SYNOPSIS
A beautiful and distinguished family.
A private island.
A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.
A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.
A revolution. An accident. A secret.
Lies upon lies.
True love.
The truth.
★★★★☆
Before reading this book, a friend told me it’d be best to go into it without knowledge of anything. I asked about the ending (I didn’t have plans to read it back then) and I got nothing, much to the back cover’s approval. Best believe I went into this completely blind, and I think it’s the best way to go about this book.
We Were Liars is about a wealthy family, the Sinclairs, who own a private island. Cadence, Johnny, and Mirren spend their summers on the island with Gat, the nephew of Johnny’s mother’s new husband. Cadence, Johnny, Mirren, and Gat are the four central Liars; they’re called Liars for a reason not explained in the book, but I read E. Lockhart wrote an entire section on how the label came to be, but was scrapped because the publishers didn’t want to slow the story down. I think I would’ve preferred some context on the book’s title, more than anything else.
One thing I loved about this book is that I didn’t hate any character. Not a single one. I loved the Liars, all four of them, but especially Johnny and Mirren. I loved all three moms. I loved the littles. The side characters really ended up being of actual significance and tied the entire story together and I’m so happy with how all these characters were written, the sides, especially.
I loved the writing; the suspense and mystery were carefully (and beautifully) laid out. I found Lockhart’s use of fairy tales sprinkled throughout the book very effective. It played into the story and the feelings particularly well, describing perfectly the situations Cadence was in. I was surprised many found the writing style to be tedious but I wasn’t completely annoyed by it, save for the random sentences that got fragmented out of nowhere.
(So much
in love
that equally desperate measures
must be taken.)
Finally, the ending. THAT. ENDING. I had a few theories and versions of the ending I had formulated while reading the book, but I was completely off. I’m glad I was completely off because that ending came as a slap to the face, and it was a good slap to the face. I’d like to thank someone for that slap in the face. I’d love to be slapped again. I didn’t expect to bawl my eyes out, but I did. I cried a whole lot. It was satisfying and riveting and just clever.
The book deserves four stars ★★★★ out of five. That ending was perfect, and I really can’t, nor do I want to, tell you anything more. JUST GO READ IT.
ABOUT THE BOOK
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
Published 13 May 2014
Young adult mystery
★★★★☆
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karl calagan 