We Were Liars

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart was a book I found while looking for new books to read, coming up as a suggestion on my Goodreads, so I gave it a go. And may I just say, I loved this book. Like really really loved it. I read it in one sitting (no joke I only got up to make another cup of tea) and got incredibly shook.

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 about the Sinclair family who are crazy rich and go to their own private island every summer. The story focuses on Cadence Sinclair and two of her cousins, Mirren, and Johnny and their family friend Gat, all of whom are the same age and call themselves the Liars. During the summer the four of them are fifteen, Cadence receives a bad head injury during an accident and thus loses a lot of her memories of that summer and the time after. Her story is about Cadence trying to work out what happened that summer and why no one is telling her the truth.

Throughout the story, the reader is as in the dark about the truth and lies as Cadence is, left wondering the what has happened. During the summer she returns back to the Island (two years after the accident), she notes that her aunts and Granddad have begun acting strangely, but with no clear explanation.

While reading, I spent a lot of time coming up with my own theories about everything happening, but nothing could have prepared me for the ending, and I was nowhere near close to guessing correctly. The ending is so crazy insane that I had to flick back through back to the beginning out of complete and utter shock.

At times the writing style seems to annoy some people as its often cut off into separate lines mid sentences with no apparent reason, however I personally liked this style of writing and enjoyed the sense of tension it created.

Nothing I can say can give this book the justice it deserves, and there is little else I can say without risking spoiling any of it. All I can say is it is completely and totally worth the read.

 

 

 

*Some images used are not my own