[Review] We Were Liars - E. Lockhart

Title of Book: We Were Liars
Author: E. Lockhart
Publisher: Random House
Publication Year: 2014
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 240

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.

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We Were Liars is a book that I wanted to read but dreading to pick up for such a long time. It’s been out for four years and it was hyped when it first came out. So the hype kind of scared me but it still intrigued me. Interestingly enough, when people describe this book they always said that it’s best to not know what this book is about before getting into it. Now that I’ve read it, I understand why. Anyway, I’ll try to explain what this book is about without spoiling the fun.

The Sinclairs is a rich family who owns a private island. Every year they spent the summer there. One year, there’s a tragedy in the island which makes the eldest granddaughter of the family, Cadence, had amnesia and being constantly in a lot of pain. She felt that to fully recover, she had to know what really happened that summer. So she tried to investigate around the island. 

In my opinion, what makes this book is talked about by many people is the twist which I anticipated. I must say the twist is predictable and underwhelming. The protagonist is also difficult to like. I think she’s made many decisions that shouldn’t be made to avoid the tragedy. After the tragedy, she always saw herself as a victim, which is understandable. But considering how privileged she is, it came out annoying. Moreover, it’s not only her but also all the teenagers in the Sinclairs.

What I do appreciate from this book though, is the writing. Lockhart used personification to describe emotion in this book. It was confusing at first, but when you get the hang of it you’ll enjoy it more. At some point in the book, Cadence used fairy tales to describe her family situation. I found it poetic.

Overall, I do like this book but not as much as most people do. One thing that bothers me though is the title. I still don’t get why the teenagers in the Sinclair family called themselves the liar. Cadence as the narrator just called themselves that way with no specific explanation. Other than that, I enjoyed reading this book. If you want to read this book, I recommend to go in blind.