A haunting tale about how families live within their own mythologies. Sad, wonderful, and real." — Scott Westerfeld, author of Uglies and Leviathan

so, just like Little Bee, this book begs you "NOOO, DON'T TELL ITS SEEEEKRITS!!" and if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE. The publisher hoped that the novel would have a large crossover appeal to adult readers because it had "teens who must interact with imperfect adults and imperfect adults who are important to the entire dynamic of the plot." [5] To promote We Were Liars without giving too much of the plot away, a blog on Tumblr was created, focusing on the aesthetic of the Sinclair's island with quotes from the book. [6] The promotional material urged readers to "just lie" if they were asked about the ending. [6] Themes [ edit ] It’s a dumb idea,” says Mirren. “We’re just bored out of our minds, that’s all.” They're not the only ones bored out of their mind. Caroline’s painful face surgery that reshaped her bone structure heals with the help of drugs but Caroline’s addiction to those pills gets out of control, resulting with stealing her parents’ pills to sleep tight at the night.

Silverman, Karyn (September 10, 2014). "We Were Liars". School Library Journal . Retrieved June 8, 2015. I don't want to say too much else because spoilers but this is definitely a more mature work than WE WERE LIARS and I enjoyed it a lot. I don't want to go into too much depth with the plot because I strongly feel that by giving away the twist (even hints at the twist) would completely ruin the novel. And then IT was revealed and I was all, "WHAT IS THIS LIFE? I REJECT EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS ENDING. NOOOOOOO!!!!"

Hedeen, Katrina (May 6, 2014). "Review of We Were Liars". The Horn Book Magazine . Retrieved June 9, 2015. Cadence makes a tight little group with the two grandchildren her own age, Johnny and Mirren, and an outsider, Gat, who joins them every year. Aged 15, Cadence falls in love with Gat. At the end of that summer, she has an accident, a breakdown or some kind of illness, but she can't remember what happened, how or why. All she knows is that she was found on the shore, dressed in her underwear, the sea washing over her. "They tested me for brain tumours, meningitis, you name it. To relieve the pain they prescribed this drug and that drug and another drug, because the first one didn't work and the second one didn't work, either." We Were Liars Characters: These are some of the prominent characters that play a vital role in the plot. The title. It does't make sense to me. I don't want to say anything in case spoilers, but I don't think it's the perfect title.This story is told through many concise sentences, which are often out of sequence, but this review will attempt to tell the story in a linear fashion. Cadence Sinclair Eastman is almost 18. She lives with her mother in Vermont. Her father left the family when Cadence was 15. His leaving shattered her world. It's not terrible. But there's almost no plot at all. The "Liars" are more "Talkers," and they have almost no relevant role in the book because this book is about a pretentious girl with nothing but #whitegirlproblems and #richpeopleproblems. The aforementioned "Liars" don't do anything in this book, they're not witty, they're not cute, they don't give off the sense of closeness and kinship that you get from growing up with someone their entire life. Hell, they're nowhere near Dead Poets Society kind of interesting.

There's this: He was contemplation and enthusiasm. Ambition and strong coffee. I could have looked at him forever.and this: The universe was good because he was in it. AND THIS! I wanted to touch him like he was a bunny, a kitten, something so special and soft your fingertips can’t leave it alone. Gag. Her talking about love nearly made me put the book down. The writing is pretty controversial - it’s the style of writing that people either love or hate, no in between. This type of book isn’t for everyone. Los Angeles Times writer Amy Benfer described that thematically, We Were Liars was "a classic story of decaying aristocracy and the way that privilege can often hamstring more than help." [7] Release and reception [ edit ] Cadence Sinclair Eastman is the eldest grandchild of the wealthy Harris Sinclair. Although her family pretends to be perfect, Cadence knows that beneath the surface, the wealth and privilege have taken an insidious toll on her family and any unhappiness or odd behavior is ignored or repressed to perpetuate the image of refinement. Harris has three daughters, Cadence's mother Penny, and her aunts Carrie and Bess. Harris owns an island called Beechwood Island near Martha's Vineyard and has built a home for himself called Clairmont along with a house for each of his daughters. There's one part I never did figure out. Cady the main character keeps talking about bleeding..Did she cut or was that just supposed to be a metaphor or some crap?And maybe that makes me sound extremely heartless, but I couldn't relate to the main character (no, I'm not even going to tell you her name because I want you to go in blind). But somewhere along the lines, I started to become intrigued with the story because it became this strange, wild thing that I couldn't piece together. June of the summer I was 15, my father ran off with some woman he loved more than us." Cadence Sinclair, the teenage narrator of We Were Liars, initially seems very familiar: quirky, perky, sentimental and charming, blessed with an unusual name and a neat turn of phrase, surely she's going to lead us on a tale of unrequited love studded with witty one-liners. And indeed she does, but her story soon descends into much murkier waters, eyeing its teenage protagonist with a twisted smile and a tragic sense of the pain wrought by selfish, self-absorbed adolescents. It will be a treat for readers to see the Sinclairs’ island come to life, particularly the four houses built for patriarch Harris Sinclair and his three daughters (the Liars’ mothers), since they are related to much of the story’s drama. But simply getting a visual of that exclusive world where the families spend their summers isn’t the biggest draw to this adaptation. I loved that feeling of constant perfection. How despite being messed up, the Sinclairs managed to be “sparkling, sunburnt and blessed” - despite being awful, they were perfect. There was just that consistent ethereal quality.

The personification of emotion. This might not make sense unless you've read the book, but wow it was powerful. Another thing I loved was how different the characters were. The whole book is from Cady’s first-person narrative, and as you can tell, that narrative is very individual only to Cadence. The writing style and the prose would have been completely different if it had been from any of the other characters’ perspectives. Imagine if Gat or Johnny or Mirren had narrated this. Anyway, I was feeling very blasé about the first half. It felt like a really random story about a rich, white girl and her white girl problems, crying her white girl tears and I felt myself unsure about what the point of it all was.Harris Sinclair: Cadence’s granddad, a Harvard graduate and wealthy business person - patriarch of the Sinclair family. Cadence particularly enjoys the company of those she calls "The Liars": her cousins Johnny and Mirren, as well as Gat, the nephew of Johnny's mother's boyfriend. The Liars, including Cadence, are all about the same age; Johnny and Mirren are like the siblings Cadence never had, and Gat...well, Gat steals Cadence's heart immediately. I like the lemon scavenger hunt game and the Who Am I? game the family plays. I like their family nights. I like the dad's quotes as an advice to get through life. I enjoyed the twists! The audiobook was good because the narrator sings at the singing parts. I’d recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a plot that persuades you to wonder. To readers who can accept the bittersweet circumstances of life displayed within their fiction. This is not a character-driven novel. The story shines brighter. I don't think I ever fully connected with any character at all--and the fact that I was moved to tears by the finish is what made this a five-star read for me.