Rating: 4 stars
“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.“
I’ve always heard so many good things about this book, and I can’t believe that I actually waited so long to read it, it was amazing! I’d heard that there was a plot twist that took readers by surprise, and I guessed it about half way through! I’m annoyed at myself though because I managed to convince myself that it wasn’t actually the case and I was racking my brain for what else it could be.
We Were Liars follows the life of Cadence (Cady) Sinclair Eastman, who had an accident at fifteen years old, and since she was young, she had been spending her summer’s on her grandfather’s private island where the Liars were formed. Her, Gat, Mirren and Johnny. I think I missed something as I was reading as I thought that they were all cousins but Cady and Gat had feelings for each other and started a relationship. It wasn’t until the book was almost over that I realised that they aren’t connected by blood at all, I honestly thought we had another Cassandra Clare situation on our hands, and I don’t know if I can do that again! Turns out that Gat is Cady’s aunt’s partner’s nephew so I was relieved when I managed to figure this out.
Their relationship is only beginning the same summer Cady has her accident, and didn’t go back to the island the next year as she was still recovering and had to retake a year of school. She hit her head in the water which resulted in her losing her memories of that summer and living with severe migraines. Since she hasn’t been back to the island for so long, she hasn’t been able to see the other Liars as they all live across the country, and she’s been in no fit state to travel until the next summer, where she is forced to go to Europe with her father instead of the island with her family, since she barely ever sees him after he had an affiar and abandoned her and her mother.
Two summers after her accident, Cady is allowed to finally go back the the island and the way it works is a lot different since the last time she was there, starting with her grandfathers house being replaced and now being called New Clairmont instead of just Clairmont, suggesting that something happened for it to be reconstructed. Not only is this strange to Cady, the Liars are also different, seemingly uninterested in her life as well as not having responded to any of her emails she sent when she was in Europe. Mirren told her that it felt like homework and that’s why she’s been distant since they last saw each other.
The fact that the Liars are being strange with her makes Cady stress out and it doesn’t help her migraines, but soon enough, the Liars help her piece together the events of two summer’s prior by being criptic, with none of them coming straight out and saying what happened, claiming that her mother told them it was best for her memories to come back on their own.
Living in such a large and wealthy family brings a lot of arguments about who is going to get what when Cady’s grandfather passes, and in summer fifteen, the year of her accident, Cady suggests that she and the liars should burn down Clairmont, along with all of the materialistic things inside, which the rest of the Liars eventually agree to. Now this is where things start to get real, and the plot twist comes into place. Even though I had guessed it early on, I was still shocked when I read it. Cady got ahead of herself when she and the Lairs were dousing the house in gasoline and lit her match and left too early, not knowing that the others were still inside. Since she was on the ground floor, none of the other Liars were able to escape and they died in the fire. They’ve been dead all along, which is why they haven’t been in touch with her since summer fifteen. The only reason why she hit her head is because she threw her clothes back into the house after going back in in an attempt to save the others, covering her clothes in the gasoline and singeing them with the flames that were already spreading. She woke up on the beach with absolutely no recollection of what had happened just hours earlier.
After realizing what she did two years earlier, Cady gets the clossure she needs, with the ghosts of the Liars reassuring her that their deaths were not her fault, and since she has figured everything out, they’ll no longer be able to make themselves seen to her as they have exhausted themselves enough doing so already. She last sees them as they dive into the ocean and disappear.
I was absolutely taken aback with this book, and regret leaving it so late to read it. I never guess the twist, so the fact that I did so early on is amazing to me, but in a way, somewhat disappointing as I didn’t feel the full effect of it that I would have if I hadn’t have guessed it. Another thing; I expected this book to be massive, but when I received it in the post, I was shocked at how thin it it, it’s just over 200 pages. I was like “surely there can’t be so much in this book that people are going mad over”, but how wrong was I? Lockhart has proven with this book that you don’t need a shit ton of information to write an effective book that so many people love.
Being the first book I’ve read by E. Lockhart, I think that I’m going to have to delve into their others, and this one has set such high hopes, so I hope the others are just as good.
I’d say I would highly recommend reading this book if you’re looking for a good plot twist, but I’ve put the twist in this post, so I hope you’ve already read it and were in just as much shock as I was.
Tea Stains and Book Spines 