We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

“We are liars. We are beautiful and privileged. We are cracked and broken.”

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.

Personal Thoughts:

When I first read We Were Liars last year, I honestly didn’t like it. With so much expectations after all the raving and hypes online I ended up unsatisfied. Then I do a reread recently of the book and fortunately enjoyed it so much than the first try.

Unexpectedly, even without the element of surprise for the shocking twist in the end as I’ve already read the story before, I still enjoy the ride of this uniquely told story. Instead of unraveling “what is happening?” it becomes more of savoring the authors words and story telling.

E. Lockhart writing style for this one is undeniably unique. It’s like she has it’s own brand of writing that I can easily distinguish even the publisher decided not to put her name in the cover of the book or use a pen name. Her prose are beautiful, poetic and quietly resonating.

Her choppy fragmented sentences perfectly aligned to the story teller background, making Cadence an unreliable narrator. Everything is about lies – the lies Cadence tell to the readers and the lies she is telling herself. First time reader will surely get tangled with all those lies just like me before. If not for the existence of fairytale stories, those lies will surely confused the hell out of me. But thank God, the deviations of fairytale stories are their to give me hints. For the most part, they give me a better idea of what’s happening. Somehow they reflects the truths and reveal the real story behind all the lies and confusing narration of Cadence. The characters, worlds, and stories hidden inside those fairytale stories parallel Cadence’s own reality. Also, these fairytale stories fueled the novel making it more interesting and uniquely written.

Overall, We Were Liars is a beautifully written story. With E. Lockhart’s clever plotting, beautiful and poetic prose, this novel deserved a rereading. It has both highs and lows that are worth visiting.