Thursday, September 11, 2014

Review: We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

We Were Liars

This is one of the books that I picked up at BEA a few months ago.  I was fortunate enough to receive a copy, but I honestly think this was the longest line I had to wait in the entire convention.  


We Were Liars has a very Kennedy feel to it.  The Sinclair family is extremely wealthy and owns an island a few miles from Martha's Vineyard.  Tipper and Harris Sinclair live in the largest house on the island and built three additional houses for their three daughters.  Each summer their children and grandchildren spend the entire summer relaxing and playing on the island.  Their three daughters are very materialistic and spend a lot of time fighting over who will inherit the houses, money, art...all the way down to the tablecloths.

Three of the grandchildren (Johnny, Mirren, and Cadence) are close in age and develop a strong friendship, but they only interact with one another during the summers.  Mirren's mother is divorced and brings her new boyfriend and one of his nephews, Gat, for the summer.  He is the same age as the three cousins and becomes the fourth member of The Liars.  He returns each summer and is essentially part of the family.  During their fifteenth summer on the island, Cadence was involved in an accident.  She can't remember what happened and has terrible migraines as a result.  The doctors advised her mother to let Cadence remember the events on her own, so nobody in the family will tell her what happened.

The majority of the book takes place two years after the accident...summer seventeen.  Cadence returns to the island for the first time since the accident and begins to remember small details about summer fifteen.  I was absolutely shocked when Cadence eventually pieces everything together.  Until the last thirty pages I NEVER would have suspected the ending.  In retrospect, there were clues throughout the book, but they were very subtle.  I was so emotionally involved and connected with the characters that the ending brought me to tears.

This is the first book written by E. Lockhart that I have read and it was well worth the wait in line at BEA.  I gave it five out of five stars on Goodreads and would highly recommend it.

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