We Were Liars

E. Lockhart

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

kristin :)

My full name is Cadence Sinclair Eastman.

I suffer migraines. I do not suffer fools.

Cadence, Liberty, Bonnie, Taft, and Will,

They know it doesn't play out in life as it does on a stage or between the pages of a book. It is neither a punishment meted out nor a lesson conferred. It's horrors are not attributable to one single person.

Tragedy is ugly and tangled, stupid and confusing.

She walks over, kisses me on the cheek, and says, "Be a little kinder than you have to, Cady, and things will be all right."

"Not you're fault," says Johnny. "I mean, we all did it, we all went crazy, we have to take responsibility. You shouldn't carry the weight of it," he says. "Be sad, be sorry - but don't shoulder it."

Jonathan Sinclair Dennis, you would have been a light in the dark for so many people.

We did not, after all, save the idyll. That is gone forever, if it ever existed. We have lost the innocence of it, of those days before we knew the extent of the aunts' rage, befire Gran's death and Granddad's deterioration.

Before we became criminals. Before we became ghosts.

They took the matched from her and they struck them. The witch watched their beauty burn,

I lifted my hand to take out the ear buds. The hand I saw was bandaged.

And my feet. I could feel the tape on them, beneath the blue sheets.

My hands and feet were bandaged, because they were burned.

over and over: do what you are afraid to do.

the Beautiful Sinclair Family and just be a family?

different colors, different backgrounds, and just be in love?

What if we could force everyone to change?

"I'm not saying he wants to be the guy who only likes white people," Gat went on. "He knows he's not supposed to be that guy. He's a Democrat, he voted for Obama - but that doesn't mean he's comfortable having people of color in his beautiful family."

"Some people have nothing. We have everything. The only person who used the family money for charity was Gran. Now she's gone and all anyone's worried about is her pearls and her ornaments and her real estate. Nobody is trying to use their money for good. Nobody is trying to make the world any better."

perfect portrayal of rich people that never had to work for their money

My mother and her sisters were dependent on Granddad and his money. They had the best educations, a thousand chances, a thousand connections, and still they'd ended up unable to support themselves. None of them did anything useful in the world. Nothing necessary. Nothing brave. They were still little girls, trying to get in good with Daddy. He was their bread and butter, their cream and honey, too.

"You love me, don't you, Cadence? You're all I have now. You're not like Dad."

On a night when Granddad and the rest had taken boats across the bay,

the four of us did what we were afraid to do.

Now, he was free to go forth and make a name for himself in the wide, wide world.

"I'd a million times rather live and risk and have it all end badly than stay in the box I've been in for the past two years. It's a tiny box, Mirren. Me and Mummy. Me and my pills. My and my pain. I don't want to live there anymore."

BRO doing these highlights after finishing the book feels unreal, the forshadowinggggg

"You say we shouldn't feel sorry for you-"

"-but then you come out with these statements. 

I stared at the base of the blue italian toilet.

 to feel sorry for you. And we would, I would, but you have no idea how lucky you are."

"You are very, very beautiful, Cady." he says.

"It's the moonlight. Makes all the girls look pretty."

"I think you're beautiful always and forever."

The four of us Liars, we have always been.

"If I die," I sad as we look out at the view, "I mean 

 i die, throw my ashes in the water of the tiny beach. Then when you miss me, you can climb up here, look down, and think how awesome I was."

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😭

Svetlana 

i don’t know what i expected but it wasn’t this. overhyped and predictable af. also messy and chaotic, constantly some names and details, i was pretty much always lost

Jennifer Gosnell

** spoiler alert **
           I think to an extent this just wasn’t for me. Although, I do really gravitate towards summer/cottage/new england/YA reads. But the writing style and plot was just not for me. 

This was a paaaaainful read. Wow. I read about a third of the book before coming to check the Goodreads reviews to see if it would get better. Then skipped to about 2/3 of the way through (didn’t seem to miss anything), and got the ending. 

