Review | The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager

When Emma Davis was thirteen, her three friends went missing at a summer camp. She carries the guilt of what happened that night with her until adulthood. Now an artist, she can’t seem to paint anything but visions of the missing girls. When she receives an offer to return to the camp as an instructor, she takes the opportunity to investigate their disappearance. But between suspicious behaviour from other people, clues from an old diary and a feeling that someone is watching her, Emma might not survive camp this time around.

Everything is a game, Em. Whether you know it or not. Which means that sometimes a lie is more than just a lie. Sometimes it’s the only way to win.

Emma carries a lot of guilt for something that happened in a summer camp when she was thirteen. All we know is that three of her friends went missing but we do not know why she feels guilty. This guilty reason is held from the reader for most of the book which sort of annoyed me but it’s also an admittedly effective tool to keep me reading. It’s a technique that many thrillers employ; to have the main character withheld information in order to create suspense. I think here it works to a certain extent.

I enjoyed the flashback scenes which is mostly focused on Emma’s newfound friendship with her summer camp friends. This is my first time reading this author and I found the writing to be effective at conveying the characters’ feelings. The highs and lows of female friendships are captured well. I could relate to Emma’s need for validation and support from Vivian. Vivian ended up being the most interesting character in the book and I wish we got her story instead. I really liked the setting of the camp, and some eeriee moments when the characters are off exploring in the forest.

However, I’m not a fan of the present storyline as I felt it was too similar to the past, right down to the three new characters. There is a plot involving an asylum that ended up going nowhere, which is frustrating. Emma’s mental health is discussed many times in the book so the theme of ‘don’t-believe-the-crazy-woman’ could have been further explored. This is especially relevant towards the end as she starts to doubt her sanity and questions everything that had happened. It feels like a missed opportunity.

I thought the reveal of the villain is very dramatic and unconvincing. I couldn’t get past their motivations. Though there is a last twist in the epilogue that I didn’t see coming which I really liked. It’s the kind of outrageous nastiness I want from the book and it delivered, but too little too late. If you can suspend your disbelief, The Last Time I Lied is an outlandish, entertaining read.

About the author: Riley Sager

Photo by Ahmet Yalçınkaya