I'm sure I could read this book a hundred times over and still love it. And to be honest, I'm probably not that far off.

We Were Liars is the definition of haunting - a striking literary novel about lies, and beauty, and betrayal. The prose something totally unique that I've not seen elsewhere since, full of allegory and constantly shifting so the reader just isn't sure exactly what's going on but not in a way that detracts from the pull of the story.

Each character is crafted masterfully, not to be liked, the Liars are just that - rich, spoiled, bored children (Gat aside of course) with secrets and lies that bond them. But whether we like them or not, I couldn't help but love them and feel like they were letting me in on their secrets one page at a time.

The story switches from dark and heartwrenching to uplifting and warm in seconds and it will definitely make you think about what secrets could be hiding below the surface of anyone.

Humm....

I was not a big fan. It was an ok book, but that's it.
I don't find myself with a lot to TALK about because of the book, and will imagine I will forget the majority of the plot soon. However, it was not so forgettable that I will accidentally pick the book up again in X years thinking it sounds good having forgot I had read it, as has happened with a couple of other YA mysteries.

The book is quite predictable, and I didn't gel with any of the characters - I didn't love to hate them, I was just annoyed. Maybe it is an age thing, maybe not.

This book does scream summer and I would recommend to read it with the sun beaming down and drink in hand rather than a cold Scottish winter.

Very much a page=turner with short chapters, and an intriguing array of characters. Money, family tensions, adolescents, its a heady brew. Great book to keep someone reading and a twist to make them think back.

“We are liars. We are beautiful and privileged. We are cracked and broken.”

I cannot believe it took me so long to get around to reading this book. And, even more so, I can't believe I avoided knowing anything at all about it until this point. I am both baffled and so very thankful. (And, just to note, I won't be giving away any of the big surprises of this book, for those of you who have yet to read it.)

The Sinclairs are a New England clan who decamp to their family's private island off Martha's Vineyard every summer. The family is made up of Harris Sinclair, our patriarch, his wife Tipper Taft, the couple's three adult daughters and their children. The most notable of all the characters is Cadence, the eldest grandchild and our narrator. Mirren and Johnny, Cadence's cousins, are her two closest friends, and making up our foursome is an outsider by the name of Gat Patil (Gat is the friend of Johnny and first arrives on the island the summer when he is eight. Through the narrative, we see the character of Gat through Cadence's eyes.) The Sinclairs are rich, athletic and beautiful. Although privileged, they are affected by similar troubles of other wealthy New England families - deaths, addictions, divorce and tragedy - but they hide well behind their strong chins and perfect smiles.

Cadence: "I don't know what happened...the family never speaks of it."

Under the surface of this perfect family, however, bubbles greed, rivalry and the need to be adored. They are fascinating. The adult women bicker, feud and drink too much, and they try and instill the same immoral ways in their children. The Liars, as they are called by our narrator, instead dream of freedom, running off to college, true love and eternal allegiance to each other. They are aware of their mothers' flaws and refuse to participate in the traditional family game of vying for their grandfather's fortune.

The summers pass, Cadence falls in love with Gat, jealousy and greed intensifies and the adults get drunker. In the summer of her 15th year, Cadence suffers a terrible accident that leaves her with a head injury, crippling migraines and almost total amnesia. When the amnesia set in, I rolled my eyes a little. It's a tool favored by cheesy TV soap operas, right? But don't worry: Lockhart's fresh writing and her use of the amnesia as a metaphor for the Sinclair family's habit of denial means she gets away with it. After two years, Cadence returns to the island to try and piece together what happened that summer when she was 15. As readers, we follow along on her quest, as frustrated as her when none of the witnesses, her family, seem to want to talk. The story jumps back and forth in time, interspersing Cadence's narrative with twisted fairytales about a king and his three daughters. Eventually, Cadence pieces together the truth. There are hints along the way of the real reason behind Cadence's injury, but I didn't pick up on them. The big reveal hit me hard, so much so that I had to put down the book for a bit, take a breath and retrace some steps. Bravo, E. Lockhart, bravo.

This is such a clever and thrilling novel. The writing is excellent, although I know some people were quite frustrated by the sometimes broken, staccato narrative. I loved it: I love how sharp and intimate it felt. Not a single word was wasteful.

“She is sugar, curiosity, and rain.”
“He was contemplation and enthusiasm. Ambition and strong coffee. I could have looked at him forever.”
“Here I am frozen, when I deserve to burn.”

We Were Liars has just the right amount of mystery, intrigue and heartbreak. It is compelling in its plot and so successful in its plot twist, that is stands out as a truly unique piece of literary fiction.

If I had one criticism, it would be that the other characters in the novel, those of the other grandchildren and their mothers, weren't as rounded or fully fledged as I would have hoped. It may be a result of the writing style, but they are not extensively drawn, and we never quite discover why they seem to want to ruin each other's lives. I felt, at times, that some genuine characterisation was needed to give this tale some bulk but perhaps, again, this points to the Sinclair family's traditional way of always maintaining a perfect surface. And given the absolute beauty of this book, Lockhart is totally forgiven.

A truly mesmerising book; utterly unforgettable.

this was a decent read, and i really enjoyed the unique writing style and the plot twist at the end. because of this i will give the book 3/5 stars.

