Book Review: We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

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 National Book Award finalist and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart. 

Read it.
And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.


This book.

This book...

Wow...

This book was so good! It was such an interesting story. I loved how different this book was from anything else I've read. It was full of mystery and you were never sure of what was exactly going on. 

Cadence was the main character and she was very interesting. I really felt that I was put in her mind (kind of like I was in Maze Runner). I felt so bad for her all throughout the book -- especially the end! I wasn't as attached to the other characters as much. Johnny was cool but I felt like I didn't get to know him well enough. I wasn't quite sure of what to think of Mirren, and I just wasn't a big fan of Gat. The aunts, the mom, and the granddad weren't likable at all. I don't think we were meant to like them though. That was kind of the point.

The writing style in this book took some getting used to, but once I did, I fell in love with it. It is so unique and fresh. E. Lockhart uses many metaphor-type scenes to really illustrate how Cadence was feeling. If you've read this book, you understand what I mean. It really confused me at first, but after a while, it was just... wow.... 

I was kind of spoiled for the end, but it still deeply affected me. I felt so sorry for Cadence and the rest of her family. I thought I was going to cry, but I kept it together.

This is the kind of book that you want to go into without knowing much about it. You don't want to be spoiled at all and you don't want to be overhyped. You need to appreciate the book for what it is, not for what other people say about it.

I give this book 4 ½ stars and I plan on rereading it in the future so that I can catch all of the foreshadowing I missed! 

I recommend this book for everyone 14 and up. While the sexual content was lower than I expected, there is language. The whole theme of the book also feels more mature so I wouldn't recommend it for middle schoolers. 

I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did!

So long!

Hannah Claire