming, duplicitous and passive/aggressive, or as wimpy and indecisive. Em is the latter, but finally finds some backbone in the middle of the story so that it can progress. Reading all the interactions among women I couldn’t help but think “did my grandpa write this book?” This sentence from the book encapsulates the author’s portrayal of women: I roll my eyes so hard the sockets hurt. Let me add that the character, Viv, departs from these stereotypes, and as a result, is the most intriguing character in the book.
I have a few other quibbles with this story. First, one of the central characters is the owner of the camp. She’s the daughter of a lumber baren. A lumber baren???? Does she travel by steam locomotive or dirigible? Her dialogue is equally clunky and exaggerated, as if the author decided to channel his inner Agatha Christie. Second, Em is a twenty-something, but her only reference to social media is Facebook (an old person’s media). Third, the camp is filled with teens who have given up all electronics and social media for the entire summer. Sorry, not buying that. I have a few other issues with the story, but they’re all minor.
I have major issues with the lack of direction in the plot, a lack of motivation in the main character and a lack of tension and danger. I simply don’t know what’s on the line for Em. The only real sense of danger comes in the final handful of chapters, but admittedly, the action is done very well.
The ending. At first, I was pissed off at the ending. It was something like a “…and then I woke up, and it was all a dream,” but not quite that bad. Huge aspects of the plot were red herrings. As a reader, I was invested in this plot, and it all turned out to be misdirection. But after a few days of thinking, that’s within the theme of the entire book. A lie. You’ll fall for a good lie, right? In that sense, the book delivered what it promised.
Oh, and the actual culmination of events (and the story) has no resolution.
3.5 stars, round up to 4
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R E V I E W // This was my first Riley Sager book which instantly made him and auto buy author for me. I was hooked from the start. This story weaves so perfectly through the past and present depicting the setting, the characters and the mystery so perfectly that I could not put it down. I really felt I was able to connect with each of the characters! Every single time I thought I had it figured out Riley Sager threw in an incredible twist that left me not only shocked but at a loss for words. Seriously.... there are so many twists! The ending was one I couldn’t have predicted even in my wildest imagination! It absolutely blew me away. I cannot express how crazy wild the ending was!!! This book was truly flawless, it is hands down, my favorite by Riley Sager but also one of my favorite books that I am always recommending.
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Highly recommend if you like a good mystery in a summer camp.