We Were Liars

The Sinclair family has everything anyone could ever want and dream of. On the surface they're a powerful family full of old money, prestige, and respect. But just below the surface lies dark family secrets and brewing family feuds. But every summer, when the entire family travel to their private island just off of Martha's Vineyard, those secrets and feuds are buried deeper and deeper. It's those summers spend on the island that the Liars - Cady, Mirren, Johnny, and close family friend Gat - live for. The youngest Sinclair's just love soaking up the summer sun, spinning tales so tall their friends back home could hardly believe, and stepping into lives that they can call their own. That is, until their fifteenth summer. Everything seems wrong ... all wrong. And Cady can't seem to figure out why this summer is any different from any other summer. Gat's interest in her is feigning. Mirren is a shell of her former self, choosing to sulk rather than soar. And Johnny simply doesn't care. It's up to Cady to figure out what's wrong. Days pass seamlessly into weeks. And as they do Cady starts to remember bits and pieces of the puzzle that is her worst nightmare. Without realizing it, bits and pieces of a terrible accident become clearer and clearer. The details are frightening. But then again, the truth always is. We Were Liars, written by author E. Lockhart, is a textured and layered story full of mystery and intrigue. This smart book will keep readers guessing and their mouths agape. Lockhart's writing is simply stellar. The words she's penned on paper are evocative. The story that she's created is as twisted as it is smart. Readers will easily fall in love with the setting that's so lush readers will feel as if they've been transported to that small island off the coast of Martha's Vineyard. They will easily identify with characters so flawed and layered it's hard to not mistake them for real people. They will get so caught up in the story that Lockhart has spun that they will feel as if they are a part of it themselves. We Were Liars is the kind of books that readers - whether faithful fans of Lockhart's or newcomers - will devour! Never wanting to put it down until every last page is consumed, readers will instantly want to re-read this book. Not just because it's that great of a story, but because when finished minds will be reeling. And I mean that reeling in the best way possible. This book will leave readers with so many questions, so many lies, and so many truths just waiting to be uncovered. There is so much more I could say about this book, but in all honesty I can't in fear that I will give too much away. Readers, you will have to trust me on this one! We Were Liars is an amazing book that will leave a lasting impression on you. Seriously, I read it in January and it's still a book I think about, nearly four months later. You will NOT be disappointed!

I guess the best way to start this review is to be as blunt as possible: I actually really enjoyed my time with We Were Liars. I say “actually” because I was skeptical at first. After browsing Goodreads, there seemed to be two general reactions: 1) “I love this book! It’s so good! Oh my god!" and 2) “I detest everything about this book. Why is it getting so much praise?” So, me being me, I eliminated all expectations. I mean, the synopsis doesn’t give you much information to begin with, but I still wanted to be as open as possible. The end result? In short, We Were Liars is an intriguing novel that engaged me early on, kept me interested the entire time, and had me genuinely surprised at the end. The downside is the writing is a bit odd, which doesn’t seem like it would be a huge deal, but it did detract from my enjoyment of the novel as a whole. We Were Liars follows young Cadence, who is part of a wealthy family known as the Sinclairs. Her story takes place shortly after a terrible accident during Summer Fifteen, where she suffered something traumatic--so traumatic, in fact, that she has no recollection of what happened. So, it is her goal, and ours, to pick up the pieces and find out what happened that night, because the doctors feel she needs to come to the realization on her own. The problem I can see some people having with this novel is that none of the characters are relatable if you are not wealthy yourself, except for Gat, who is Cadence’s love interest. However, if I am being completely honest, where a novel like Don’t Try To Find Me treats the “problems” of its wealthy protagonists as real issues, We Were Liars goes out of its way to mock them, which makes most of their petty squabbles seem less problematic and more of what they are: greedy people acting selfish. In doing so, it helped avoid the frustration I would have normally felt reading about a group of people like the Sinclairs. Instead, it focuses on Cadence’s real health issues, which can essentially be boiled down to migraines, but these migraines are so bad that it leaves her nauseous and unable to move. If you don’t have a family member who suffers with something similar, it is easy to pass this off as her being over-dramatic, but it’s not. This is not to say Cadence doesn’t go a bit overboard on occasion, however, which is made clear very early on with this wonderful mind-f***: "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." This bizarre excerpt is the perfect example of what is wrong with the novel on a technical level: Lockhart’s writing is an entirely different level of weird. For starters, there is no indication that the above text is metaphorical until you read the next couple of paragraphs. It’s just Cadence being Cadence, which resulted in a loud expletive on my end. Also, if you hadn’t noticed, Lockhart has A weird tendency To do this For seemingly no reason At all. Again, not a huge issue, but it is kind of an eyesore, and there is never any explanation for why the structure randomly switches up in the middle of a page. Lastly, and probably my biggest gripe personally, throughout the novel the story switches from present day to Summer Fifteen, but the reader is never given a sign of when a switch is made. This occasionally resulted in me reading one, two, or sometimes three of these “chapters” before I realized that we had changed years. So for a novel that generally succeeded in pulling me in, it really tried its best to simultaneously pull me out. With that note, I don’t feel I have much else to say except to try and brush-off some of the pretentiousness as rich white teenagers trying to be deep. Yes, it can get a little corny sometimes, but this is technically YA, so I think it’s safe to say that it kind of comes with the territory. In any case, as the reviews indicate, We Were Liars is definitely not for everyone—no book is, honestly—but there is something about its story that enamored me, and although there are a handful of flaws with how the book is actually written, I couldn’t put it down.

面白かったです。 米国の白人上流階級の家庭の娘として生まれたCadenceの一人称で語られる、15の夏に起きた出来事と彼女を取り巻く人々の物語。 ティーネイジャーの恋愛中心の物語かと思いきや、後半に入り「え？え？」と衝撃を受けます。 読後感は決して悪くないのですが、哀しく切ない気持ちになりました。若い人にお薦めです。 英語は比較的短文で書かれていて読み進めるのに難儀することは無いと思います。

Daughter 16yr loved this

Libro increíble, calidad perfecta y llego en muy buenas condiciones. Lo recomiendo mucho!! Está súper interesante.

Entrega da amazon foi otima, chegou antes do previsto, agora o livro é bom te prende até o fim, a personagem principal é chatinhaa, mas a história é legal me surpreendeu nota 4/5

What an amazing book, surely worth your time