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luna_98's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
first of all, the writing in this felt like poetry — so beautiful and tender and real.
secondly, i think i almost like this story more with time, it’s something i still think about and feel sad about.
this book was unlike the books i normally gravitate towards so in that way it was something new and interesting. some people are hesitant to read YA but this book didn’t have that cringey, dumbed down vibe that YA books typically get a bad rep for.
i like how nothing was over-explained; the author respects the readers enough that they are following along and leaves them with questions (but not in a bad way). it deals with heavy topics and doesn’t shy away from the uglier parts of life.
secondly, i think i almost like this story more with time, it’s something i still think about and feel sad about.
this book was unlike the books i normally gravitate towards so in that way it was something new and interesting. some people are hesitant to read YA but this book didn’t have that cringey, dumbed down vibe that YA books typically get a bad rep for.
i like how nothing was over-explained; the author respects the readers enough that they are following along and leaves them with questions (but not in a bad way). it deals with heavy topics and doesn’t shy away from the uglier parts of life.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Alcoholism, Racism, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Addiction
sabrinabeschke's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness, Grief, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Child death, Death, Drug use, Infidelity, Mental illness, Racism, Medical content, Dementia, Medical trauma, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism
Minor: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit
antonia123's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Dementia, and Grief
Minor: Suicide attempt
mackenzie073's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.5
I liked the writing style of this book, the plot just wasn’t it for me
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Death, Mental illness, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
mikathereviewer's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Summary of my review: Short chapters, interesting story line, fast- to medium-paced, nice writing style, showing us readers how the book was planned (first sketches, scenes, etc.), weird romance, all story parts felt so different from the previous ones, disappointing ending, explanantion as to why they are called 'liars' were only mentioned in the afterword instead inside the story
When I saw that the book has 87 chapters I was like: What
But guess who's happy now for getting short chapters to read :D
Writing style was, well, interesting. I mean sometimes it was out of place and I was confused or preferred if it wasn't written down some parts, but some of them were really cool. Especially the beginning of the book. The eerie feeling was great!
The original hand drawn things, poems, and 'how I wrote We Were Liars' were really cool. Most authors don't include this, even though I think it's good to see the progress of a story for people who might plan to write their first one themselves.
(Also kinda glad the name 'Let's do and say we didn't' was changed to 'we were liars')
Despite everything I still liked the story. The plot. What happened. It didn't turn out like I hoped for, but it was still interesting to read. And honestly I wasn't triggered by anything.
Also, thanks for the spoiler warning for the #0 book as I wanted to actually start this one and didn't know that it would spoiler the other one 😅
All parts of the book are so different. The beginning gave me eerie and kinda spooky feelings — I was totally invested.
The middle part was medium-paced and gave me standard thriller vibes.
The romance was so weird. I used to find it cute at the beginning but it turned out to be more dramatic than necessary and both their decisions weren't really great and I think only hurt their relationship more than doing good.
The ending was disappointing. I had many theories how it would go and this wasn't one. So one could say the ending wasn't predictable, which I usually love, but I wished for it to be something else actually. I thought the story is perhaps about grief and the whole gory things were metaphors for being sad inside and needing to supress it as everyone in this family does it. I mean they don't even want to talk about people that passed. And the eerie vibe at the beginning made me think that it includes perhaps a bit of horror.
I had so many theories and so many great ideas for an ending, I even thought it was a Shakespeare re-telling of King Lear. What a disappointment.
I think the explanation at the end of the book why they were called bad liars was great, but it would have been better to include the scene of origin for this in the book so that we readers don't feel confused about it the whole time while reading.
Afterword
Before anyone says that the whole book copied other books (as one can see in her sketch for the book) I would disagree, as she only got Inspiration for a few aspects and didn't copy everything. I would call it Inspiration. And inspirations are great, they help you to get a better picture of how the story is supposed to be and might even motivate you.
Her whole preparations are well organised and I very very much appreciate her for showing us them. It can help so many. Help them to start they own book one day.
