We Were Liars
by E. Lockhart
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 National Book Award finalist and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart.
Read it.
And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.
Source: I purchased a hardcover.
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Review:
We Were Liars is one of the books everyone is talking about this summer, so I knew I had to at least check it out. I am very glad I did, as it was intriguing, mysterious, and ultimately wonderful. I had no idea what to expect and, with a title like We Were Liars, I didn’t know what sort of YA novel it would be.
It was a short book, but one that tells a captivating story of the Sinclair family. The family was wealthy and had the entire island to themselves. The Liars were cousins, the children of the three Sinclair daughters and Gat, a family friend. Cadence narrated the story and it was clear that something happened to the Liars on the island one summer.
I loved the development of the story. I loved how it explored various aspects of Cadence’s adolescence. She had her summer, her family, her freedom. She fell in love. She didn’t always understand the scenes in front of her. The author did a wonderful job showing the way that such rich and privileged families scoff at the show of weakness and emotion. Cadence’s mother was constantly telling her to put herself back together and to stop being weak. Watching the aunts and her mother try to win Granddad’s favor made me curious and nauseous at the same time. Despite calling themselves the Liars, they weren’t the offspring of the rich and powerful that I expected. They were not quite tarnished by selfishness and greed.
So what happened? What is the book really about?
Well, I’m not telling. Sorry!
Just read it. It won’t take you but a couple of days or hours, depending on how quickly you read. And it was absolutely wonderful. And it came out with great timing. While everyone was (well, most of us were) defending YA and others were wondering why on earth they should stoop so low as to read a *scoff* YA novel, We Were Liars ended up being a shining example of why YA can be amazing and why I’m proud to love it!
Labels: Review, YA
