A review by xabbeylongx
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Spoilers Ahead: 
This book has been raved about all over TikTok, and I finally found it in a charity shop and wanted to see if it lived up to its name! Honestly, it was a pretty decent book, but it wasn’t anything special. 
We follow Cadence as she makes her way through the summer. Beforehand, she had a lot of good memories of her and her three other friends. They called themselves the Liars, Cadence, Gat, Mirren and Johnny. They would spend every summer together. Cadence had a very big crush on Gat, and it was difficult to see if he felt the same way sometimes, but she loved him. After an incident where she loses her memory, she goes back for the summer. 
All of the Liars are pulling away from her, and there seems to be an awful lot of arguing in their family, and lots of tears. Cadence feels so alone, and weird with her memories. She starts giving away stuff, and acting weirdly, as her memories start to return. It’s only then that she finds out that all of her friends died in the incident. 
They had decided to start a fire, as every person in the family was fighting over who would get what when their dad died, and they just wanted it to be peaceful again. So, they set fire to the house, thinking it would solve all of their problems… 
It didn’t. 
Mirren, Johnny and Gat all died, and it took her memories coming back for her to know. Once she finds out, after being told by them (their ghosts were trying to make sure she was okay) she says goodbye to them, as they had hung on for too long anyway. They waded into the sea and Cadence said a final goodbye to them. She stopped giving everything away - she was doing it out of guilt - and she decided to do better for her friends, who didn’t get to do everything that they wanted to do. 
I thought the whole concept was very cool. I knew that somewhere towards the ending there would be a plot twist, and I was expecting it to be that she was dead, not that the others were all dead. I think it’s so sad, watching her gain back her memories, only to realise that she caused all the deaths. Especially the dogs, that was gut-wrenching. And finding out she’s been talking to them all this time? Just stab me in the eye, it will hurt less. I wasn’t overly thrilled by the book. I thought the style was very cool, and it’s a very simple book to read, but it’s not all that bad. A little overhyped, I must say, but it’s not a bad book. I think the meaning is very cool, the fact that actions have consequences, some of them life-altering, and sometimes just a simple ‘sorry’ won’t cut it. I also like how Cadence was learning of her memories as we were, I thought that was a very cool technique. I think the book is cleverly written, but just not as thrilling as I thought it would be. Still worth the read, though! 
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