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.

Read it.
And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE

Hey!

Didn’t the summary just give you the chills? This week’s book is We Were Liars by E. Lockhart. So many of my friends recommended this book to me! They said it was a suspenseful, elegantly written book. I was skeptical at first because I am more of a fantasy person, but after reading the summary, I was intrigued. First, I saw that E. Lockhart had written this book like poetry. Some parts of it don’t even rhyme but the way the words flow together gives it the essence of poetry. The characters, while not quite relatable, had personalities that sort of drew you to them. This book IS a mystery but we don’t learn that until Part 2 of the book.

Every year, the protagonist of this book, Cadence Sinclair, and her family travel to her grandfather’s private island. At the end of Summer 16 (Cadence numbers her summers by her age) an accident occurs that everyone seems to know about, except for Cadence herself. What makes this book so well written is that no matter how many times you read the book, nothing can prepare you for the truth of the accident.

The Sinclairs were a very “We’re better than everyone” kind of family. If someone is having a rough time, they hide it in order to keep the image. Her friends, the other liars, are a big part of how Cadence grows and learns the truth of her family and her accident. Johnny, and Mirren, who are Cadence’s cousins are apart of the group along with an outside family friend named Gat. All of them were involved in the accident too but they didn’t say anything as Cadence tries to find clues about what really happened.

A popular theme I saw in this book was Power. Cadence’s Grandfather, Harris, played God among his children, keeping their money and power in check. He turned his daughters against each other just to see who would win his favor. As a result of this, the book literally ends in flames. And what do the flames of this fire represent? People often associate fire with power because of its brute force and flame. It was a fitting way to end the book with a symbol that shows power being burned by power. Other themes include reality, family, home, and mortality.

In conclusion, We Were Liars was such a pleasure to read. It always kept me on my toes and unable to put it down.

Final Assesment

My rating for this book is:

Thanks for reading and hope you guys have a fabulous new school year!

<3 Shelby