brwewereliars

Title: We Were Liars
Author: E. Lockhart
Genre: YA, Contemporary, Mystery
First published: May 13th 2014
Finished reading: April 3rd 2015
Pages: 227
Rating 2,5

“Someone once wrote that a novel should deliver a series of small astonishments. I get the same thing spending an hour with you.”

myrambles1review

There has been a mayor hype around We Were Liars when it first came out last year, and until today the hype hasn’t completely slowed down. I normally prefer staying away from hyped books because I tend to be disappointed by them. I actually put on hold this novel by E. Lockhart for months because I didn’t want that to happen… I’m not sure if it’s just that I haven’t waited long enough or it is actually the novel that is the problem, but I was definitely not blown away by We Were Liars. More exactly, it had even some eyebrow raising moments and I honestly cannot understand the hype around this novel… Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love We Were Liars either. I couldn’t really connect to the characters and the plot was quite difficult to follow. I understand that last one is part of the story where the main character Cady is supposed to constantly lie about what really happened that summer. Still, I couldn’t truly appreciate it. I didn’t particularly like the whole fighting-about-money-and-inheritance theme either; I hate having spoiled brats as characters, especially when they play a big role in the story. The prose was interesting at points, although the fragmented sentences were quite annoying in general. I guess the only part I really liked were the fairytale stories Cady invented… The pace is at least fast, but I have to be honest and say I’m not sure I will pick up another E. Lockhart novel any time soon… Unless it is not similar to this one.

shortsummary1review

This is a story about the Sinclair family.
A rich, privileged and distinguished family.
They own a private island.
Four friends, the Liars, spend each summer on this island.
A damaged Sinclair girl and a not worthy boy fall in love.
Something terrible happens.
The damaged girl doesn’t remember.
What happened during that dreadful summer?
Lies after lies after lies.
Will she find out the truth?

finalthoughtsreview

You know the feeling when you are thinking: ‘is it just me, or is this novel really not as good as everyone was saying?‘ In case you were wondering, that is exactly how I felt about We Were Liars. I had high expectations before starting this one, mainly because of the mayor hype around the novel… And it just didn’t live up to expectations for me. You found my summary annoying? Then don’t read We Were Liars, because the writing style is similar. I didn’t like the characters and the plot was confusing and not always believable. I liked the fact that Cady and Gat were different than the rest of the family. The end is quite shocking and makes for a nice twist, but still I’m not sure I would actually recommend reading We Were Liars. I guess this is just one of those books you either hate or love…