Book Review: We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Title: We Were Liars

Author: Emily Lockhart

Published: May 13th 2014

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I know that Heather has already reviewed this book not too long ago, but hey, this is just a testament to how wonderful of a book it is!

Synopsis

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 New York Times bestselling author, National Book Award finalist, and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart.
Read it.
And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.

My Thoughts

The Marketing

I didn’t know what to expect going into this book, just intrigued by the insistence that readers must lie about the ending. So, first off, I must say what a persuasive promotional campaign that was! I simply had to know what happened that was so unexpected that I couldn’t talk about without giving away too much information, as reviews had been constantly assuring me. And you know what? Everything I’d heard about this book was completely accurate.

The End

The twist at the end hit me like a ton of bricks. My heart stopped, dropped, and rolled in anguish in my chest. To me, atleast, it had been utterly unseeable. I had no idea, absolutely no clue what the truth was, and I think that really is what made We Were Liars such a magnificent book to me. Then when I was hit with the truth, all the pieces came together and everything that I’d read all made sense.

The Romance

Apart from the shocking twist, We Were Liars contained such a sweet romance. I adored Cadence Sinclair’s love interest, Gat Patil. He’s right up there as one of my fave YA boyfriends, right with Augustus from The Fault in our Stars and Levi from Fangirl. He represented everything a summer courtship should be: sugar sweet and ocean deep. I found myself “awwwing” way too much reading him with Cadence.

The Family

I really enjoyed reading about the dysfunction that was the Sinclairs. It’s always fun to read about rich people who couldn’t even be happy with all their wealth. I was really happy that Cadence kept on seeing more and more through the veneer that was her seemingly ‘perfect’ family. We Were Liars also touched on really touchy subjects like racism and social class, in an excellent way.

The Writing

Overall, I really enjoy books that make me think and ponder about the world and life in general, and We Were Liars did just that. In a way, the Liars’ escapades were really inspiring. E. Lockhart’s lyrical prose is an added bonus. It kind of reminds me of Tahereh Mafi’s in theShatter Me trilogy, which, by the way, I adore.

The Spoiler Effect

It’s fun that I can’t really discuss this book without spoiling it, but it still leaves an insatiable urge inside of me to spill. There’s so much I want to talk about! Now to get my friends to read it . . .