Review: The Last Time I Lied

Title: The Last Time I Lied
Author: Riley Sager
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: Dutton
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Release Date: June 26, 2018
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Two Truths and a Lie. The girls played it all the time in their tiny cabin at Camp Nightingale. Vivian, Natalie, Allison, and first-time camper Emma Davis, the youngest of the group. The games ended when Emma sleepily watched the others sneak out of the cabin in the dead of night. The last she–or anyone–saw of them was Vivian closing the cabin door behind her, hushing Emma with a finger pressed to her lips.

Now a rising star in the New York art scene, Emma turns her past into paintings–massive canvases filled with dark leaves and gnarled branches that cover ghostly shapes in white dresses. The paintings catch the attention of Francesca Harris-White, the socialite and wealthy owner of Camp Nightingale. When Francesca implores her to return to the newly reopened camp as a painting instructor, Emma sees an opportunity to try to find out what really happened to her friends.

Yet it’s immediately clear that all is not right at Camp Nightingale. Already haunted by memories from fifteen years ago, Emma discovers a security camera pointed directly at her cabin, mounting mistrust from Francesca and, most disturbing of all, cryptic clues Vivian left behind about the camp’s twisted origins. As she digs deeper, Emma finds herself sorting through lies from the past while facing threats from both man and nature in the present.

And the closer she gets to the truth about Camp Nightingale, the more she realizes it may come at a deadly price.

Review:

I never went to sleep away camp as a kid, so I’m not sure if it’s as creepy as it’s portrayed in stories. It seems like a common setting where things go wrong, in books.

Throughout the whole story, I kept changing my theory on what happened to the girls. I could work out a motive for almost every character, yet I was wrong in the end. I was surprised at what happened to the missing girls. I loved the very end of the book. You have to read right until the last page!

The subplot of the insane asylum was fascinating. I wish it played a more important part in the main story of the disappearance of the girls. It seemed like another story that ran alongside the main one. I wish they had been more united.

This story reminded me of We Were Liars, which takes place at a summer cabin. It had the same spooky, mysterious elements to it.

Have you read this book? What did you think?

Author: jilljemmett

Jill lives in Toronto, Canada. She has studied English, Creative Writing, and Publishing. Jill is the creator and content producer of Jill’s Book Blog, where she has published a blog post every day for the last four years, including 5-7 book reviews a week. She can usually be found with her nose in a book. View all posts by jilljemmett