cornerfolds
Written on Jun 18, 2015
I couldn't
take it anymore.
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A modern, sophisticated suspense novel from National Book Award finalist, and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart. Don't miss the #1 New York Times bestselling prequel, Family of Liars.
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.
Read it.
And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.
"Thrilling, beautiful, and blisteringly smart, We Were Liars is utterly unforgettable." —John Green, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Fault in Our Stars
- ISBN10 0385741278
- ISBN13 9780385741279
- Publish Date 29 May 2018 (first published 1 January 2014)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Ember
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 320
- Language English
- URL https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780385741279
Reviews
I couldn't
take it anymore.
nightingalereads
Written on May 24, 2015
brokentune
Written on May 7, 2015
“You don’t remember?” he says.
“No.”
We Were Liars was a book of great promise. A story of friendship, family, and of Cadence Sinclair slowly regaining her memory of the events that changed her life forever - events that present themselves in almost every aspect of her life and that are yet so intangible because Cadence cannot remember.
I really enjoyed the premise of the book but a few pages in I was so strongly reminded of Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle that I could not help but compare the two stories and the two main characters. Although, they are entirely different plots and genres, there are some similarities in that Cadence, like Merricat in Jackson's book, did not come across like a person of her age. She seemed so much younger. In hindsight this makes some sense but while reading, this really irritated me.
We Were Liars is based on a well constructed plot leading up to a twist - though, by the time the I got the part where the story is revealed in full, I had already lost patience with the characters, and slow, slow, slow drip feed of the story. So, I guess, I liked the twist not because it resolved Cadence's trauma but because it meant the end of the book was near.
In summary, not a bad story but somewhat tedious to read.
"WELCOME TO THE beautiful Sinclair family.
No one is a criminal.
No one is an addict.
No one is a failure.
The Sinclairs are athletic, tall, and handsome. We are old-money Democrats. Our smiles are wide, our chins square, and our tennis serves aggressive."
Joséphine
Written on Apr 6, 2015
Full book review is now up on Word Revel.
April 6, 2015
Initial thoughts: What on earth did I just stay up to read for? To finish a book that left me wishing I hadn't. For once I concede that the hype got to me. I had grand expectations, especially with everyone going on about "the twist" and when I finally got to "the twist" I just thought, "That's it?" Because half-way through the book I started questioning the whole setting and before everything was revealed, I had already figured out what that twist was.
The writing style was jumpy. I didn't appreciate that, although it could be said to be reflective of the narrator's state of mind. She's a very unreliable narrator, mind you. The whole book came off as a pity party and I hardly found myself caring about any of the characters. Was I supposed to feel indignant about race and class? I think so. Did I feel indignant? Yes. But not about race or class. I felt indignant about reading yet another book that I didn't enjoy.
puchunga
Written on Mar 8, 2015
Nessa Luna
Written on Jan 8, 2015
Actual rating: 2,5 - I honestly don't know what to think about this book. I heard a lot about it when it was first released, and they were all four or five star reviews and everyone loved this book. So I was convinced I would love it too. But when I finally started reading it, I didn't like it at all. I thought perhaps that I was reading the wrong book, but it was definitely We Were Liars.
First of all, I didn't like the characters. The Sinclairs, some amazing American family with lots of money and a bloody private island with four massive houses on it. They are beautiful, they are rich, they are amazing and they are basically trying to be as emotionless as they can. No, I did not like this family at all. The only one I kind of liked was Gat, who was someone's cousin or something like that, though he was also a bit weird at some points in the story. It was his fault that the group (Cady, Mirren, Johnny and Gat) were called the Liars, though I never really understood why they were called that in the first place. In the end, the only reason I kind of related to Cady was because she had these horrible headaches that sometimes leave her unable to do anything but lie in bed, and I do sometimes have those (not very often anymore luckily, but I used to have them a lot a couple of years back). Other than that, I could NOT relate to any of the characters.
Then there was the 'thing' that had happened on the island that Cady couldn't remember. First of all I had no idea what was going on, later on I started speculating what it could have been (I ended up being so wrong). But the thing is, apparently we jump from 'summer seventeen' to 'summer fifteen' throughout the story but it's never really clear which is which. I was confused all the time because I just had NO idea where we were in the story at that point. It was very very annoying. I did like the little mystery of 'oh god what happened that was so bad Cady can't remember', and when we finally found out, I thought it was kind of well... sad actually.
