Two Truths and a Lie. Are you familiar with this game? I kind of suck at it because I don't lie well. I usually start laughing. I am good at picking out the other's lies...sometimes.
Anyway, I don't know how Riley Sager has not been on my radar before now, but I'm so glad my friend recommended (and loaned me) The Last Time I Lied.
This is where I'd usually put in the blurb, but this book has a creepy book trailer!
Just in case you prefer the blurb:
In the latest thriller from the bestselling author of Final Girls, a young woman returns to her childhood summer camp to uncover the truth about a tragedy that happened there fifteen years ago.
Two Truths and a Lie. The girls played it all the time in their cabin at Camp Nightingale. Vivian, Natalie, Allison, and first-time camper Emma Davis, the youngest of the group. But the games ended the night Emma sleepily watched the others sneak out of the cabin into the darkness. 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. When the paintings catch the attention of Francesca Harris-White, the wealthy owner of Camp Nightingale, she implores Emma to return to the newly reopened camp as a painting instructor. Seeing an opportunity to find out what really happened to her friends all those years ago, Emma agrees.
Familiar faces, unchanged cabins, and the same dark lake haunt Nightingale, even though the camp is opening its doors for the first time since the disappearances. Emma is even assigned to the same cabin she slept in as a teenager, but soon discovers a security camera--the only one on the property--pointed directly at its door. Then cryptic clues that Vivian left behind about the camp's twisted origins begin surfacing. As she digs deeper, Emma finds herself sorting through lies from the past while facing mysterious threats in the present. And the closer she gets to the truth about Camp Nightingale and what really happened to those girls, the more she realizes that closure could come at a deadly price.
This book kept me up until 2:00 in the morning! Then I finished it and everyone was a sleep so I didn't have anyone to discuss the O.M.G. plot twist at the end that absolutely blindsided me! But in a good way. It makes total sense when you look back, but I completely fell for all the red herrings. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM.
I was texting my friend all smug-like. "So I've got it figured out. (Insert character here) did (evil thing here) because (reasons.)" She just sat back knowingly and waited for me to get to the next chapter when I changed my mind about everything.
So there is no question The Last Time I Lied has a twisty, intriguing plot. It is told in a dual timeline and the beginning takes some time to get going but then the pacing takes off and the tension takes over.
The very beginning is in second-person POV. If that's not your thing, stick it out. It doesn't stay that way.
And if you ever went to summer camp, this will take you right back there. All the memories. Good and bad. Of course, no one ever died or disappeared for longer than an hour or so at the camps I went to.
I would definitely recommend this to my mystery/suspense/thriller loving friends. There are some romantic elements, but not a romance in any sense of the word.
The author's other book Final Girls is now at the top of my To-Be-Read list.
Before you go, swing by my Facebook page and play Two Truths and Lie with us!