Review Detail

What I Liked:
In We Were Liars, the frame’s rather simple. Cady was in some sort of accident she cannot remember, and is spending her summer trying to figure out what happened on the Sinclair’s island two years before. Cady cannot remember what happened, even though she’s been told; her brain cannot handle what happened and continues to erase everything. Whatever it is, though, continues to affect her. Some impulse has her giving away even her most prized of possessions, and she’s swamped by loneliness because Johnny, Mirren, and Gat have not been supportive friends since her accident. In returning back to the island, she hopes to find her memories and discover the truth of why her friends abandoned her in her time of need.

The Sinclairs are upper crust, complete with fights over the inheritance, scandal, and all sorts of sordidness underneath the glamour. Cady’s the sort of girl who, though nearly an adult, continues to refer to her mother solely as “mummy.” She has no real conception of her privilege, and is shocked when Gat points it out. She feels charitable for giving away her things, but that still leaves her living a luxurious life. Lockhart really sells the character and makes Cady completely believable. At the same time, though, I didn’t particularly like Cady or find her all that compelling.

I loved the inclusion of Gat, a relative of one of Cady’s aunt’s boyfriend. Gat is Indian and not from a wealthy background. The two fall in love during their fifteenth summer and it’s completely sweet. For one thing, I love that he’s a POC. I also love that he drives her to consider her life in new ways, not in a man-splaining way, but by his sheer existence. She’s forced to recognize the racism in her grandfather’s attitude and the blithe unawareness that she herself has towards the circumstances of others.

My favorite aspect of We Were Liars are the fairy tales sprinkled throughout. As a way of processing her memories and conceptualizing, Cady composes these fairy tales of a king with three beautiful daughters. Though they start the same, they end differently, adapting with whatever new understanding she has. These were gorgeously written and more moving to me than the overall story.

What Left Me Wanting More:
My problem was that I didn’t really engage with the characters. I was consistently entertained but not emotionally drawn-in. Without that emotional connection, I was pretty much just waiting to see what the twist would be (it’s good and I didn’t see it coming though maybe should have?). Without an emotional tie, the ending lost much of its impact.

The Final Verdict:
If you bond emotionally with the characters, this book will crush you and you will love every moment of it. Aspects of the writing, which is almost poetic at times with mid-sentence line breaks, and Cady’s personality kept We Were Liars from really being a Christina book. I still urge you to try it, because, if it IS a YOU book, it will break your brain.