Battle of the Book: The Lying Game by Ruth Ware

Hello all!

For our readers who are here in New Jersey, I hope everyone made it out of Winterstorm Quinn okay. 

I thought I would start a new series.... Battle of the Books. 
Jess and I will both be attending the "Spine Breakers" book club next week.  The book this month was The Lying Game (obviously, lol.)

Last week Jess posted a review on The Lying Game by Ruth Ware. She beat me to posting a new review! Which isn't hard to do when you have a million things going on and you only get sit down in front of your computer once a week.

I know that Jess and I usually read different genres but novels that have the same themes.  I thought though that it would be interesting for you guys to see what I thought of The Lying Game versus what Jess thought of the same book. 

You can check out Jess's review here. 

Unlike Jess, I hadn't heard much about this book prior to reading it.  I knew of two people (excluding her) who read the book and the opinions there this: one loved the book and the one hated it. 

Ware's story opens when someone finding a body. Very vague. Very creepy. 

The first character that we met is Isa Wilde, a lawyer and a new mother to a 6 month old baby girl, Freya. 

Isa receives a text message a three word text "I need you". It's not only Isa who gets this text, it's also Fatima and Thea.  
The person who sent the text is Kate. 
It's been FIFTEEN YEARS since these four women have spoken to each other. 

Fifteen years ago these four women were in a boarding school together - fifteen years ago these four women participated in something that you could easily say was criminal. 

Lies that they had spun and woven for the fifteen years are falling apart right before their eyes. 

When the girls were completing their fifth year at school, Ambrose Atagon (the art teacher, who is Kate's father) committed suicide.  No one at the time knows why he committed suicide.  What they do know is that private sketches of the girls done by Ambrose ended up in the hands of the head mistress at school. 

The actions from the night that Ambrose died, tied in with the sketches is what ultimately gets the girls kicked out. 

Ware spins a story that follows these 4 women as they navigate the past and their lies.  There are peaks, twists and turns. There is some confusion but the story does come together at the end.

My feelings on this book? I'm feeling neutral on it.  I didn't love it and I didn't hate it.  It was just there. 

I feel like the focus of the book is Isa. 

I did not like Isa. 

I didn't like how she canoodled with Luc! I didn't like how Luc took the baby! I didn't like her character; I left like she was whiny. I was impressed with the way that Ware was able to tie the story together at the end.  I left like there were a lot of different things happening (Luc and Isa is the perfect example!!) I personally don't feel like any strings were left undone....

I also didn't feel like the book was that much of a thriller. I thought it fell both short and flat on that. I wouldn't say that it was easy to figure out right away, but once all of the evidence was presented, you could definitely follow her thought process. 

I give this book 2 coffee beans out of 5 coffee beans. Sadly, there is no conflict between our reviews for our first battle of the book!

Stay tuned to see what next month might bring!

~ Jillian

The Lying Game by Ruth Ware: Reshelved Books

Hello Dewey Readers! 

I recently joined a 4th book club.  That's right.  I'm absolutely insane!  This 4th book club meets for dinner one Tuesday a month and it's brand spanking new!  Can you guess what it's called?..... It's called....The Spine Breakers! 

So, for this book club we decided to read The Lying Game by Ruth Ware, which brings us to today's book review.  I heard great things about Ruth Ware so I was excited to pick up her latest novel, but unfortunately my excitement fell rather flat.  The opening of the book is spooky and great.  In the prologue, a woman is walking when she finds the remains of a body.  Where did this body come from?  Was there a murder? Who committed it?  

Once we move past the prologue we encounter the main characters, four women who were suspended from their fancy prep school many years ago... but why?  When one of the girls, Issa, receives a text message begging for her help, she returns to the town of the school where these 4 women were once friends.  Throw in a school dinner reunion that the women just happen to go to and a game called "the lying game" that the girls played and played well, we become immersed in their confusing world, a blending between truth and lies, where even the girls themselves can't differentiate between the two.

For me, the premise of the book was interesting but I wanted more.  I wanted to know more about the dinner, more about the lies, and more about the psychology of the four women.  Without that, the book seemed to be rushed over.  I found myself zoning out, and even now I am having trouble recalling what I actually read.

So Dewey Readers, I leave you with a stale rating of 1.5 out of 5 sad little Coffee Beans.