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A review by criticalbooks
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
5.0
A THRILLER IN POETRY STYLE
This book was the Chapter Chat book club’s pick of the month and we all CONSUMED this book and our weekly discussions were heated with wild theories and as far as I can tell, no one got it right!
I know this book is kinda old but obviously I didn’t get to read it until now and let me tell you … I really regret not picking it up earlier because it was BOP.
We get to know the rich Sinclair family from Cadence’s pov. She has amnesia due to an accident from two years ago and now re-enters the family’s own island the first time since, eager to meet her beloved cousins Mirren and Johnny and the nephew of her aunts boyfriend Gat, who she’s in love with. The four of them call themselves the liars and are inseparable … on that island. After the summer they barely talk to each other.
We quickly learn that this family is off. Everyone tries to act normal at all costs and no one wants to talk to Cady about her accident, although she really wants to know what happened to her. Since no ones willing to tell her, she decides to find out on her own, collecting small snippets of memories during her summer on the island.
We as readers get to learn as slow as Cady and swing back and forth between present and past - Cady slowly recalls more and more of the summer two years ago (summer fifteen) and starts to see the whole picture.
It doesn’t seem to be interesting but let me tell you: it’s gripping and had me at the edge of my seat the whole time because I just had to know what happened to Cady and why everyone was acting so off.
The topics of this book are heavy: racism, privilege, grief and loss, coping, chronic illnesses and trauma. Nothing of it was particularly addressed directly but the author wrapped those topics into the plot so naturally that it was easy to actually identify with them. The way the granddad called Cady Mirren, how the aunts dealt so differently with their grief … I just felt it. So deep.
And I didn’t even get to the best point: the whole book was written like a poetry collection. Everything had a twist of meaning and was aesthetically pleasing and every now and then Cady made up fairy tales in which she spun her resurfacing memories to find out what happened and I was just … intrigued. It was gripping and heartbreaking.
And yes that ending was shocking. People told me the ending was out of character and sad and that I’ll definitely will cry. I didn’t cry but I was veeeery close, not gonna lie.
To be honest I feel like none of my words do this book any justice but I really tried. This book is worth your time and money and if you still haven’t read it, you should definitely do! Oh and one tip: do it during summer time for the perfect vibes!
All in all I can just say that this book left me speechless and haunted. It really was haunting. I think it’s probably the best word to describe it and if I’d just have one word to say about it, it would be this: haunting.
Don’t be worried if you’re not a huge thriller reader, it’s more like a drama in my opinion. A drama that will rip your heart out and leave you in tears. I have a book hangover from it to be honest …
READ IT!!!
This book was the Chapter Chat book club’s pick of the month and we all CONSUMED this book and our weekly discussions were heated with wild theories and as far as I can tell, no one got it right!
I know this book is kinda old but obviously I didn’t get to read it until now and let me tell you … I really regret not picking it up earlier because it was BOP.
We get to know the rich Sinclair family from Cadence’s pov. She has amnesia due to an accident from two years ago and now re-enters the family’s own island the first time since, eager to meet her beloved cousins Mirren and Johnny and the nephew of her aunts boyfriend Gat, who she’s in love with. The four of them call themselves the liars and are inseparable … on that island. After the summer they barely talk to each other.
We quickly learn that this family is off. Everyone tries to act normal at all costs and no one wants to talk to Cady about her accident, although she really wants to know what happened to her. Since no ones willing to tell her, she decides to find out on her own, collecting small snippets of memories during her summer on the island.
We as readers get to learn as slow as Cady and swing back and forth between present and past - Cady slowly recalls more and more of the summer two years ago (summer fifteen) and starts to see the whole picture.
It doesn’t seem to be interesting but let me tell you: it’s gripping and had me at the edge of my seat the whole time because I just had to know what happened to Cady and why everyone was acting so off.
The topics of this book are heavy: racism, privilege, grief and loss, coping, chronic illnesses and trauma. Nothing of it was particularly addressed directly but the author wrapped those topics into the plot so naturally that it was easy to actually identify with them. The way the granddad called Cady Mirren, how the aunts dealt so differently with their grief … I just felt it. So deep.
And I didn’t even get to the best point: the whole book was written like a poetry collection. Everything had a twist of meaning and was aesthetically pleasing and every now and then Cady made up fairy tales in which she spun her resurfacing memories to find out what happened and I was just … intrigued. It was gripping and heartbreaking.
And yes that ending was shocking. People told me the ending was out of character and sad and that I’ll definitely will cry. I didn’t cry but I was veeeery close, not gonna lie.
To be honest I feel like none of my words do this book any justice but I really tried. This book is worth your time and money and if you still haven’t read it, you should definitely do! Oh and one tip: do it during summer time for the perfect vibes!
All in all I can just say that this book left me speechless and haunted. It really was haunting. I think it’s probably the best word to describe it and if I’d just have one word to say about it, it would be this: haunting.
Don’t be worried if you’re not a huge thriller reader, it’s more like a drama in my opinion. A drama that will rip your heart out and leave you in tears. I have a book hangover from it to be honest …
READ IT!!!