Review: We Were Liars

Title: We Were Liars
Author: E. Lockhart
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Source: Purchased
Release Date: May 13, 2014
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads 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.

Review:

This is an original story.

The unusual style that Cady, the narrator, uses takes a while to get used to. She often drifts off into her own fantasies. For example, at the beginning she describes when her father left her and her mother. She says he got into the car, then shot her in the chest and she started bleeding. When I first read that, I was shocked! But that’s not what really happened. Cady often exaggerates events or makes up stories.

The mystery of what happened to Cady was really suspenseful. Since she lost her memories, she couldn’t remember everything that happened the night she was injured. As Cady remembered events, the reader was also told what happened.

I also liked the family dynamic of the story. The different generations all come together on their own island. The mothers used their children to try to manipulate their grandfather into giving them their inheritances. It’s sad to think about, but I can see that happening in very wealthy families.

The ending gave me goosebumps! I was definitely not expecting it. It left me speechless. You’ll just have to read the book to find out how it ends!

Author: jilljemmett

Jill lives in Toronto, Canada. She has studied English, Creative Writing, and Publishing. Jill is the creator and content producer of Jill’s Book Blog, where she has published a blog post every day for the last four years, including 5-7 book reviews a week. She can usually be found with her nose in a book. View all posts by jilljemmett