We Were Liars
by E. Lockhart
Genre: YA, contemporary, mystery
Published May 13th 2014 by Random House Inc.
Source: Publisher
Local purchase: National Bookstore
Blurb (Goodreads):
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.
My Thoughts:
I've been having a hard time rating the books I've been reading recently. And We Were Liars is the hardest one. Hard to write a review too. So let me do this this way: Likes and Dislikes.
Likes:
The first thing I noticed in the book is the writing. The moment I started reading We Were Liars, E. Lockhart led me to another world full of beautiful words. Her writing sounds mysterious and secretive and it suits the tone of the book and everything that's happened. The book was set on summer on an island with a beautiful and rich clan but you will undeniably feel the darkness on it without being creepy.
The ending.
The twist.
The truth.
One of the things that I liked about this book. I have been guessing answers to the mystery but it turned out I was wrong, and it was both better and bad. Better because the possibility didn't crossed my mind--I was utterly shocked! Bad because of what happened. My mind kept repeating these words whenever I see We Were Liars or hear about it: Why, why, why??
Also, even though the twist shocked me and broke part of my heart, I still felt less feels about it. Maybe because I'm overwhelmed with the hype and I was kind of prepared about having a "big twist". So when I read it I was like, that's it?
Dislikes:
The pacing. So slow. And at some point I felt bored. This is just a short novel (225 pages) but some chapters were spent with unnecessary stories about people and things around the main character, Cadence. Later on, however, I realized that these little things helped and are connected on the big twist in the end. But I'd still say that I felt bored at some point.
No good examples. From the Granddad to his daughters and down to the children. Cadence described how selfish people around her are and they didn't do anything nice for their family or other people. (Except for Cadence, on some point.)
The ending and the time that Cadence is searching for the truth (3/4 of the book) is the only part that I was affected. Mostly I didn't connect with the characters and felt nothing about them.
So...I don't know! My mind's still messed up. I could say that I loved the shocking twist but didn't connect with most of it. The blurb got me though. Only, I was expecting for more. Maybe it's me and the things internet fed me but I'm still encouraging you to read this because if most of people loved it, you might too. Tip: Don't be overwhelmed with the hype. Don't read this because everyone wants you to. Read this because it caught your interest and you wanted to. Nevertheless, We Were Liars is a haunting and heart-breakingly beautiful novel.
*Thank you so much Jennifer and Random House International for the review copy in exchange of honest review!
Rating:
I love the way you've written this review. I came to read it because someone whose opinion I respect had mentioned she didn't like it and I wanted to see what you thought. Unfortunately there is a downside to book hype and I suspect the next book won't sell so well as a consequence. Glad you liked some of this one anyway but I'm now sure I'll give this one a miss.
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