Name: We Were Liars
Rating: 3.565375821663332 (3499 reviews)
ISBN: 9781536439915

E. Lockhart

Spending the summers on her family's private island off the coast of Massachusetts with her cousins and a special boy named Gat, teenaged Cadence struggles to remember what happened during her fifteenth summer.

We Were Liars

Aurora White

ashwitherow

Beyza

maryamahmed

Better than chocolate, being with you last night. Silly me, I thought nothing was better than chocolate. In a profound, symbolic gesture, I am giving you this bar of Vosges I got when we all went to Edgartown. You can eat it, or you can just sit next to it and feel superior.

Isobel cusack

Silence is a protective coating over pain.

Maria M

Is that not one of the most romantic lines you’ve ever read 

Jess

Someone once wrote that a novel should deliver a series of small astonishments. I get the same thing spending an hour with you.

High Fidelity

Arantxa Puyana

Lente Tromp

Ipshita Kanungo

Michella Borup Norrahammar

Book nerd 

Natalie Christopoulou

Eva-Maria Haller

Hill

Allyssa Fritz

ariah 

This is a hard one for me to rate as the mystery of everything kept me going, but other than that I'm conflicted. 

The story is told from the POV of Cady. She tells us a lot about her time on their private island and her family. We learn of the mystery surrounding one of the summers spent there and that is when the story truly begins. 

The prose was captivating for me, but at the same time rather annoying. There were a lot of metaphors that were annoying, or rather, grating for me. Cady would consistently refer to herself as bleeding but never was. That is one metaphor that never really set well with me. 

Chapters were short which really did help it move quickly. I do feel like if the mystery wasn't there that I would have taken a lot longer to finish it than I should have.

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 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 that will leave you reeling. Read it. And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE. 'We Were Liars is heartbreaking, witty, beautiful and disturbing. E. Lockhart's best book to date.' JUSTINE LARBALESTIER 'A haunting tale about how families live within their own mythologies. Sad, wonderful, and real.' SCOTT WESTERFELD

Joana Mae

I like the concept and the idea. I became interested with the details of the island and the characters but I was discouraged with the writing style. Though I still rated 3 stars as the core story remains compelling despite its flaws.

Sindhujaw

Disclaimer : Rant ahead. I started this book in a hope that I'd get me out of my reading slump. Since it's too short, thought I'd finish it in one sitting. But know what? I was totally wrong. This book didn't move at all and the actual story started only at 25% of the book. I don't think I found it relatable, thrilling and mind-blowing. It's just random ramblings of a teen on grief, pain, love, life, etc.. The one thing that annoyed me to the core was when the narrator, Cadence says "Gat, my Gat", literally everytime she mentions of her love. Seriously??? Do you have to do this in every freaking chapter. Oh my god. I can't believe I wasted my weekend reading this, in a hope that I'd be so great. Now I just wanted to throw it somewhere I can't see, but I'm obliged to not hurt my books.

Typescript Draft

coco nini

i hate this book so much. the front and back of the book was filled with reviews about how baffling the plot twist was. as soon as i got to the conflict, bruh, i immediately knew. but i kept going, thinking there’d be something else. eugh 👎👎👎

Really hard to get through with the way it’s written, not a big fan of it and only reason it took me longer to finish. Only finished because I went with the audio book. 

Unfortunately the plot twist of the book was spoiled a bit but I was still hooked to read who were the ones involved with the issue.

I give it points for character development? And because it was really sad 

lily

Really hard to get through with the way it’s written, not a big fan of it and only reason it took me longer to finish. Only finished because I went with the audio book. 

Unfortunately the plot twist of the book was spoiled a bit but I was still hooked to read who were the ones involved with the issue.

I give it points for character development? And because it was really sad 

A New York Times Bestseller. 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 New York Times bestselling author, National Book Award finalist, and Printz Award honouree E. Lockhart. Read it. And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.

Hardback gift edition

Amelia

A family full of lies and mystery. I love reading about complicated characters and characters that reflect me in some ways. The daughters who are always chasing after family heirloom and a generation of trauma, that they'd forgotten how to treat their children as their kids and not as an accessory to being a successor. How they'd recognize the faults in the whole family, how they feel trapped in their father's games, and yet they feel compulsive about chasing something that is not even promised to them. 