Goodness. So this book was about… privileged, obnoxious, whiny, racist, pretentious white people fighting about real estate amongst each other. With a tiny little splash of manslaughter that no one talks about?!?! 

Kay.

Linara K.S

It was cleverly written and the ending left me in tears. Definitely worth a read.

Anna 

moje první přečtená kniha v angličtině. já vím, je to trošku pozdě, hlavně když vím, že anglicky umím dobře. holt jsem se čtení v aj bála a teď toho lituji, protože bych anglicky mohla číst už dobré tři čtyři roky. ale teď už k samotné recenzi.
tohle bylo něco úplně jiného, než čtu normálně. není to romantická fantasy ani klasika pojednávající o politice nebo společnosti. we were liars vypráví cadence, dívka, která pochází z bohaté rodiny a tato rodina se každé léto sejde na soukromém ostrově a bydlí zde několik měsíců. cadence se však jednou bouchne do hlavy v moři a má z toho fyzické následky. hlavně si nic z toho léta, kdy se jí nehoda stala, nepamatuje. a nikdo jí nechce nic vysvětlit. 
od čtení jsem se v podstatě nemohla odtrhnout, četlo se to úplně samo, i když se tam toho až tak moc nedělo. rodina sinclairů byla vykreslená neskutečně dobře, každá postava byla něčím jedinečná a kniha mě do děje dokázala bez problémů přenést, což se stává málokdy. úplně jsem z ní cítila moře, pečenou zeleninu a borůvkové koláče.
má takový detektivní nádech, protože společně s cady nevíme, co se vlastně stalo, zato víme, že se něco důležitého tají. během čtení jsem měla několik nápadů, co se tak mohlo stát, ale musím tedy říct, že jsem se pořádně spletla. autorka vymyslela takový plot twist, na který nepřijde snad vůbec nikdo. we were liars mě nejednou rozplakala, ale zároveň jsem se u ní i culila a smála, což je opět něco, co se mi nestává u každé knížky.
.
tento příběh jsem hodnotila 4,5*/5*. recenzi píšu až pár týdnů po dočtení a na hodnocení se dívám už trošku jinak, možná bych půl hvězdy až hvězdu ubrala, protože ten plot twist byl přece jen trochu přetažený za vlasy, ale jelikož to byla moje první anglicky přečtená kniha, asi se na ní budu vždycky dívat trošku jinak, v lepším světle.
pokud jste ještě nečetli nic v angličtině a chtěli byste začít, we were liars vám vřele doporučuji, ta angličtina je opravdu jednoduchá!

Chourouk

** spoiler alert **
           this book broke me so much like i needed a break from reading YA and romance books for like a month or something because my heart was so broken. i've loved the book although the beginning of the story was really confusing and i didn't quite get it. It took me also forever to really like the "liars" like those 3 characters who died eventually and it took me also forever to get to know about all the characters at once. it was a good book with a great but heartbroken plottwist!

Alexandra S

We were liars is the story of a seemingly perfect, first world family, the book starts with a map of the private island they spend their summer holidays on and a family tree, so, obviously, it contains a lot of family / fortune drama... 
We see the events through the eyes of the very unreliable narrator, Cadence, the oldest niece of the patriarch / main drama starter / $$ provider. She is trying to reconstruct her memories after she suffered a traumatic mysterious event that made her have selective amnesia 

What I liked about the book : 
* Gat Patil, the love interest / the only character I could almost relate to and care about;
* The fairy tales; 
* Johnny is fun;
* For a while, it really made me feel like I spent my summer breaks on that island with them;
* The mystery; 

What I didn't like that much :
* The M. Night Shyamalan ending, don't get me wrong, I like books with twists and turns, but this one felt just a bit too much; 
* Besides Gat, the characters seemed a bit posh and disconnected from 
the real world, I think I would have enjoyed it a bit more if they had some redeeming qualities;

Overall, it was ok, I enjoyed the ride, but I probably won't read it a second time.

Would rather prefer a punch to the face by a professional boxer, than reading this atrocity ever again 😃

We Were Liars

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