We Were Liars

by E. Lockhart

[Jo]

Originally published on Once Upon a Bookcase.

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart is a book I've been loosely planning to read for a while. Planning to read because a colleague at work raved about it when she read when it first came out, but only loosely because there's very little in way of a blurb. All I knew was that it was about rich teens, and I assumed they would be spoilt and mean, and that's just not my kind of book. However, I was recently recommending books to a customer, and in telling me what she had read before, she and her father both raved about We Were Liars. They implied that it dealt with a serious topic, and that it was very powerful. Their enthusiasm really piqued my interest, and so I finally bought it. And wow. This book is absolutely incredible.

I know the blurb and summary doesn't tell you very much, and I know that annoyed me before I read it, but it really is best that you go into this book knowing very little. I will tell you that it's about three generations of a rich family - grandparents, aunties and mother, and cousins - and a friend, and it's set on their private island. It's about relationships, familial and platonic, and it's about privilege and power. There is a mystery, a secret, and a huge twist that I absolutely did not see coming. One that blew my mind.

The story is narrated by Cadence, one of the cousins, who the story, for the most part, revolves around; Cadence, Johnny, Mirren, and their friend Gat. The story jumps from present day, to Cadence recalling what happened two Summers previously. The characters are just wonderful, all so different, and fully formed.

Also, this book is short. A 225 pages kind of short. Which just makes this whole story even better, because Lockhart has a serious skill to tell a complete and full story in so few pages, where you're left guessing the whole way through. The whole way through. There is not a single word wasted, there's no extraneous description, every single word is purposeful. We Were Liars must have been edited to within an inch of it's life, but it's fantastic for it. It's emotional, and heartbreaking, and powerful, and all of this is accomplished in only a few words.

We Were Liars is just amazing, and you should read it. I can't say any more than that, really. Read it, and prepare to have your jaw drop.