We Were Liars by E. Lockhart is about an annual family reunion of the wealthy Sinclairs on their vacation island goes wrong when one summer, Cadence Sinclair does not remember a single thing from the summer before. Abrupt pity from her two-faced family and friends concerns her as she tries her best to remember her past, only one summer ago. Family fights, prejudice, and backstabbing are all Cadence remembers in the last summer. Until one day Candace remembers just one thing: fire, which brings everything back.
The most interesting detail about the book is seen as soon as one receives the book: the book cover. The book cover is an irony to the entire story as the happiness and joy reflected from the shining sun and smiling friends in the cover image are nothing like the reality in the story. In reality, the title that hovers above the people in the water clearly says, “Liars” and as other readers can attest to, this story is quite the opposite of a happy fairy-tale ending with four jolly friends. Therefore, I do not think the cover sets the stage for this story, but I do enjoy the fact that the cover itself is a twist for what is to come in the rest of the novel.
My enjoyment of the book mainly came from the fact that the entire book is written from the point of view of Cadence Sinclair who is a traumatized girl after an incident she does not know of. As a result, although it is assumed that the other characters in the book know what happened to Cadence because it is all told from Cadence’s point of view, the readers do not know what is real and what is false and what is true and what is supernatural. Consequently, this entices the reader to continue reading as they must distinguish between reality and their imagination, which is difficult as it is told from a traumatized teenager who has a lack of memory. Furthermore, Cadence tells the audience that her loss of memory from last summer is a result of her hitting her head on rocks at the bottom of the lake when she went swimming. This assumption causes the readers to believe this is real which allows them to try to solve other problems stemming from Cadence’s memory loss from this assumption. Therefore, when the ending is revealed, Cadence’s assumption allows for a huge twist and shocking moment and takes the readers aback as everything that was leading up to the resolution, even Cadence’s and the reader’s assumptions about the incident las summer, are completely wrong.
For this book, I would definitely, on a scale of 1 to 10, rate it as a 4. It was definitely a great book. However, I have read better books as this book’s, like was said earlier, perspective is extremely limiting. Which is compelling, but also extremely frustrating as it is hard for the reader to understand real from false. At the same time, there are a lot of characters in the book. Hence, it is hard for the readers to keep up with the characters and each of their storylines, which becomes very important at the end of the story. Overall the book was an extremely good book as it made me solve the mysteries in the book very independently, which is enjoyable in my point of view, because of the fact that Cadence has no real factual information or anything to go off of to know why her memory went away.
All in all, at first glance, this book seems extremely hard to connect to for young adults as many young adults are not millionaires, do not own an entire vacation island, and many young adults do not lose their memory. However, the specific events that tie in with these three unconnected details in the book are events that have to do with rumors, love, and prejudice which is something that all young adults can understand. As a result, no matter how far-fetched this book may seem by only reading the summary, this book is definitely worth one’s time and experience about the loss of a loved one and one’s most prized possession: memories.
Review By ~ Regina
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