But yeah, I just didn't enjoy this story that much, and I was actually really glad when I finished. I considered DNF-ing the book several times, but I just wanted to find out what had happened to Cady in 'summer fifteen' so badly that I ended up finishing the book. But now I think I'd rather had just read a spoiler on the internet (even though the summary says you're supposed to lie about the ending, I mean what the hell seriously?). No, We Were Liars was not the book for me, alas. I did like the little map in the front of the book, showing what the island looked like. Pretty handy at some points, because sometimes I just had NO idea what the hell they were talking about (but then they would have been talking about a house or something).
If you like mysteries that revolve around a snobby rich American family, you should definitely check out this book. If you don't, well... You should just do what you want - read the book or don't, it's your choice.
My opinion on this book in one gif:
Jyc
Written on Nov 16, 2014
Michael @ Knowledge Lost
Written on Oct 22, 2014
I picked up this book because of the marketing campaign; see good marketing does sell books. Basically the concept behind the campaign was to read the book then lie about it; a great way to stop anyone from spoiling the fact that Cady’s grandfather is really a Russian sleeper spy. We Were Liars is this wonderfully secretive novel with a psychological element that slowly gets revealed. The way I view this book is if Daphne du Maurier (Rebecca) wrote a YA novel set in the world of the TV show Revenge.
There are a lot of people that loved this book and to be honest I wasn’t sure if I would be among them. I started off reading this book thinking there wasn’t anything special and it felt like privileged white kids with first world problems. However, like most people, I got to a point where everything clicked and I was floored. Everything started making so much more sense. As you can tell, this is a difficult novel to write about because I don’t want to give away the plot about the zombie apocalypse.
I am of two minds about the writing, on one hand it was pretty basic and I found it incredibly easy to rush through the novel and not miss anything important. However as things start to reveal themselves, you can think back to previous chapters and see all the subtle clues that were missed. In the end, I think E. Lockhart did a brilliant job of making the book so easy to read while packing in subtle evidence that The Sinclair family are just a big crime family. The subtlety worked really well throughout the novel and I feel like I was so blind, I would never have guessed that they were aliens, but the evidence was there.
I may joke about the ending and the fact that it was all a dream but I am just following their marketing campaign. I had a lot of fun reading this book; much like Gone Girl, the twist was done so well and We Were Liars kept me up at night as I desperately tried to finish the book. I am very surprised by this book and I wonder if re-reading this book would be any good. I can’t imagine going into the novel knowing what happens would be any fun, but I am not the kind of person that likes spoilers.
This review originally appeared on my blog: http://literary-exploration.com/2014/11/26/we-were-liars-by-e-lockhart/
celinenyx
Written on Oct 19, 2014
So I went into We Were Liars blank. And since I now completely agree with her, I won't give a summary of the plot. You will really want to find out for yourself what's going on, or the book is ruined. You can only speak in the most general terms about this book; there is a rich family, who spend their summers on an island close to Martha's Vineyard. Enter family drama and one teenage girl in the middle of everything.
Although I understand the author's decision, I didn't like the fragmented writing. While the premise is pretty intriguing, I kept putting the book down every few pages. The writing just didn't sit well with me, it didn't invite me to keep on reading, it seemed to spiral in on itself without pushing me in a forward direction. Even though the story is so short and so quick, the first thirty percent felt slow to me. Metaphors that were meant to convey lyricism and deep feeling felt odd and out of place, and especially the few that were repeated plenty of times throughout the story irked me. If I see "bleeding all over him" one more time, I'm going to cry. I'm a visual person, so I see the main character literally bleeding all over someone. And this is not appealing for me. Even though I understand that the author means crying, I keep picturing Carrie post-prom.
The twist was good. I never fully connected with the characters, but I didn't exactly see that one coming. The sense of foreboding is aroused by other characters clearly knowing more than the reader and the main character, but it never fully hit me, and there was no emotional impact, but rather a "oh. cool". I think my entire reading experience of We Were Liars is marked by my emotional disinterest. I quite enjoyed the story, and thought about it some time after I finished it, but it didn't evoke any particular feelings.
We Were Liars is a good book, short, and intense. It has blown away plenty of readers, and I think it will do so with many more.
ibeforem
Written on Oct 1, 2014
This is technically a YA book, but the only thing about it that's particularly YA is the age of the protagonist. I'd recommend it for anyone who likes a twisty tale.