I enjoyed this book quite a bit.
I can see why there are so many different opinions/reviews about it especially when thinking about the age of our characters but I found it engaging and I think the author has made a good job in giving clues but keeping the biggest twist for the end
I’m looking forward to read the sequel because it was an addictive read and I’m curious who is the next character that we can have the story for villains or heroes.

Ive been wanting to read this book for awhile and all of the praise it got on TikTok finally persuaded me to dive in. I was definitely not disappointed. The whole plot is so unbelievably tense, you just know something is happening behind the scenes and when you find out what, its a spectacular twist. I was left in tears at the end due to my love for the characters and the true heartbreak i was experiencing. I often with i could read it for the first time again. 100% recommend

Ever since reading The Great Gatsby, many years ago, I have had a penchant for reading about upper class Americans living on the East Coast. Having toured that area of the country on a road trip, taking in Martha’s Vineyard and the famous ‘cottages’, I enjoy reading novels that transport me to this area. Therefore, I was excited to request this preview copy to read all about the Sinclair family.

An idyllic setting, reminiscent of great adventure novels like Swallows and Amazons or the Famous Five - but Beechwood Island holds more secrets than it first appears. I loved the characters of the story - although it is a little difficult to keep track of the younger children in the first portion of the story. This is probably due to the teenaged narrator, though, who seems to view them as an annoyance akin to flies buzzing around on a summer’s day. The relationships are well drawn, and believable.

Then Cadence is found, half drowned with a wound to her head. Her cousins no longer respond to her letters, her memory fails her. What happened and who, if anyone, is the culprit? So begins the mystery section of the novel - an unreliable narrator who is trying her hardest to find out what happened.

I won’t give away the ending here - as instructed ‘If anyone asks you how it ends - LIE’ - but in my opinion it was quite well managed and effective. I’d recommend this book as a relatively short and gripping read.

I wanted to read this for ages and I had no idea what to expect as I hadn’t even read the blurb, not that that gives much away. It does have a shock twist in it that when I was reading the book, I had to go backwards to make sure I’d read it correctly.

I really enjoyed reading this, it was a nice, easy read as a YA book and had quite short chapters which helped add to the easy read of it.

A haunting tale about family, love, and grief, We Were Liars is a moving and poetic young adult thriller that is a simple read, but also simply beautiful to read. Full of alluring imagery, I flew through reading this and took it all in, which is exactly how it should be read.

Telling the audience from the beginning that something has happened to Cadence to cause her illness and that there is a period of time that she can’t remember, we know that there is going to be a big twist and that the book is leading up to something. We are constantly given hints to suggest that something much darker is going on. Cadence even suggests that “I suppose that I was raped or attacked or some godforsaken something. That’s the kind of thing that makes people have amnesia, isn’t it?” But just how dark is it going to get?

It is mysterious, not being too obvious in the clues that are woven in, but I wouldn’t say that it is a particularly gripping read. It is developed well and builds up to its climax with a great subtlety, but I wasn’t reading out of anticipation. Instead, I was caught up in the gentleness of the prose and the compelling way that Cadence tells her story.

The trouble is, we know that Cadence is an unreliable narrator. Firstly, the title of the book already suggests that she is a liar. And secondly, she can’t remember what has happened in her past and is on so much medication that we don’t even know if we can trust the story she is telling us now.

Classed as a young adult book, We Were Liars is definitely a story for a teenage audience. The characters are young and quite immature, all dealing with first-time relationships and coming-of-age issues, but there are some very adult themes, as well. With a combination of swearing, drug use, sexual themes, and a heavy emphasis on mental illness and depression, none of these themes are explored too heavily, but the book does take some dark turns that younger audiences may not know how to deal with.

I certainly wasn’t expecting the answers that we are given and found the ending very powerful, so it’s no surprise that this book was winning so many awards around the time of its release.

My only problem with the book relates to the quote I have used at the top of the page. “We are beautiful and privileged. We are cracked and broken.” At its core, the book is about a family that comes from money. They have lived privileged lives. They think of themselves as beautiful and almost untouchable. Most of the book’s audience won’t be able to relate to this, making the supporting characters difficult to relate to and even like for the most part.

However, Cadence is easy to engage with because she is a cracked and broken character, showing readers that underneath it all she is just as fragile as the rest of us. There’s a lot going on in her head that gives us the time to get to know her better. This insight into her mental wellbeing makes her character feel very real and allows us to make a more of a personal connection to her as we can relate to some of her struggles.

Some of the family dynamics are explored well, though, emphasising that no matter how well off your family is or isn’t, that the same conflicts can still arise between them. The fact that these younger characters want to bring their parents back together does help us to engage with them a little better in the end, as well, but it’s just their circumstances that make it difficult to emphasise with them in general, often coming across as a little pretentious.

What I did really like about the book, though, is the way that the writing style reflects Cadence’s thought process. She’s obviously on a lot of medication so you can see how her mind wanders as her narration becomes fragmented, taking it’s time with random breakpoints, talking in rhythm and at different paces. This may annoy some readers, but it does reflect on the ins and outs of Cadence’s state of mind really well. The use of fairy tale fables to describe certain situations is a great narrative technique, too.

This is easily a book that you can read in a few hours, but it is also one that you will be thinking about for a few more afterwards. It doesn’t really go anywhere and it doesn’t leave you with a meaningful message to take away with you, but after the big shock of a twist, it does leave a huge impact.