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Let’s start a book club!

I’m notorious for starting book clubs that never get off the ground. Last December, mostly as an effort for myself to read more, I roped some friends from my first college into a book club. I gathered lists of books we wanted to read. I figured out a schedule and set a meeting date. We all bought the book. We were serious.

Our book club meeting? It came and went. I’d only read about five chapters. I don’t think many of us finished the book, and honestly? We’ve never talked about it. We’ve never discussed the time we tried to start a book club and didn’t even make it through the first book.

Book clubs force you to read. And not just read but read. Really read. Because you have to have something to talk about and share. You have to experience it, every word. And then the meeting comes and you get to let all the thoughts of the past month stumble out. You’ve been shutting them up inside, trying not to spoil it for all your friends, and then you finally get to share your experiences. And you get to have brunch, or wine, or coffee, and catch up on life. Book clubs are the ideal activity for friends, I’m convinced.

Well — I hope you’re proud of me — I met with friends this weekend. We sat over greasy brunch and stale diner coffee and the thoughts we’d collected over the past month spilled out. It feels so good to talk about books with other people. I felt accomplished as I took out my sheet of paper with scribbles of random thoughts out and talked about everything I’d been keeping in for so long.

This month, we read The Lying Game by Ruth Ware. And I have A LOT to say about this one.

Synopsis

Isa Wilde and her friends from boarding school 15 years earlier are reunited and their lives upended when Kate sends a text: I need you. The women are bonded by the lies they told and the web they spun. They are haunted by a 15 year old lie told around the same time Kate’s dad disappeared. As the lies they’ve told start to surface, so does the truth.

What I Liked

Two things I liked about The Lying Game: the setting, and Ware’s writing style.

The setting is beautifully crafted. As I read I could picture myself in the dilapidated mill that serves as the foundation of the novel. Ware describes everything with such clarity, the places feel real. I could smell the salty air and feel the rain beating down on me. I especially loved how Ware tied in the setting to the story arc. The setting symbolized the effects of the lies and moves/changes with the characters. It makes the story feel whole. She achieves this through the beautiful writing and awareness of the world she’s building.

What I Didn’t Like

So much. So, so much.

My first problem: I was let down on page 181 and the book never got it back. A book built on lies is a bad idea. Lies are a flimsy foundation for life and turns out they’re a flimsy foundation for a book as well. As teenagers, the characters lied constantly, and it gets sickening hearing about the things they did and the games they played. The entire novel focuses on the biggest lie they ever told, and when it was revealed….I just felt left down. The lie is revealed about halfway through the novel and then I just didn’t know what the rest of the book was going to be about? The beginning clearly builds suspense in the reader. What’s this big lie they told? To reveal it halfway through felt like a terrible move and she tried to redeem it, but it never happened for me.

My second problem: it is so long winded. I think this novel could’ve have been significantly shorter. I actually thought about 3/4 of the way through: this could’ve been a short story. The book is told from Isa’s perspective and written in first person, and I mostly just wanted her to get on with the story and let me get on with my life.

My third and biggest problem: I didn’t think it was possible to read an entire novel, in first-person no less, and NOT KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE PROTAGONIST. This was the most frustrating part of the novel. As much as I tried to get to know the character…I just couldn’t. The background information shared with the reader is just non-essential and mostly consists of flashbacks that have nothing to do with her at all. Maybe this was intentional, but if that was the case then it would’ve been better to hear the story from another character’s perspective. The reader should leave a novel with a good sense of who the main character is. Especially if it’s written in first-person. The PURPOSE of first-person narration is so that the reader feels close with the character. Also, she carried a baby around in the whole novel. Ware spent so much time talking about the baby, and the baby added nothing to the the theme or overall story arc. There did not need to be a baby in the book, I just needed to be able to connect with the main character.

Overall

Ware created a strong setting through beautiful writing and a clarity that’s refreshing. However, everything else about this novel is…infuriating. Lies aren’t a good foundation for life, and it turns out they aren’t a good foundation for a novel either. Most of all, I’m frustrated that I read 370 pages and still don’t know who the main character is. I give this one 2/5 stars. Grab it from Amazon here or Bookshop here and see what I’m talking about, or don’t — regardless, thanks for supporting me and allowing me to continue reviewing and recommending books!