The Liars, who are chained up in the family trauma; who are kids who just want to escape the roles instilled by their mothers; who are just bunch of teenagers who wants to just be children despite the countless attempts of their parents to get their name written down on their grandfather's last will... The Liars who recognized the faults in the family and tried to destroy it, only to suffer the biggest consequences of their lives. 

Gat, who loved the island despite knowing that the highest person there doesn't like him. That there never was a space for them in the made up castle, yet he loved the people he became family with. And he endured everything for them, maybe so he can have that kind of life too.

It scratches my brain how granddad is the embodiment of a smart evil man. He was too caught up in the empire he built that he submitted his own bloodline into believing that their dystopian land is everything they could ever have and be.

I love how everyone is just coping in their own way. Pretending to be strong, pretending to be perfect, pretending to be the best or the one that doesn't care. Everyone is just pretending, that's why the Liars aren't just Cadence, Johnny, Mirren, and Gat. The liars are every single person in their bloodline. 

And they buried too many dead skeletons, unknowingly building a fort for their own grave. In the end, everybody paid the price for their own fault. Everybody suffered the consequences they all built together. 

A family full of lies and mystery. I love reading about complicated characters and characters that reflect me in some ways. The daughters who are always chasing after family heirloom and a generation of trauma, that they'd forgotten how to treat their children as their kids and not as an accessory to being a successor. How they'd recognize the faults in the whole family, how they feel trapped in their father's games, and yet they feel compulsive about chasing something that is not even promised to them. 

The Liars, who are chained up in the family trauma; who are kids who just want to escape the roles instilled by their mothers; who are just bunch of teenagers who wants to just be children despite the countless attempts of their parents to get their name written down on their grandfather's last will... The Liars who recognized the faults in the family and tried to destroy it, only to suffer the biggest consequences of their lives. 

Gat, who loved the island despite knowing that the highest person there doesn't like him. That there never was a space for them in the made up castle, yet he loved the people he became family with. And he endured everything for them, maybe so he can have that kind of life too.

It scratches my brain how granddad is the embodiment of a smart evil man. He was too caught up in the empire he built that he submitted his own bloodline into believing that their dystopian land is everything they could ever have and be.

I love how everyone is just coping in their own way. Pretending to be strong, pretending to be perfect, pretending to be the best or the one that doesn't care. Everyone is just pretending, that's why the Liars aren't just Cadence, Johnny, Mirren, and Gat. The liars are every single person in their bloodline. 

And they buried too many dead skeletons, unknowingly building a fort for their own grave. In the end, everybody paid the price for their own fault. Everybody suffered the consequences they all built together. 

Alyssa Weaver

Keila Rico 

I watched the series first then read the book. 

First of all, I had a hard time reading the book. I don't know if its the writing style or the lack of "world building". However, the plot was nice, the pacing was nice. It was good for a hundred-ish paged book. I feel like it could be better though, there was something missing. Whether it was the poor build up to that tragic moment or the execution of the tragic moment. However, I'm glad I read it and thank you to the author for giving us such a book. Might not be safe to say but I liked the series much more than the book. There were details in the book that I wished they also included in the series. But how the series was laid out, for me was already perfect. 

Penelope Sanchez

I watched the series first then read the book. 

First of all, I had a hard time reading the book. I don't know if its the writing style or the lack of "world building". However, the plot was nice, the pacing was nice. It was good for a hundred-ish paged book. I feel like it could be better though, there was something missing. Whether it was the poor build up to that tragic moment or the execution of the tragic moment. However, I'm glad I read it and thank you to the author for giving us such a book. Might not be safe to say but I liked the series much more than the book. There were details in the book that I wished they also included in the series. But how the series was laid out, for me was already perfect. 

That was funky!Best part of the book was the last 2 parts - plot twist was good, wasn’t expecting that!

Why did they call themselves the Liars though, I thought that was going to be part of the twist or am I being thick??

Ella Williams

That was funky!Best part of the book was the last 2 parts - plot twist was good, wasn’t expecting that!

Why did they call themselves the Liars though, I thought that was going to be part of the twist or am I being thick??

The ending took it from 3 stars to 3.5. Such a random book, I don’t know how anyone read this and made an 8 episode series out of it

Nicole Mills

Ariadne Meyers

 started off pretty slow for me—it didn’t really pick up until Part Four. Most of the events felt uneventful or just didn’t grab me. And honestly, I blame BookTok for hyping it up so much. I 

 cry, but only because I felt like I’d been gaslit the entire time.

