Review: Lying In Wait

Rating: 3.5 Stars
Warning: Spoilers

Lying In Wait, by Liz Nugent, introduces us to Lydia Fitzsimons, a woman with the perfect life. She lives in a beautiful mansion with her husband and son, both of whom love her unconditionally. Yet Lydia is not satisfied. She wants something more, and her husband will do anything to get it for her, even commit murder. However, it is the consequences of that murder that make it difficult to get up every morning and look in the mirror. Not so for Lydia though. She will go to any length to rise above the unfortunate event.

There are very few characters that inspire the hatred that Lydia does. Her character is one of the most twisted and cold characters that you will ever come across. You don’t want to kill her, you want to run far away from her. She is a dangerous and manipulative woman, incapable of comprehending anything beyond her own wishes and desires. Reading her parts of the story always left me with a chill running through my spine, not wanting to read more, yet compelled to do so.

Laurence, the overweight son of Lydia and Andrew, who is over protected and smothered with motherly love, is the second narrator of this tale. It is difficult to decide whether to give him sympathy or a slap across his face. Clearly, he is a normal person with a guilty conscience at war with his love for his mother. Yet, we also see traces of meanness and cruelty that make him his mother’s son. Throughout the book, he was one person I really did feel sorry for, even with his moronic obedience and love for his crazy mother.

The third narrator, Karen, is the person I liked the least in this book. Her character was as dull as Lydia’s is evil. I would have given this book a higher rating if it hadn’t been for Karen. Other than being beautiful, there isn’t much to recommend her to the reader. Her choices and decisions are so contradictory that you become as confused about her character as she herself is in her life. Somehow, I found it very hard to sympathize with Karen.

The book becomes a bit boring and repetitive halfway through, with things seemingly going round and round in circles. The side characters are somewhat stereotypical, especially Bridget and her family who are shown to be lackluster just to contrast with Karen’s beauty. Yet, Karen is the one who comes out as the bad guy in this whole scenario. It wouldn’t have hurt to make Bridget a bit better looking, and not make her do what she did in the end because it all went against her character. It was unnecessary to turn Bridget into a vindictive bitch just to absolve Andrew and Karen from their selfishness.

The end is chilling and satisfying, though I saw it coming. Lydia’s character stays true to form till the end, and Andrew remains as clueless as ever. Karen’s character remains confused like always. She was so irritating for me that I really thought she got what she deserved.

Overall, a satisfying book for lovers of creepy stories.