We Were Liars

by E. Lockhart

[mrs_mander_reads]

I spent probably the first 75% of this book wondering, "What the heck is happening??" I was so incredibly frustrated for Cadence - that no one would speak freely around her, that no one would tell her the truth, that she felt so isolated with her family. Her relationship with Gat is heart-wrenching, and seems close to star-crossed.
I have to admit, I never saw the ending coming. I had everything fully-formed in my head and all wrapped up well before it actually ended. So when Cadence finally remembered the truth, it wrecked me. So emotional.

Some of my favorite words:
“Then he pulled out a handgun and shot me in the chest. I was standing on the lawn and I fell. The bullet hole opened wide and my heart rolled out of my rib cage and down into a flower bed. Blood gushed rhythmically from my open wound,
then from my eyes,
my ears,
my mouth.
It tasted like salt and failure. The bright red shame of being unloved soaked the grass in front of our house, the bricks of the path, the steps of the porch. My heart spasmed among the peonies like a trout.”

“I lie there and wait, and remind myself over and over that it doesn’t last forever. That there will be another day and after that, yet another day. One of those days, I’ll get up and eat breakfast and feel okay.”

“Every time Gat said these things, so casual and truthful, so oblivious - my veins opened. My wrists split. I bled down my palms. I went light-headed. I'd stagger from the table or collapse in quite shameful agony, hoping no-one in the family would notice ... Gat almost always saw, though. When blood dripped on my bare feet or poured over the book I was reading, he was kind. He wrapped my wrists in a soft white gauze and asked me questions about what had happened... as if talking about something could make it better. As if wounds needed attention.”