This book really messes with you, it is so far from your standard YA novel. There is so much to talk about in terms of the themes, the characters, who you loved and who you hated. To me, it had a Gatsby-esque feel to it. But it's hard to talk about this book without giving it away, but it had me mesmerised and is highly, highly recommended!

E. Lockhart’s We Were Liars offers a great insight into the lives of the Sinclairs. Following the story of Cadence we get a taste for what life is like living in a New England “old money” family on their summer getaway island. Their seemingly perfect lives are but a thin veneer for the troubles that boil under the surface. A short an enjoyable read, my only complain was that there was very little character development other than the broad generalisations placed upon the characters. While the ending was not surprising, it is a refreshing approach and Lockhart’s great writing style keeps it entertaining.

The plot moves really quickly. Cadence is the main character, who isn't really very likeable. She's really a bit of a spoilt brat. She is part of a very rich All-American family who spent their summers on their private island near Martha's Vineyard.
I don't really think saying more than that is wise, so I'll leave it there.

I had issues with this book. If it was any longer I think I would have chucked this on my imaginary "Stuff to donate or give away" pile. I didn't like the weird writing style, for one.

What is with the trend for weird, choppy, faux-literary writing style? It just pissed me off. I dislike authors not using capital letters at the best of times! It's like reading a toned down Tim Winton. I LOATHE Tim Winton's work with a burning passion, straight from the fires of Mordor, so of course anything that reminds me of Cloudstreet is going to get me a bit riled.

Cady was really not likeable- none of them were, really, except Gat. The reasons why they weren't likeable weren't dealt with in any depth either. I don't think it matters that the book is short- it had room to deal with the underlying reasons for the conclusion. In fact, it didn't even deal with Cady's self styled personality trait- "I don't suffer fools". She states this three times in the novel but never shows that it even applies to her. In fact, she is a fool, so maybe she shouldn't suffer herself.

Cady is a super unreliable narrator, not just for the amnesia thing. I found it hard to work out what parts were overwrought metaphor and what parts were real.

I give the extra half star because this book did make me cry, which is a bit unusual. I'm a pretty hard reader to make cry! It was in relation to dogs, a surefire way to get me emotional!

We Were Liars combines quite lovely prose with a dark, slowly unfolding mystery. An enjoyable read for adults and young adults alike.

We Were Liars
E. Lockhart
4.5 stars

First, if you're one of those people who likes to take a peek at the ending before reading, DON'T. As We Were Liars is a book that is best appreciated by knowing as little of the plot as possible before reading, this review will be a little vague on the details.

We Were Liars is a hauntingly beautiful story of the joys of first love and striving for freedom with an unexpected twist at the end. Each summer the Liars, cousins Cadence, Mirren, Johnny Sinclair and their friend Gat, come together on the Sinclair family island. As family conflict, prejudice and the pressure to meet parental expectations threatens to pull them apart, the Liars decide to take matters into their own hands.

The story is told by an emotional and confused Cadence, who after an accident suffers migraines and memory loss, as she struggles to remember what happened to her the summer she was fifteen. The mystery is built up early on with Cady's family keeping secrets from her and several incidents that make us question Cady's sanity.

Despite the unique and unusual poetic writing style of We Were Liars, I found this novel very easy to read. The structure of the book takes us back and forward through time as Cady's memories return in a well crafted mystery. The story drew me in from the first page, urging me to read on and unveil its secrets.

With all the characters being introduced very quickly, it took me a while to get a grasp on them all and how they fit together to form the Sinclair family. The author has done a fine job of portraying the complex character of Cadence and the somewhat testing relationships between the Liars and their parents and grandfather.

We Were Liars explores the prejudices of the world and the destruction that wealth and social standing can bring in a intricate and spellbinding novel. I enjoyed the emotional journey that this book took me on and would recommend it to young adult readers and those new to the mystery genre.

This book was gripping, full of mystery and clever but sadly was just not for me. I could see how great of a book it was I just didn't enjoy it. Put it down to personal tastes. I would recommend this book to everyone as even if you don't enjoy it it's a quick worthwhile read. It could benefit from from re-read I think.

The world: the world E.Lockhart creates is intricate we understand the world of the Sinclare's incredibly well, at least better than I expected going into this book.

The characters: strong characters that are all individuals. They have their own voices, motivations and ways of being, they aren't carbon copies (even the secondary characters).

Language: E. Lockhart made some very bold choices stylistically. Bold but successful. They were powerful and she used what was not being said as a tool just as much as actual content. She has a great power to say so much with so little.

It is a stunning book and I strongly recommend.

'We Were Liars' was an intensely captivating read. I have to admit I've never read anything quite like it (and who doesn't love something different?)

