We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Welcome to the beautiful Sinclair family.

No one is a criminal.

No one is an addict.

No one is a failure.

Published by Hot Key Books in May 2014

Pages – 225

Summary

We are the Liars.
We are beautiful, privileged and live a life of carefree luxury.
We are cracked and broken.
A story of love and romance.
A tale of tragedy.
Which are lies?
Which is truth?

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The Sinclairs are just as you would imagine a family who owned land in Martha’s Vineyard. They are loaded with money and aristocratic values, causing them to look down their noses a little at the world that surrounds them. They appear to the world, as a close knit family, tightly bound by generations and generations of strong blood lines. Yet as the book progresses, you watch in awe as their perfect lives, starts to lose the glamorous facade they have painted over it. The cracks appear, as we find out more and more about Cadence and her family and you find yourself no longer envying them but pitying them.

This book has a strong sense of  F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby about it. The way the various strands of the family come together for the summer on the island. I adored the cousins when they were all together. Mirren, Jonathan, Gat and Cadence are a united group, who might not see each other the rest of the year but are closer than siblings as each summer returns.

I loved the way this book was written. E. Lockhart writes with a poetic nature and her words transform the tale beautifully, given a vintage glamour to it. I loved the inclusion of the family tree and the map of the island. I wanted to visit the island and explore it for myself.

Interspersed between the chapters, there are variations on the fairy-tale stories we have all grown up with. Each time one appears, you get a clearer picture of what the family are really like. Cadence loves fiction, growing up surrounded by the fairy tales brought from around the world. However, you start to wonder whether she can separate fact and fiction as the story unfolds.

This book may actually have caused a few of my brain cells to explode. I was convinced I was reading one genre and happily making my way through the book until two thirds of the way through, the author changed tactics and sprung a completely different genre into the tale. The transformation was carried out with perfection, but by then my mind was blown. The ending of this book will require discussion and lots of it. You’ll find yourself searching on Twitter and Facebook for fellow victims of this tale, because you will need to analyse it and break it down in segments to work out where you should have guessed what was coming.

On further reflection, you realise that every word you read, probably had a different meaning, leaving you with the burning desire to re-read it, in order to spot the signs which were hidden during the first read.

This extremely clever tale will wow you. You will read it. Gasp with shock and then rush to read it again. You will try to separate reality form mythology to understand what really happened to this family. A book that can easily be devoured in a day.