We Were Liars

I loved this book!

I love, love, love unreliable narrators. We Were Liars does just that!

The narrators has great voice and is easy to follow aside from some memory issues. The secondary characters are so distinct I could almost visualize them. I was little thrown off by self-entitlement by the Aunties and wondered if that is realistic in families as wealthy as this family is.

The plot was wonderfully tragic and I honestly did not foresee the ending. I loved it! I hated it! I wanted to change it, but I knew it had to end the way it did. Awesome ending that I didn't want to happen.

The writing is lovely and I wanted to see if such an island existed. It was described so well, that I suddenly felt the need to fly out to the east coast. I need a new writing destination spot and this little island would be perfect.

Kuddos for writing an awesome book!

We Were Liars is far more unique than I ever anticipated. Lockhart certainly has a writing style that is all her own, but one that I feel is dividing readers. I loved it. But, I can see where it would annoy others. It opens with short, choppy sentences that are more statements of fact than storytelling, but it is incredibly effective. The story is told from Cady's point of view who suffers from memory loss, migraines and is forced to use pain killers to cope. These facts left me wondering about her reliability as a narrator and questioning everything that she tells the reader. It also features variations on the the three princesses fairy tale which add charm and depth to the story.

I will admit, there was a point about halfway through where this felt like just another rich girl, whining about her problems. It certainly took patience to begin to piece the clues together and see that there was a really important story to be told. There are a lot of characters to get straight and a lot of home names to put into place. There are actually three group of players on the island: the Liars (the older children), the Aunts and Grandfather, and the Littles. The Liars are the main characters, teens who have run of the island each summer. The Aunts constantly fight each other for the Grandfather's attention and bicker over belongings and homes. The Littles do not play a major role, but, when the book was over, I found myself thinking back to some of their actions in light of the new information which added some great depth and enjoyment. In fact, by the end, the reader realizes that there were clues from the very first page, we were just unable to see them in context without more information.

To be honest, this review is really difficult to write without giving away too much of the story, so I will probably stop there. We Were Liars is a beautiful, melancholy mystery that is beautiful in it's style and storytelling.

This book was absolutely wonderful. It was so beautifully written. The prose is amazing and the plot is just mind blowing. This book messed with my psyche and psychologically messed me up so much, but I don't even care. I love it. The metaphors are so excellently written, they shock you when you first read them and you have to go back and read them a couple of times because you're like, "that couldn't have actually happened" until you analyze it and realize it is a metaphor. Just the writing itself, story aside, is amazing. Combine it with such a shifty and psychological plot and the book is the definition of perfection.
Well that is all I can say without spoiling anything. So if you haven't read this book, PLEASE GO AWAY AND READ IT!!! You will thank me later.
Now to the real SPOILER deal.
Right from the start we get such beautifully written prose when Cadence is setting up the story. Like when she states that her dad shot her, I literally thought he shot her until I realized it is a metaphor.
When we learn Gat has a girlfriend and Cadence starts acting a fool, I was so mad at Gat, I mean, what a selfish bastard. And then she goes and kisses him, like NOOOOO don't be stupid Cadence.
Cadence's mom.... I hate her. She mistreated Cadence so badly and was really just a selfish bitch. For example when Cadence is crying over Gran, she tells Cadence, "She made me act normal. Because I was. Because I could. She told me to breathe and sit up. And I did what she asked. Again." I mean... what a heartless mother.
Whenever Cadence was describing the metaphors, I was just so awed by how powerful and beautiful the metaphors were. Lockhart did an excellent job crafting them.
In general, the family was terrible. But that in itself is a better of how money doesn't necessary equivalent happiness. I found it awful how the sisters only wanted money and property and Grandad just strung them along cause he liked the feel of power.
When Bonnie is talking about Cadence's hair and she replies with, "It's okay, I don't actually care what you think, so it's perfectly okay." That made me sooo happy. She really needed to stick up for herself.
I absolutely loved the little stories Cadence made up about the king and the sisters. I feel like they really helped draw a picture of how awful the rich can be if they allow money and power to get to them.
When Cadence first started getting her memories back, I started freaking out cause I could see they were headed in a bad direction. So when she gets all her final memories back, I almost cried because I couldn't believe Mirren, Gat, and Johnny had been ghost/hallucinations or whatever the hell they were the whole time and died in the fire. That mentally f@cked me up. I still can't wrap my head around it.

MY THOUGHTS
Let's get one thing straight: I did not like this book.
Yes, I gave it a high rating, but to tell you the truth, this is not a book that you can like.
A book I like would not screw up my mind, confuse the hell out of me, and leave me crying in a QuickTrip parking lot. Point being: This is not an enjoyable read.
For the most part, this book is slow and a bit dull. I was curious all throughout the book, since I've heard so many thing about THAT ENDING and there was an aura of mystery, but not a whole lot happens.

But the writing in this book is beautiful. Some people hate the choppy style of writing (an example is shown in the synopsis), but I think it works brilliantly with the story, as our main character isn't exactly all there.

The turning point for me, though, was the ending. I cannot tell you the ending, it's much better if you go into this book without knowing anything, but the ending screwed me up. I was not expecting that ending, even though I look back and see that there are so many clues to it in the book! But it's not something that you would easily guess! The ending destroyed me, but it was beautiful, tragically so, but it was still beautiful.