The chapters with the metaphorical “king and three princesses” stories were a bit confusing. Maybe it’s one of those “the girls who get it, get it” moments, but I was mostly just trying to make sense of it.

Every character felt two-dimensional. I couldn’t connect with any of them—they were mostly just annoying. The only ones I genuinely cared about were the dogs (and they deserved better).

I considered giving it 4 stars just for the plot twist and the emotional gaslighting packed into 200 pages. But since it never really made me 

 to keep reading, I’m settling on a solid 3.

Tali ⋆.˚🦋༘⋆

📖 First Impressions
We Were Liars started off pretty slow for me—it didn’t really pick up until Part Four. Most of the events felt uneventful or just didn’t grab me. And honestly, I blame BookTok for hyping it up so much. I did cry, but only because I felt like I’d been gaslit the entire time.



🧩 The Fairy Tale Chapters
The chapters with the metaphorical “king and three princesses” stories were a bit confusing. Maybe it’s one of those “the girls who get it, get it” moments, but I was mostly just trying to make sense of it.



👤 Characters
Every character felt two-dimensional. I couldn’t connect with any of them—they were mostly just annoying. The only ones I genuinely cared about were the dogs (and they deserved better).



🔀 Plot Twist & Overall Feel
I considered giving it 4 stars just for the plot twist and the emotional gaslighting packed into 200 pages. But since it never really made me eager to keep reading, I’m settling on a solid 3.



⭐ Final Rating
3 stars/5

Annabella

only thing i loved was how dramatic cadence was and how gat's sweet qualities reminded me of my boyfriend's. other things though? first world problems. all that for nothing??? such a big fuss over teeny tiny issues. they want to be oppressed sooooooo bad like shut up

chloe

This is the second YA book in a row I've read where a protag's loved ones were painfully obvious to be dead. When I was told of people's reactions to the twist, and their genuine gaggery, I was expecting to be another element on top of that once I deciphered that in the text. But alas, not really.

I only read this when I found out Emily Lind would star in the upcoming tv series and I wanted to read it before it came out. The writing style lowkey pissed me off. It really was giving wattpad fanfic writer (derogatory) the way it would switch to some weird stanza vibe. The fairytales were cute tho! Loved them <3

bellamy-hill

i tried to like this so hard y'all. 

This is the second YA book in a row I've read where a protag's loved ones were painfully obvious to be dead. When I was told of people's reactions to the twist, and their genuine gaggery, I was expecting to be another element on top of that once I deciphered that in the text. But alas, not really.

I only read this when I found out Emily Lind would star in the upcoming tv series and I wanted to read it before it came out. The writing style lowkey pissed me off. It really was giving wattpad fanfic writer (derogatory) the way it would switch to some weird stanza vibe. The fairytales were cute tho! Loved them <3

I was thinking of naming it something like *We Were Snobs, but after the twist, I ended up liking it—plot twist: the real snob was me."

Jehan Chawla

Holy SHIZZLES what the freak I cried a lil bit at the end finished it in a few hours 

1 star deducted because I kept reading Gat as gyatt

Jafe

Holy SHIZZLES what the freak I cried a lil bit at the end finished it in a few hours 

1 star deducted because I kept reading Gat as gyatt

Honestly an easy read with the unique writing! I love short chapters haha. The ending hurt the heart a little bit (a lot) I love a twist. 

Kass

It’s was a little bit boring to begin with but the last half of the book made up for it. The plot twits were good. 

Isabell McMann

Yanna Alghamdi

** spoiler alert **
           2 words: Plot Twist

I like how some of the chapters are excerpts and variations from different folk talkes. It somehow gives much more life to the plot. Would love to read more books by E. Lockhart.


(Should have finished this book by the time it was recommended to me by a close friend.)

Maureen

Mind-boggling. I'm still at loss for words. I'm not sure if I should praise it or not. YOU DECIDE. still a must read!

this book sucked tbh😭😭
the writing style irked me, it was pretty boring and felt bland overall!! a lot of people enjoy this book, and i have zero idea why😭 i dnf it then went back to reading it and the ending made me regret everything.

not worth it, go read something else😭

We Were Liars

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