E. Lockhart hooked me from the first page and kept me on my toes throughout the story.

The deliberate use of ambiguity was also somehow very intoxicating and made we want to keep working things out and finding out what would happen next.

Overall it had a rich world, interesting characters and a very distinctive authorial voice.

But it's one of those books where you have to see it all for yourself to really appreciate the wizardry.

*Part One: Welcome.*
Welcome to this review. Let me explain.

We Were Liars is split into five parts, with the titles as shown here.

This review is not a conventional review.
This review will not analyse any aspect of the book.
This review should entice, should intrigue, should make you buy a copy of this book.

Let me begin.

*Part Two: Vermont*
What happened in Summer Fifteen?
The encounter with a sparkly vampire? The late entry into a school of magic?

No.

The summer of two boys and two girls.
The mystery. The laughter. The accident?

*Part Three: Summer Seventeen*
Mirren: sugar. Curiosity and rain.
Johnny: bounce. Effort and snark.
Gat: contemplation and enthusiasm. Ambition and strong coffee.
Cadence.

They are the Liars.

*Part Four: Look, a [spoilers removed]*

*Part Five: Truth*
Here is where you will be enlightened.
Here is where you will be hit by feels.
Here is where you must expect the unexpected.
Should someone ask you about this part, you know what to do.

LIE.

It's a story that has a big air of mystery surrounding it and a whole lot of struggle, within Cady herself and with the "trapped" feeling that the Liars have within the family dynamic, which ultimately leads them to acting out with the intention of making things better. It's only afterwards that you realise that their plan worked but to what extent?

The "voice" of the novel took some getting used to as it is written in the style of a fictional 17yr old and she speaks short but to the point. The sentence structure was different to everything I have ever read and at the beginning it was hard to get into it. But after a few chapters I was drawn into its story. The mystery behind the missing 2 years of Cady's life. Why was she found on the beach by herself with a wound to her head? What happened to her in summer 15? Why was no one telling her anything? It made it hard to put the book down because I so wanted to find out what had happened.

The short chapters also made it easy to read. They sucked you further into the story before you had a chance to realise how far you've read and how late the day or night has become. It was a very addictive novel that gets you thinking.

I have to say though that the outcome was predictable halfway through. At least it was for me. I kind of figured it out when I really started to think about it. But never made the story less interesting. In fact it made me even more compelled to finish ut and find out if I'd guessed correctly and really...did it really happen? In a way it was almost like being Cady with selective amnesia and having her memories slowly come back. She would have felt denial at any information that came to surface about that missing and tragic summer. I know I would have and so even though I predicted the ending I also didn't predict the entire ending. I needed a box of tissues! It pulled at my heart strings.

And I also have to add that seeing Cady's interaction with Gat, Johnny and Mirren allowed me (as the reader) to see the emotional connection between them, to understand the way Cady felt about them and it helped the ending speak straight to your heart, getting the desired response that the author would have been aiming for. Without Cady's interaction with her cousins and the love of her life the story wouldn't have been nearly as powerful.

Fantastic story!

I chose to read this story as a friend insisted that everyone she knew must read this book. And I did enjoy it. We Were Liars was a quick, easy, fun story to read. If you like John Green's Looking for Alaska or Gayle Forma's If I Stay then this story may be a good pick!

Cady, our protagonist, is a likeable character and I found myself wanting her to come to terms with her recent injuries and the reasons she received them. Her story is reflective and jumps back and forth between summers at their family's holiday retreat. At one stage I got a bit confused about which events had/had not happened by 'summer fifteen'. But this helps create a sense of mystery surrounding her injury and gives some insight into the relationships with her Liars.

I raced through this book in a day. I wanted to see whether my suspicion about what was really going on behind the scenes was correct. Admittedly, the clues that should increase as the story unfolds are quite clunky and give away a lot early on. I knew the ending within the first part of the story, minus the particulars. That being said, it didnt detract from the story itself and in fact had me hooked! I would have liked the book to be longer and give some focus to the way the Sinclairs pull together to be a real family (rather than one focused on image and possessions) and prove that this is most important after all. The main theme however is really the 'big event' itself. So despite Cadys injury being the driving force behind the story, Lockhart has cleverly left the details of the event until the end although we get snippets of information fed to us throughout the book.

Overall I see this as a good teen read, with minimal harsh language. The themes of family, love and loss will make you smile and cry and you will want the story to never end so that you can continue with Cady on her journey.

Summer 15 is when everything changes for the Sinclairs, the "perfect" all American family in their insular American dream.

Summer 17 is when the truth comes out and its guaranteed to have you going back and rereading passages looking for clues.