Publication: 12 July by Ebury Press
Have you ever played two truths and a lie?
Emma’s first summer away from home, she learned how to play the game. And she learned how to lie.
Then three of her new friends went into the woods and never returned. . .
Now, years later, Emma has been asked to go back to the newly re-opened Camp Nightingale. She thinks she’s laying old ghosts to rest but really she’s returning to the scene of a crime.
Because Emma’s innocence might be the biggest lie of all. . .
Let me start this review by saying that I was so engrossed in this book that I missed a few tube and bus stops and I almost walked into a lamppost (reading and walking at the same time is a dangerous activity). LAST TIME I LIED is gripping, it’s dark, it’s jaw-dropping and I wasn’t able to put it down.
The protagonist of this novel is Emma Davis. When she was thirteen years old she was sent to spend six weeks to Camp Nightingale, an exclusive summer camp for girls. Because she arrived late to the camp, she was put in a cabin with three older girls, Vivian, Natalie, and Amanda and she was flattered when beautiful and charming Vivian took her under her wing. But, one night, the three girls disappeared and they were never found and Camp Nightingale was closed.
Fifteen years later, Camp Nightingale opens agains its doors. Emma is an artist who just had her first showcase in an art gallery and she is asked to go back to camp to teach art to the girls. She is still obsessed by the disappearance of the three girls and she sees this as her chance to finally discover what happened to them.
The story is told from Emma’s point of view, but I found her an unreliable narrator. She’s been keeping secrets about the night Vivian, Natalie, and Amanda disappeared. Also, she is haunted by the guilt and the past and she keeps allucinating Vivian, so you can’t really trust what she says. The flashbacks to the past not only helped me to understand better the character of Emma, but also the character of Vivian – a true Queen Bee who knew how to manipulate people – and the events the led to her disappearance.
Secrets are at the center of this novel. The girls used to play a game of “two truths and one lie” and everyone seems to be hiding something about the events of fifteen years earlier, everyone has secrets. Between the atmosphere of an horror movie and the twist after twist that took me by surprise, the suspense is always high.
I’d like to thank Ebury Press for providing me with a copy of LAST TIME I LIED and so giving me the chance to read this thrilling, compulsive, and chilling novel.
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