IN CONCLUSION
I originally picked up this book because I heard so many things about the ending. In fact, I picked up this book just because of my curiosity. The ending screwed me up, yes, but I still believe this book to be unique and beautiful. I do think that people should pick up this book just to read the end, but I know that the ending will not have the same affect to others. You will either love this book thanks to the ending or completely hate it. It's all up to you.

I sat down and finished We Were Liars in a few hours. I saw a lot of people talking about the surprise ending, which left me really wondering what I was about to read. Luckily, I didn't see spoilers. If I had, I would probably had a completely different opinion of the book.

This one is pretty complicated to discuss without spoiling anything. It's layered and shrouded in mystery.

The writing was solid. Each character had a voice that felt original. I found that the story had a steady pace, which made for a quick and easy read. If you are not a fan of flashback writing, stay away. We Were Liars is full of flashbacks.

I have to say that my absolute favorite part of this book was the ending. What a shock for me! I new it was heading in a direction different from what was expected, but I never expected what I got. My heart broke and I was left in open-mouth awe. I actually had to wait a day before starting a new book so I could process what I read. There were so many clues along the way that I overlooked. I had a lot of fun thinking back on the clues and putting them together.

This is a super fun read. I think it would make a great summer read.

The concept of this book was very interesting to me. I, like everyone else, knew next to nothing on what this book was about. And that gave me no expectations going into it. I'm really glad I picked this book up because although I sort of saw the end coming, it was still a little bit of a shock.

How am I supposed to explain We Were Liars without spoiling anything but still convince you to read it? Maybe it’s best to list the things that appealed to me when I read this. After all, when in doubt, make a list.

So why did I loved We Were Liars?

1. The writing. I felt like I was bewitched by its writing and drew me in as I turned the pages. This is my first E. Lockhart book so I’m not really familiar how she writes but this was amazing. The construction and use of words effectively attracted my attention and curiosity. It was poetic and painted a vivid picture of the island as well as the scenes.

2. Suspense. I was blind when I read this so I advise you to go blind too. Sometimes when you’re told that you should go blind, you become guarded and could easily predict what happened but this one was different. I think it was one of the reasons why I was so floored and affected when I got into the revelation part.

3. Good pacing. This is the part when I mostly complain. Some books have fast pacing that made the chapters and scenes disconnected instead of having a good flow. When they’re slow, it tends to drag the story and losses my attention. In this case, We Were Liars was in the middle. It was kind of slow but it complimented the suspense of the story. But it was also fast enough to make me turn the pages and not to lose interest.

4. Characters. We all love when there’s growth and development in characters. Everyone, not just the Liars, went through a something because of what happened that summer and that led to some changes. (Of course there were changes. I’d be surprised if there wasn’t.) We Were Liars was written with flashbacks so we get to compare the characters pre and post incident side by side. Their personalities and what they did were also shown piece by piece so we get to know them little by little as the story progressed.

5. The ending. I never expected it when I decided to read the story but that ending made me cry. The revelation made me cry and how this story ended was simply stunning. With Lockhart’s amazing writing, it gave more feelings and impact. Perfect.. it was just perfect.

“My full name is Cadence Sinclair Eastman.
I suffer migraines. I do not suffer fools.
I like a twist of meaning.
I endure.”

I was on edge the whole time and was itching to uncover what happened. I know something happened and that something is big but when it was time for me to know the truth, it felt like I detonated a bomb. I don’t think I’d be able to explain more without spoiling something so trust me when I say that you should read this.

This book has been very highly regarded among my fellow bloggers so when I was granted access to this title, I was excited. I had very high hopes for this book. Upon finishing it, I felt let down in a big way.It wasn't this amazing book that had reduced me to tears. It was a pretty "meh" book for me overall.

From the beginning, I knew that this book was going to be different. I hated the writing style. It was lyrical and it bored me. I thought the male love interest was a colossal jerk and I couldn't understand what Cady saw in him. Also I really didn't like Cady all that much. At times, I felt sympathy for her, but I never really warmed up to her the way I wanted to.

Through the first 70% of the book, I was bored. It seemed like the book was too long for not much to happen. Maybe it had to do with the insanely slow moving plot that only picked up in the last 30% of the book. Maybe it had to do with the characters. There seemed to be too many of them and not enough time was devoted to really developing them the way I would have liked.

Now the last 30% was like someone completely different wrote the book. The writing was less lyrical and more straightforward and the feels were there in a way that they hadn't been in the first seventy percent. It was like it was a totally new book. That was really disconcerting to me.This book lacked fluidity throughout.

I'll admit that in the last 30% I teared up. I didn't full on sob like a baby, but tears were produced. In the interest of not spoiling things, that's all I'll say about the ending. Oh and that things aren't always how they seem.

If I was rating just the first seventy percent of the book, it would get only one star. If I was rating just the last 30% of the book, it would be getting 4.5 stars. I'll average it out to three stars. I hated the first seven-tenths of the book but I loved the last three-tenths of the book.Overall I didn't hate the book, but I didn't love it either.However, I know many other people loved it, so some of you may as well.