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

We Were Liars

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."

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 😃

amber ✧˖°

Erin G.

Echoing someone else's review: the kind of book you can't wait to finish so you can throw it out the window in frustration. Should and could have been so. much. better.

Ryan Mateyk

3.5 stars, but I'm roundin' it up.

The final twist was kind of ridiculous and didn't really make sense, but was shocking nonetheless (which is kind of the point?). Also, my jaw dropped to the ground when she said she was shot by her father on the 3rd page... but this was just the first of many strange metaphors for the narrator's emotions.

Pretty cool and mucho twisty story though!

ploral

DNF at 40%

Hated it. The characters are annoying and boring. The writing style is dramatic in a way that makes it unappetising. The storyline is weird in a "I'm not gonna tell you anything of significance to create some mystery" way. I don't think I'll pick it up again but you never know.

Tsamarah

This book is definitely a 3 stars. 
I know that the narrator is supposed to be unreliable and it's intended that way but I couldn't help to hate the way she says anything, it's super annoying and snobbish. I mean the whole story is pretty alluring and it was quite worth it to stick around, but I almost dropped this book just because of her writing. 

I don't know much about "American Rich Kids" but her character is just not very enjoyable, I did feel bad for her (a little bit) in the end, but it's quite hard for me to feel anything (throughout the rest of the book) for her because I believe her character arc could have a little something.. 

Though, I was not bothered by the fairy tale narration, I think it was quite nice to incorporate something different in a Contemporary YA Book. But maybe untangle it along the book would be great. 

It's hard to describe what I like about the book but if you ever feel like you want to stop reading, don't.

Bria

A bit confusing but kept  me entertained 

Aly Valenz

Elisavet Rozaki 

lauren

I liked the writing style and the book was a nice, easy read. There’s been a lot of hype around the ending, but I found that it wasn’t that interesting? I would have been more impressed if the twist wasn’t built up the way it was.

clau☁️

So I am not sure what I think of this book. I read it because I heard there was a plot twist and during the whole book I just wanted to finish it to find out. But then around page 50 I totally got the plot twist and knew what was gonna happen. I kept reading because I wanted to be sure 100% that I was right and turned out I was which was kind of disappointing because I really wanted to be surprised.

I still liked the ending and I was still sad even though I knew what was going to happen. I liked the way it was written and I think the ending is totally the best part of the story. 

I think it has a good plot and I like the writing but, I don’t know, there was something lacking. 

Also I’ve seen a lot of people say they were really surprised with the plot twist so if you like stories like this, I still recommend you try reading it, you may not figure it out so the element of surprise is still there for you.

Overall, I’m not mad I read it, I would not reread it but I had a great time. And it is a short book so I could read it in a day which was cool to get into reading again and also add a book to my 2021 readings. 

I’d say if you like suspense but haven’t read a lot of the genre, it is a good YA to start with. Which was actually my case. But if you have read a lot of it, or if you like very surprising and mind blowing endings, this might not be for you.

If you are looking for a fast paced book to get out of a reading slum, I recommend this book !  It is a bit of a psychological thriller but also romance. The story is very insightful focusing on family and friend relationships. 

Ksenija 

Hanna Rybchynska

Wow this was unexpected!
I really liked this book, it was short and easy to read. I liked the mystery, it wasn't too complicated. 
I don't read mysteries a lot, nor I am really attentive to details, it helped a lot to enjoy it.
Maybe my rating is overated, but honestly it was good!

We Were Liars Hardback gift edition

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