Book Review: We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Read: November 8   Verdict: 3-4 Stars (haven't quite decided yet)

Before going into this book, I knew about all the hype. I had heard so many good things about it, and i knew it was suppose to take your breath away and there was a massive gasp-like twist that left people reeling. I reserved this book from my library around the same time that BookTubeaThon was on, I think, because loads of people were reading it and reviewing it. But because of some system changes, the book had to be reserved again and basically it took a few months before it landed in my hands. But that was a good thing because by then my expectations had decreased and I wasn't riding on the expectation carousel.

We Were Liars centres around a very rich, privileged family and how they all spend their summers on a private island with their own houses, docks, beaches and servants. But something happened that caused a terrible accident and two years later, Cadence is back and trying to piece together the forgotten memories of her fifteenth summer on the island.

Basically, despite the great detailed writing, this is a story about terrible people doing terrible things. There's nothing quite redeemable about the family. It has a bit of a King Lear quality to it, except I couldn't quite tell which aunt/sister was Cordelia. They were all very Goneril and Regan at different times. The weaving of the fairytale stories was a nice little twist and I enjoyed them. But at the end of the day, everyone, even Gat, was selfish, spoiled and pretty rotten.

When the big twist came, I had't guessed it at all but nor was I falling off my chair in shock. It was more of a small, "oh, okay, I can work with this" and carried on reading. I'm glad I gave this book a chance and that I finally read it but it definitely didn't blow my mind.