OVERVIEW
In Ruth Ware’s psychological thriller, The Lying Game, four women find themselves entangled in a web of deceit (2017). In the coastal village of Salten, Kate’s father Ambrose’s body washes ashore after a long-lost friend sent a text message to Thea, Fatima, and Isa.
Because the four girls buried the body 17 years ago, no one knew about it. Their deceptions are now coming back to haunt them. Storytelling expertly shifts between present-day and boarding school, gradually uncovering layers of mystery in Ware’s novella.
In keeping with the story they agreed on long ago, the two women discover that a person with the power to expose their crime and ruin everything is aware of what they did that summer.
In The Lying Game, Ware uses classic suspense elements like an ominous setting, a rapid pace, and an unreliable narrator to heighten the suspense. Ware examines the poisonous nature of lies and the power of female friendship—both its strength-giving love and the darker side that emerges when friendship becomes too exclusive—against this tense backdrop.
Kirkus and Booklist both gave The Lying Game four-star reviews. The Scout Press 2018 trade paperback edition is used for all page citations in this guide.
Plot Summary
When Isa Wilde, The Lying Game’s first-person narrator, receives Kate’s terse text, “I need you,” she knows something serious has happened.
Isa lies to her partner Owen, packs up her infant Freya, and boards a train for Salten. She knows that her friends Fatima, a married doctor and mother of two, and Thea, a casino worker, will drop everything and go to Kate.
Seventeen years ago, the four women became inseparable during their year together at the boarding school, Salten House. The four rejected other friendships and played a “lying game,” targeting other students and teachers, earning points for successfully fooling others with their lies.
Knc Chain App Real or Fake? Kncchain.com Review in Details 2022
Isa, Kate, Thea, and Fatima spent weekends at Kate’s old and crumbling home, Tide Mill. Ambrose, the art teacher at Salten, Kate’s father, and a former addict, let the girls do as they pleased.
He asked and received their permission to draw them naked. Isa fell in love with Kate’s handsome French “stepbrother” Luc, who also lived at Tide Mill.
One evening, the girls responded to Kate’s teenage “I need you” text and found Kate crying over Ambrose’s dead body. Ambrose died from a heroin overdose, with an apparent suicide note in his hand.
Because she was not yet 16, Kate knew that child services would take her away and she would lose everything. Together, the four girls buried Ambrose on the shore.
The school housemistress, Miss Weatherby, revealed compromising drawings of the girls that got them quickly kicked out of school. Weeks later, Kate reported Ambrose’s disappearance.
Seventeen years later, the women return to Salten village to support Kate. Each has grown and changed: Isa is a new mother, Fatima has embraced the Muslim religion, and Thea’s anorexia and alcoholism have worsened.
The women wonder what Luc knows. To explain their presence in Salten, the women attend an alumnae dinner. There, the friends are the object of rumors, and Isa feels haunted by memories of their cruelty. The three return to London the next day.
At home, Isa’s behavior makes Owen suspicious she is having an affair, and their relationship suffers. Isa meets with Thea and Fatima to discuss whether Ambrose’s death is murder. The women each receive an envelope of Ambrose’s drawings.
They wonder if Kate is responsible for the pictures and for murdering Ambrose. Thea believes that Ambrose planned to send Kate away. Owen discovers the naked pictures and confronts Isa, who lies about them. Kate asks Isa to return to Salten. Isa takes Freya and walks out on Owen.
Kate admits to being blackmailed for years, but she didn’t want to tell the others. Kate retreats from Isa. Isa meets Luc again, who apologizes for his past behavior.
Luc and Isa return to Tide Mill and are about to become intimate when they notice Kate observing them. When Isa leaves, Mary maliciously tells her that Ambrose died of an oral heroin overdose and that as teens, Kate and Luc had been sleeping together. Mary thinks Kate killed Ambrose.
The friends confront Kate, who admits she killed her father because Ambrose was splitting up her and Luc. Kate apologizes to her friends, promising to confess to the police. Later, Isa hears Luc and Kate talking. Isa awakens her friends. A lamp falls over and sets the Tide Mill on fire.
Thea, Kate, Fatima, and Isa run outside with Kate’s dog, Shadow. Luc rescues Freya, dropping Freya from a window into Isa’s arms. Luc stays in the burning building, and Kate runs inside after him. The fire destroys Tide Mill and kills both Kate and Luc.
Isa realizes that Luc murdered Ambrose and sent the pictures to the school, because of his love for Kate, and his fear that Ambrose was sending him back to France. The two still loved each other.
Mary is the blackmailer. The three friends tell the police a new story and vow to maintain the lie for Kate’s sake. Isa recognizes Owen’s deep love for Freya and decides that although she does not love Owen, she will try to, for Freya’s sake.
Read More:-
