Book Review: We Were Liars by E. Lockhart



We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher: Delacourte Press


Summary:  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.

We Were Liars is a modern, sophisticated suspense novel from New York Times bestselling author, National Book Award finalist, and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart.

Read it.

And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.
 



I read this in a day so it's safe to say that I liked it and it was definitely a page turner or more correctly in my case, a screen tapper. I mostly decided to read it because I kept hearing that there was some secret and the ending had a huge twist. A huge twist that no one would divulge or talk about. So, as book buzz goes, this one not only got me curious enough to read it also delivered.

I won't spoil here but I will say that I the story pulled me right in and I thought Cadence, had a good voice. Unreliable narrators can be tricky but the author pulled this off well. The Sinclares were described in a way that rang true and the relationships between the father and the sisters and the sisters themselves, was one of the more interesting aspects of the story. The way they fought and sniped and were moved around as pawns was uncomfortable in its realness and the ease with which they drafted their children into the power grab was enough to make one shudder. And that's not even to say that their points of view weren't understandable. It made me glad that I'm an only child with parents of a different temperament. I can't say that I found Johnny a strong character and it wasn't until the book was almost over that I could recall his name. Mirren, was a bit more drawn and Gat was most well crafted of the group who comprised the Liars. Admittedly, I'm still not exactly sure why the quad were called the Liars on-island but that conflict doesn't ruin anything. I also liked Cadence's fairytale variations along the way. Finally, I thought the author did a fabulous job showing the clarity teens sometimes have on adults in their lives can be so on point but then take a turn, through youthful folly and arrogance, into rash, reckless actions and irrevocable ends. Well done.

I'd definitely recommend this book. It's great to read over the weekend (you likely won't need that long). Also, if you were one of the people who went to see M. Night Shyamalan's The Village and were put off by the twist at the end, you may want to skip this one.


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