We Were Liars

We Were Liars Book Review by E. Lockhart 

This book is so popular. 

Popularity like this is usually hit or miss for novels. 

Sometimes I read well-known or well-loved books and find them overhyped and mediocre. 

Other times, the infamy is hugely deserved and the accolades need to keep coming. 

Surprisingly, I found We Were Liars firmly in the second category. I say surprising because lately I’ve felt like I’ve been in a book slump. I pessimistically believed that We Were Liars (which I begrudgingly bought out of disinterest for anything else) would be just another summer throw-away that I wouldn’t think about again. 

Fortunately, that’s not the case. 

If you haven’t been under a rock like I have, you’ve probably already read We Were Liars. In case you’re under the rock with me, however, I’ll go into what makes this book so good. 

The story starts off vague and confusing. 

E. Lockhart throws a lot of family members at you all at once and I didn’t even know who the main character was until about two chapters in. Initially, I thought the chapters were switching POV’s, but I soon realized that this wasn’t the case and that the main protagonist was headlining every chapter. 

This main character is Cadence Sinclair Eastman and the book revolves around her familial relationships with the extended Sinclair family, but mainly the relationships with the other self-titled liars: Gat, Johnny, and Mirren. 

Every summer, the liars and other members of the privileged Sinclair family retreat to a private island off the coast of Massachusetts for a summer of swimming, reading, eating, playing tennis, and a slew of other activities that make them forget their lives back home. 

These summers are all consuming. 

It is clear right off the bat that Cadence is obsessed and possessive of the other liars. She wants their time, their energy, and their summers to be eternal. 

However, from chapter one, Cadence speaks of an accident and how things were never the same afterwards.

The whole book then devolves into a mystery plot where you’re trying to figure out Cadence’s summer fifteen, a summer where she can’t recall a single thing except for a few memories that collectively make no sense. 

As Cadence is trying to figure out her blank summer and what happened, the reader is right along with her. 

I want to say more about the plot, I want to scream about it from the mountaintops, but this book really is better off going in blank. E. Lockhart covers other themes like privilege, racism, family relationships, trauma, friendship, and romance, but the drive of this book is the mystery. 

Finding out what happened to Cadence during that summer, how the other liars are involved, what the other Sinclair family members have to do with it, and the long-lasting effects of those months on everyone will grab your attention and not let go until you turn the last page. 

I will say that this ending blew away my expectations. 

I cried. 

I didn’t see it coming and it hit me in a powerful blow. 

Everything about this book was geared towards the ending: the unraveling of the mystery, the breakdown of the characters, memories being exposed in non-chronological fashion. I loved every moment of it. 

Unusually, I would get more into the characters, but strangely I don’t think it’s as important in this book. Not to say that I think the characters are bad, not at all, but the intriguing plot and the writing style were much more significant than the characters to me. 

I liked them all. Cadence, Mirren, Gat, and Johnny especially were well developed and fleshed out, as they should be in a plot and character driven story like this. 

The other characters, like Grandad patriarch Sinclair, the aunties, and the little cousins, were less developed, but played their roles incredibly well for the purposes of the story. 

What really impressed me and played into the novel’s mystique well was E. Lockhart’s writing. I found it inspiring. 

Maybe it’s not for everyone, but I loved her play with words and figurative language. It was beautiful. She experimented with space, syntax, form, time, and memory. 

It was unique, interesting, engaging, and addicting. 

I loved this book. 

Maybe it’s not for everyone, especially the ending or the writing, but as I’ve been feeling stuck in the milieu of YA mediocrity, this book stood out in a variety of ways and came to me like a breath of fresh air. 

Recommendation: If you like a plot drenched in mystery, intrapersonal relationships, interesting characters, and writing that will take your breath away, then pick up We Were Liars. It won’t be like other summer books that you pick up: easily read and easily thrown away. 

Even though it is an easy read, this book with its hard-hitting finale will stick with you and stain your memories like you also belong to the serpentine Sinclair family. 

Score: 8/10