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Author: E. Lockhart
My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Purchase: Amazon | B&N | TBD
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.
“We are Sinclairs.
No one is needy.
No one is wrong.
We live, at least in the summertime, on a private land off the coast of Massachusetts.
Perhaps that is all you need to know.”
How am I supposed to explain We Were Liars without spoiling anything but still convince you to read it? Maybe it’s best to list the things that appealed to me when I read this. After all, when in doubt, make a list.
So why did I loved We Were Liars?
1. The writing. I felt like I was bewitched by its writing and drew me in as I turned the pages. This is my first E. Lockhart book so I’m not really familiar how she writes but this was amazing. The construction and use of words effectively attracted my attention and curiosity. It was poetic and painted a vivid picture of the island as well as the scenes.
2. Suspense. I was blind when I read this so I advise you to go blind too. Sometimes when you’re told that you should go blind, you become guarded and could easily predict what happened but this one was different. I think it was one of the reasons why I was so floored and affected when I got into the revelation part.
3. Good pacing. This is the part when I mostly complain. Some books have fast pacing that made the chapters and scenes disconnected instead of having a good flow. When they’re slow, it tends to drag the story and losses my attention. In this case, We Were Liars was in the middle. It was kind of slow but it complimented the suspense of the story. But it was also fast enough to make me turn the pages and not to lose interest.
4. Characters. We all love when there’s growth and development in characters. Everyone, not just the Liars, went through a something because of what happened that summer and that led to some changes. (Of course there were changes. I’d be surprised if there wasn’t.) We Were Liars was written with flashbacks so we get to compare the characters pre and post incident side by side. Their personalities and what they did were also shown piece by piece so we get to know them little by little as the story progressed.
5. The ending. I never expected it when I decided to read the story but that ending made me cry. The revelation made me cry and how this story ended was simply stunning. With Lockhart’s amazing writing, it gave more feelings and impact. Perfect.. it was just perfect.
“My full name is Cadence Sinclair Eastman.
I suffer migraines. I do not suffer fools.
I like a twist of meaning.
I endure.”
I was on edge the whole time and was itching to uncover what happened. I know something happened and that something is big but when it was time for me to know the truth, it felt like I detonated a bomb. I don’t think I’d be able to explain more without spoiling something so trust me when I say that you should read this.
E. Lockhart is the author of a number of teen novels. She has had nine official boyfriends, if you count the boy who asked her to go with him at a 7th grade dance and then basically never talked to her again. She has never been on a sports team of any kind and got excused from gym class by going to ballet lessons. She has a tattoo, cuts her own hair, and has worn the same perfume since high school (Kiehl's Chinese Flowers). In her office are two Betty & Veronica dolls, a photo of a particularly fat bull dog, an official business card from “Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective,” and the 1920s flapper dress she wore to the prom.