The Last Time I Lied: A Novel

2,5 stars Much like the first book I read by this author, I had a hard time connecting to the characters, and thus I didn't really care about the mystery/thriller aspects at first. Whilst I do appreciate how the reveals and the ending were handled, I do think that the book could have been a tad shorter, because there were a lot of scenes I found boring, and they did not really add anything of value to the story imo. Nevertheless, I really liked the way the mystery aspect was executed and I also thoroughl enjoy this authors writing style!

This is my live review of the book. Opening Chapter "This is how it begins." The sounds of nature affecting someone's sleep. An author trying to make things seem murky and mysterious, without explaining basic facts to the reader. A sense of isolation drops onto your shoulders, and for a moment you wonder if the whole camp has cleared out, leaving only you behind.Some girls have gone missing. The former sleeping person is looking for them.So much water. So much land. So many places to disappear.The person searching thinks of every negative reason for the girls absence, and only the negative ones. His/Her negative attitude and perspective has made him/her start screaming out loud. (It says the person searching was wearing boxer shorts which made me think it was a man, but to just pointlessly start screaming doesn't seem very masculine.) Chapter 1 Someone makes paintings the size of a barn door. They are often paintings of the missing girls. So far, this book is not interesting, or going anywhere that is fun to read. It is going into tedious details about the process of painting these paintings of the girls:This process can take days, even weeks, me slightly dizzy from fumes as I glob on more paint, layer upon layer, keeping it thick. This book seems like it is going to be as dull as the book jacket. The jacket says this is a story about a person who goes back to a summer camp years LATER to find out what happened to girls who went missing years BEFORE. Why go back? Wouldn't the janitors have cleaned up any of the clues or evidence by now? No one who was there at that time would be there now to interview. It's a summer camp. People don't live there, they go home at the end. Years later, they won't be there. All I can think is stupid. The chapter ended with the painter talking about her boring paintings and whatever dull stuff is going on in her life. There is no need for me to read chapter 2. The End

I've read romances more thrilling than this