Book of the Month: July 2018

Offered Books:
The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager
Summer Wives by Beatriz Williams
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
Ghosted by Rosie Walsh
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Selected:
The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager

Others Purchased:
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

Having been a big fan of Riley Sager's previous novel, Final Girls, selecting The Last Time I Lied was a no-brainer for me.  Even if it didn't live up to the previous novel (spoilers: it did not), he had more than earned my interest in his follow-up.  So, without hesitation, I selected this book.

I wouldn't say I was disappointed - I still enjoyed the book enough to get his next two novels, Lock Every Door and Home Before Dark - but it was a slight let-down after the high of the previous novel.

The Last Time I Lied follows Emma Davis, an artist experiencing her first big opening when offered a job teaching art at Camp Nightingale - the same camp where Emma experienced a traumatic event that greatly influences her art.  Taking the job to both confront her demons and to find out what happened to her three friends all those years ago, Emma finds herself learning about the dark history of the camp while also finding various clues left behind by the ringleader of her friend group, Vivian.

Sager does a great job with the premise, but falls into a bit of a repetitive pattern through the greater part of the book: Emma discovers something, confronts the person whose past she just learned about, then has said past explained away as mundane.  One would expect some of these explanations to be gaslighting, but they aren't - and Emma repeats herself as she discovers yet another fact/detail.  It doesn't ruin the experience, but I kept wondering why Emma - who is by no means a dumb character - continually made the same mistake over and over again.

Despite this, the story does move at a brisk pace, and the mystery still casts a shadow over everything Emma does - a silver lining to the repetitiveness is how it makes Emma come across as much more determined a character.  Her determinedness to solve the riddle of her past makes the various confrontations at least feel plausible.

Another weaker aspect of this novel was the relationships between the characters.  The flashback scenes between Emma, Vivian, Natalie, and Allison are quite economical in how they show the burgeoning friendships between the girls, but the present day scenes don't work quite as well - if not for a very late plot twist, one would wonder why anyone would spend time with Emma.  Even worse, the campers in her care are much more invested in Emma than one would expect, given how little time is spent on her interactions with them.  Nothing rings entirely false, but the character interactions to feel contrived at times.

Sager does do a good job with the setting - Camp Nightingale is mysterious and spooky enough (at least through Emma's perspective) to keep the reader's interest, without stretching believability as to whether or not anyone would attend said camp.

Despite my critiques - this review might be another that reads more negative than I actually felt about the book - this is a solid novel.  The opening - told from Emma's perspective as she paints on of her pieces - is beautiful:  it explains so much about the character while hinting about her past without giving too much away.  And the solution to the main mystery is satisfying - I did not expect the resolution, but it didn't feel like a cheap surprise that a lesser writer might have gone with.

While it doesn't reach the highs of Final Girls, this is still a definite recommend.

3.5 out of 5

Spinning Silver was a book I initially overlooked when it was first offered.  It wasn't until I started seeing it on various 'Best of 2018' lists - and the lucky happenstance of a free selection with Book of the Month - that I decided to give in to my curiosity and read the novel.  I am very glad I did.

Set in a fantasy world that feels adjacent to ours, the novel follows multiple characters, but primarily focuses on Miryem - the daughter of moneylenders who finds her family on the cusp of poverty.  Doing what her father could not, she starts collecting on the debts owed to her - developing a reputation for being able to turn silver into gold.  She boasts about this ability near the forest of the Staryk - elf-like creatures - and their leader forces her to make good on her supposed ability.

If this sounds similar to Rumpelstiltskin, trust that Novik only loosely uses that story, and before long the novel has passed the basic plot of that story and expanded into a tale that affects kingdoms both human and magic.  Novik expertly creates this world and the characters inhabiting them without getting so lost in the details that reading becomes a chore.

As the story widens, Novik also starts focusing on various characters affected by Miryem's journey - shifting Miryem's perspective to theirs.  Each of these characters is defined quickly, and Novik uses them to deepen the world she has created.  Whether focusing on the poor daughter of an abusive drunk or the well-off daughter of a minor lord, Novik brings nuance to their telling of the story.

The only quibble I would have with this method is that it feels like a few of characters are more of a plot device to explain parts of the novel that would otherwise make no sense - but it is a small one given the amount of intrigue going on in the story.

For fans of fantasy, I'd say this is a must-read.

4 out of 5

Author Links:

Riley Sager

Naomi Novik