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April 16, 2015

WE WERE LIARS by E. Lockhart

April 16, 2015

WE WERE LIARS by E. LockhartWe Were Liars by Emily Lockhart • contains 225 pages • published May 13, 2014 by Delacorte Press • classified as Contemporary, Mystery, Young Adult • obtained through Overdrive • read as eBook • shelve on Goodreads
• shelve on The StoryGraph

Synopsis:

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 a modern, sophisticated suspense novel from National Book Award finalist and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart.

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

If there’s one thing I have to say about this book it’s that We Were Stupid would have been a much more appropriate title than We Were Liars. I was more convinced of the characters’ stupidity than them calling themselves the Liars. Perhaps the title with regards to liars was supposed to raise intrigue. Indeed, it did. I was very curious about the book. In the end though, I was sorely disappointed.

What aggravates me the most as a reader is being led on. Actually, no, being led on generally aggravates me as a person. That definitely contributed to my annoyance by the time I was done reading. See, there was all the hype about “the twist” that elevated We Were Liars so much whenever I read reviews.

When I finally got to “the twist” I just thought, “That’s it?” I was nowhere near excited. Quite the opposite, I was confused — confused that this is what apparently stirred so much hype and endless excitement.

Half-way through the book I started questioning the whole setting. I went into the book knowing nothing, except that there would be a grand twist. Yet before everything was revealed, I had already figured out what that twist was. And it wasn’t because I made a million guesses, thereby ensuring at least one guess would be right. No. I guessed it. When I guessed it, I wanted to stop reading, knowing that if I was right, I would hate the book. I continued anyway.

One thing I will divulge about We Were Liars is that Cadence suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. Lockhart used this to her advantage to create an unreliable narrator. I appreciated Lockhart’s experimental approach to the book. That appreciation however stopped there. While the book captured the dreamy moments okay, it failed at believably portraying lucid moments. The grounding in reality was completely missing, which drastically reduced its impact on me.

View Spoiler »

It thoroughly annoyed me that going into the book I expected contemporary fiction when that’s not exactly what I got. I was down with the unreliable narrator, thinking that’s an under-utilised device and I was interested in where this would lead. Plus Cadence was clearly suffering from PTSD and at least partial amnesia. Trouble is, realism eluded <i>We Were Liars</i>.

What riled me up was that when it came to the resolution, all the other main characters turned out to be ghosts. It’s like those essays my language teachers always told us to avoid writing: “She woke up and realized it was all just a dream.”

The point at which I was 100% sure about my twist-predictions was when Cadence explained the plans for burning down the house. It was crystal clear to me that only she, the person on the ground floor, would survive. The rest would end up dead. I wish I had been wrong because like I said, I hate being led on. « Hide Spoiler

To make matters worse, the writing style was incredibly jumpy. I didn’t like that at all, although I concede that it was somewhat reflective of the narrator’s state of mind. She was after all a very unreliable narrator.

Ultimately, the whole book came off as a pity party. I couldn’t bring myself to care for any of the characters. The potential talking points of race and class also fell flat. It could’ve been explored more but wasn’t. Such a shame, really.

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· Categories: Fiction Keywords: american authors, amnesia, family problems, post-traumatic stress disorder, race relations, romance

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Comments

  1. Alisa @ Papercuttts says

    April 28, 2015 at 00:56

    This book has gotten so much hype and lots of goodish reviews, but I really enjoyed reading your review. I hate pity-party books. I’m like #97 in line to check out this book from my library but I’m thinking I should cancel my hold… maybe it’s not worth it.

    • Joséphine says

      April 28, 2015 at 01:35

      Lol. #97 is a loooong way to go! I’d say this is one of those books you may want to read just so you know what everyone’s been going on about. So maybe don’t cancel you reservation. We Were Liars is fairly short, so it won’t weigh you down too much if you don’t like. Besides, who knows? With all the extreme reactions (love or hate), you might end up liking it ;)

  2. acps927 says

    April 19, 2015 at 02:16

    I wasn’t very happy about the twist either, like you said, because I was expecting something realistic and ended up with some more surreal/paranormal. I didn’t quite hate it all the way, in fact I am one of the few who is actually feels in the middle of the book as opposed to loving it or hating it, but I definitely understand the frustration.

  3. Savindi @ The Streetlight Reader says

    April 17, 2015 at 01:56

    I have to admit that your review made me laugh! My friend Joey read this book and I was again entertained by his review as well. I won’t be reading this book (I already know the spoiler too), but I do agree with you that it definitely sounds like a pity party and it’s like saying ‘I’m privileged but people should feel sorry for me anyways’. It didn’t sound like any of the characters were likable in this book. I did hear about race mentioned in this book and it is a shame that it wasn’t explored more, since there could have been a lot to be said about the topic. Great Review :)

Trackbacks

  1. BELZHAR by Meg Wolitzer | Word Revel says:
    May 4, 2015 at 20:30

    […] a personal level, I think Belzhar also got away with 2 stars because I had very recently read We Were Liars, which I disliked even more, oddly for similar reasons. Both books cheated the reader in […]

  2. Does Pre-Publication Hype Cause Weariness? | Word Revel says:
    April 29, 2015 at 23:12

    […] In such cases I also lose interest because then I feel like I’m reading a book simply because everyone has read it and not because I genuinely want to. I’ve read a few of such popular books purely because of the hype and ended up not being impressed. For example, I gave The Fault in Our Stars 3 stars, Anna and the French Kiss 2 stars and We Were Liars 1 star. […]

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Joséphine. Word reveller. Loves books. Reads books. Talks about books. Photographs books. When she’s not blogging, she can be found on Instagram under @wordrevel.

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