27. July 2024
When I saw that the book has 87 chapters I was like: What
But guess who's happy now for getting short chapters to read :D
Writing style was, well, interesting. I mean sometimes it was out of place and I was confused or preferred if it wasn't written down some parts, but some of them were really cool. Especially the beginning of the book. The eerie feeling was great!
The original hand drawn things, poems, and 'how I wrote We Were Liars' were really cool. Most authors don't include this, even though I think it's good to see the progress of a story for people who might plan to write their first one themselves.
(Also kinda glad the name 'Let's do and say we didn't' was changed to 'we were liars')
Despite everything I still liked the story. The plot. What happened. It didn't turn out like I hoped for, but it was still interesting to read. And honestly I wasn't triggered by anything.
Also, thanks for the spoiler warning for the #0 book as I wanted to actually start this one and didn't know that it would spoiler the other one 😅
All parts of the book are so different. The beginning gave me eerie and kinda spooky feelings — I was totally invested.
The middle part was medium-paced and gave me standard thriller vibes.
The romance was so weird. I used to find it cute at the beginning but it turned out to be more dramatic than necessary and both their decisions weren't really great and I think only hurt their relationship more than doing good.
The ending was disappointing. I had many theories how it would go and this wasn't one. So one could say the ending wasn't predictable, which I usually love, but I wished for it to be something else actually. I thought the story is perhaps about grief and the whole gory things were metaphors for being sad inside and needing to supress it as everyone in this family does it. I mean they don't even want to talk about people that passed. And the eerie vibe at the beginning made me think that it includes perhaps a bit of horror.
I had so many theories and so many great ideas for an ending, I even thought it was a Shakespeare re-telling of King Lear. What a disappointment.
I think the explanation at the end of the book why they were called bad liars was great, but it would have been better to include the scene of origin for this in the book so that we readers don't feel confused about it the whole time while reading.
Afterword
Before anyone says that the whole book copied other books (as one can see in her sketch for the book) I would disagree, as she only got Inspiration for a few aspects and didn't copy everything. I would call it Inspiration. And inspirations are great, they help you to get a better picture of how the story is supposed to be and might even motivate you.
Her whole preparations are well organised and I very very much appreciate her for showing us them. It can help so many. Help them to start they own book one day.
27. July 2024
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Addiction, Cursing, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Blood, Dementia, Gaslighting, and Classism
Minor: Rape, Vomit, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Alcohol
The book also includes survivor guilt also known as KZ syndromeizzy_on_a_shelf's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
I really had to stick to this one as I almost put it away several times. I'm however happy I stuck to it as it did improve. Slow start and found it a bit oddly written, afterwards parts of that made sense.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Child death, Death, Drug use, Grief, Medical trauma, and Fire/Fire injury
obsessedteach's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Racism, and Medical trauma
kalyaniwarrier's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Acceptance of grief is a gift not many can accept, much less survive, in the tragedy of the matter. The same can be observed in the case of Cadence Sinclair Eastman, the protagonist of the novel, who cherishes her summers with her cousins, away from problems and the angst of teenage life, to enjoy love, memory and family. Except, a tragedy occurs that spoils her memory and leaves her questioning of her existence.
We Were Liars focuses on the relationship dynamic between family and oneself, and the acceptance of illusion aligned with grief. A novel with underlying mysteriousness and a void to question the validity of the storyline, e. lockhart portrays life's dilemma's with conviction and doubt at the same time.
For the ones who find life's chaos entertaining, but confusing to tangle out of.
We Were Liars focuses on the relationship dynamic between family and oneself, and the acceptance of illusion aligned with grief. A novel with underlying mysteriousness and a void to question the validity of the storyline, e. lockhart portrays life's dilemma's with conviction and doubt at the same time.
For the ones who find life's chaos entertaining, but confusing to tangle out of.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Chronic illness, Death, Drug use, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Alcoholism and Fire/Fire injury
amandaelle's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Child death, Death, Drug use, Mental illness, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
savvyy01's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Grief