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Jun 20, 2018EC_Ulrich rated this title 2 out of 5 stars
***Unpopular opinion alert!*** Isa, Kate, Thea and Fatima were best friends at Salten House, a coastal boarding school. They bonded quickly over the lying game; a game with 5 simple but strict rules - tell a lie, stick to your story, don't get caught, never lie to each other, & know when to stop lying. The same game that bonded them was also the very same game that separated them. Their lives were changed forever when the school discovered insalubrious drawings of these girls by Ambrose, the school's art teacher who also happens to be Kate's father and coincidently disappeared under mysterious circumstances around the same time. 17 years later, a human bone was found on the beach and the girls were reunited at Salten when Isa received a text from Kate with the words: I need you. Isa begins to question about the disappearance of Ambrose and she suspects one of them broke the lying game rules. As the mystery unravels, Isa realised that the consequences of the lying game is far more threatening than she could ever imagined. This is one of the popular books out there that in my humble opinion is not worth the hype . A slow burn psychological thriller that started off with a promising plot (though not something new), but a frustrating and boring read until the end. There is definitely The Broken Girls (by Simone St. James) vibe here but it just did not deliver the promised plot in an engaging way. I do not mind a slow burn thriller, but this was really slow. It came to a point that I did not really care about the mystery anymore. I felt the writing was trite; going in circles and getting nowhere which eventually led to an out of focus plot. Shallow and weak characters which I could not connect with any of them. Isa, the main character in this story was annoying, weak and whiny. She's a complainer when it comes to motherhood. My reading experience was made worse when this book is narrated from the POV of Isa in first person narration. It just did not work for me. As for the rest of the characters, they appeared to be merely fill-ins characters of this story. There is not one likeable character at all. The only one positive thing I could say about this book is the atmospheric writing. Ware did a good job in creating the settings of the story. Her descriptions of the coastal town, the landscapes, buildings and the surrounding areas were pretty impressive. This is the first and unfortunately will be the last book I will read from Ruth Ware. Her book just did not work for me - from the plot right down to the suspense/thriller elements (which were minimal) - I did not enjoy at all.