Item: The Last Time I Lied
Rating: 4.00
Author: lessthelonely

by Riley Sager

THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

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.

3.5/5 stars.

Did I enjoy this book? Yes, I did. It's my second Riley Sager book, however, it is the one I would rate the lowest.

Knowing this is the author's second book, a big comparison comes to mind: Paula Hawkins. Which is a name that keeps appearing in my reviews. But the truth is, after the smash hit that was The Girl on The Train, Riley Sager himself had to follow-up Final Girls, which I've heard was very well received as a debut novel.

My problem with this book is that it's very clearly a slow-burn but then when its time to get through a lot of layers to the plot, I must admit I became a little exhausted. This book has twists upon twists upon twists, all concentrated from 60-70% onward. While with Lock Every Door I predicted a twist that felt like was put there to be predictable and I was ultimately surprised about the rest, here I predicted a few twists and was ultimately underwhelmed. This book wasn't nearly as dramatic as I hoped it would be, but it somehow was melodramatic - too much going around, the characters moved too much and it felt like it was just to get a few more pages worth of reading.

At the same time, I don't feel the big twists (mostly, THE final twist) didn't have as much heft as I hoped for. People hyped this book up a lot, and make no mistake, I enjoyed this! Just not as much as the first book by the author I read. I feel like some of my theories maybe would've been predictable but could've been worth it in execution. I feel like the twists themselves don't hold themselves as solid in this one because they weren't as well executed. Either way, I do intend to read as many Riley Sager books as I can. I'm thinking of reading Home Before Dark next.

The Last Time I Lied

by Riley Sager

Reviewed by lessthelonely on Jun 27, 2023

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