The Last Time I Lied
by Riley Sager
At a summer camp shadowed by the disappearance of three girls, Riley Sager builds a thriller full of lake water unease, campfire-story tension, and secrets that refuse to stay buried. It is nostalgic in the creepiest possible way and knows exactly how to deliver a final punch.
The review
This was such a good late-summer thriller.
The easiest way to describe the vibe is camp thriller with a horror edge. If you like movies like The Final Girls or Lake Mungo and want that same eerie-lake energy translated into a fast, readable mystery, The Last Time I Lied really works.
Sager knows how to weaponize setting, and the summer-camp backdrop gives this one a built-in sense of nostalgia and danger. It feels haunted by memory even before the twists start landing.
What sold me was how entertaining it is. I loved the twists, including the final one, and the book never lost that page-turning momentum. It is one of those thrillers where the atmosphere is strong but the plot still absolutely moves.
This is a five-star read for me. If you want a summery mystery that still feels sinister, this is exactly the kind of book to throw into a weekend reading stack.
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