Review: We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

There was a warning at the back of this book, "If someone asks you how it ends, just lie.".
Heed that warning.

Title: We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
Release Date: May 13th 2014
Published by: Random House Inc
Source: Publisher (Thanks Random House!)
Buy: Amazon | Book Depository

Summary:

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.

We Were Liars is a modern, sophisticated suspense novel from National Book Award finalist and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart.
Read it.
And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.

Cadence belongs to the Sinclair family, daughter of the youngest Sinclair and the first grandchild. They're a family of old-money Democrats, prestigious, with wealth and power. Blessed, perfect, beautiful. Except no one knows what happens inside the family, or in their private island off the coast of Massachusetts. No one knows that Cadence's father left her and her mom, that one of her aunts is a single mom, while the other lives with a guy who will never marry into the family because he's of a different race. No one knows that they use their children to be in the Sinclair patriarch's good graces, or that they all rely on family money. And no one must know. As a Sinclair, they have to look the part.

This is admittedly my first Lockhart book, and with friends going on and on about how well thought out her books are, I'm not entirely sure what to expect myself. The story sounds so deceptively simple, but it truly is not. I felt like I was in over my head while I was trying to go with the flow that was Cadence's feelings. It was tiring, the ups and downs, the flashbacks, exploring the web that connects each family member to another. Most of the time I felt like I know a lot and still don't know much, like I was barely touching the surface of what it was like to be a Sinclair. Dealing with Cadence's feelings when her father left and when her mother tried to cover up her misery with spending money, her encounter with Gat and her cousins was an experience in itself with the way E. Lockhart described those moments. Then I was gradually fed with subtle clues and hints that all is not well in the Sinclair family, that they're that kind of family, pretending to be okay outside but chaotic inside. And as Cadence tries to figure out the dynamics in the friendship that binds her to her cousins, The Liars, and her complicated feelings for Gat the outsider, things started to get bizarre and the lines between reality and hallucination starts to blur.

I discovered Gat and his worldly views and opinions, his anger and his passion, Johnny and Mirren and the issues they had to deal with in their lives, the pressure of being the first born grandson, of competing with his cousins, of inventing an ideal version of yourself and lying. Each character had their own fascinating side that you just want to explore, but all you see is what Cadence saw. And everything looks different in the eyes of a girl who lost years worth of memories, fragile, lonely, broken. I've developed a certain apprehension and confusion to Gat and his very inconsistent attitude, felt sad for Johnny and Mirren and there are reasons for that. They wanted to change the world, and change the world they did, just not the way they expected to.

There was a certain disarray of information in my mind because the story plays tricks on you. You understand what you're reading but it doesn't make much sense story wise. What was happening? Until the last fifty pages of the book presented itself to me and the story unraveled and I found myself reliving the story and piecing it the way E. Lockhart intended it to, and it was brilliantly exhausting and beautifully sorrowful at the same time. When everything starts to make sense, that's when you realize you have a heart and that it just shattered into a million pieces, thanks to the masterful way E. Lockhart has woven this story. No pretty words, no fancy twists or turns, just magnificent execution and honest writing you will feel in your bones.

You know when you've read a book so great that you find yourself incapable of transforming what you felt into words, coherent sentences and concrete descriptions of what you've been through? That's what I felt when I leafed through the last page of this book. We Were Liars literally made me speechless. I found myself staring at a wall for a good 60 seconds before I realized that my mind has just been messed with real good by a book.

Once you picked up a copy of this book and you started reading, you will not stop until you reached the last page. You will not stop until you find out what happened. You will not stop until you find out the truth. It's an honor to have experience the magnificence of E. Lockhart's writing through this one of a kind mystery thriller. We Were Liars is such a memorable read, leaving such an big impression on me that it will take a long time before another book takes its place in my heart.

My rating:

Content (plot, story flow, character):

This book has just set the bar high when it comes to my expectations for a mystery thriller read. It was so difficult to deal with my feelings after I've read We Were Liars. I felt lost and sad and just incapable of functioning for a good while. I have never received such a good shock to my system after reading a book. We Were Liars just lived up to my expectations and more! Wow, just... wow.

Stunning: Worthy of a Goddess' Praise!

Book Cover:
You know that cover is a fitting image to the story, but it still makes me sad when I think about it.