We Were Liars by E. Lockhart | Book Review + Discussion

There was (and still is) so much hype surrounding this book. And know I finally know why. If you haven't already read We Were Liars by E. Lockhart, I highly recommend you to get on that right now. Like, NOW. Because my review is only going to be slightly spoiler-free. The rest of it is going to be filled to the brim with spoilers, so yeah.

Spoiler-free part
I just want to say that there are mixed reviews for this book. Some people loved it, some people hated it, and there were also people that just thought it was okay. I'm...not really sure where I fall. The book itself was kind of a chore for me to get through, but my drive to see the decisive ending surpassed everything I felt while reading it. This hasn't become my favorite book but it also isn't a book that I dislike. It's just...hauntingly beautiful, if I might say so. We Were Liars lingers in your mind days, even weeks, after you have read it. The story is just that powerful and...disturbing. It is definitely very intriguing.

Like many people say, the best way to get into this book is to have no expectations and no background information at all.
I don't think it would hurt to say a little about what it's about.
There is a family called the Sinclairs that go to their private island off the east U.S. coast every summer. The Sinclairs comprise of three daughters and their own families, as well as their parents. We Were Liars focuses in on a particular summer, where something went wrong...

That's all I'm going to say. Enjoy reading this book. ha...ha...

Spoilers, beware!
I hope everyone that is reading this sentence has read the book. If not, you need to, like, click the 'x' button or scroll furiously down. Because if you spoil yourself on this book, I guarantee you will be extremely disappointed in yourself (nah jk, at least I will be. :P)
So, spoiler review begins in...

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OKAY! So I'm going to start off with discussing about the plot.

• Plot(and a few other tidbits)

The WRITING. Although it caught me off guard sometimes, such as the metaphor, seemingly mentioned by every single person that has reviewed this book, on page 5:

"Then he pulled out a handgun and shot me in the chest. I was standing on the lawn and fell. The bullet hole opened wide and my heart rolled out of my rib cage and down into a flower bed. Blood gushed rhythmically from my open wound,

then from my eyes,

my ears,

my mouth."

It really startles you once you read it. But I thought it was the perfect description to make the reader understand how Cadence felt when her dad left her. Good job, E. Lockhart! I knew that it was a metaphor right off the bat because main characters can't die in a story, right (unless it's for the purpose of the plot and they become ghosts or something but that seemed highly unlikely with this book)? ;)
I also thought the writing was very fitting for this novel. The writing is unclear, detached, and the main character speaks in a very vague way, leaving the readers with material but no link, no connection, Since we are seeing from the eyes of Cadence, who doesn't have a clue what's going on, it makes for even more puzzlement and intrigue.

When Cadence goes back to the island for summer seventeen, I questioned the events that were happening around her because it didn't seem like...reality. The Sinclairs never mentioned the rest of the Liars, and her mom always asked where she was and what she was doing, which was quite odd since she would know that Cadence was with her friends. That made me think, "are the Liars actually there?" And my conclusion, is yes and no. I'll talk about my theory sometime later in this review.

The whole mystery of the book only survived because the Sinclairs decided not to talk about it and let Cadence remember on her on, as was advised by her doctor. It also made sense because Cadence wasn't remembering what her mom told her anyway so there would be no use in telling it to her straight out. Her mind would just subconsciously block those triggers out. This is one of the Sinclair family mottos anyway, (first shown when Granny Tipper died);

"Don't cause distress...Don't remind people of loss...Silence is a protective coating over pain."(page 29)

That was also why Cadence was giving away her stuff; to erase herself from the world, to erase her sin. On page 183, the Liars are discussing New Clairmont and why Harris built it and Gat says,  

"New Clairmont seems like a punishment to me...A self-punishment. He built himself a home that isn't a home. It's deliberately uncomfortable."

 Cadence then goes on to ask why he would do that and Gat asks her why she was giving all of her belongings away, making a connection between the two actions. The reasoning behind them was the same.

You know, going through the book a second time, I've face-palmed myself at all the clues I've missed that hinted to what happened in summer fifteen.
Going back to the discussion of New Clairmont, on page 62-63, Cadence goes back to the island for summer seventeen and observes the new appearance it has. The trees near old Clairmont are gone, and of course, the house. Cadence says the house is made of glass and iron. Non-flammable material. Of course. OF COURSE.

A few other hints were the children's behaviors. Taft calls Cadence's home, and they have a conversation about her being a "drug addict". He keeps on repeating the question, saying, "are you sure?" like what she's talking about is crazy. He mentions something interesting too, saying that "Cuddletown is haunted." Hmmm.

Now when you read further and see the unclear events between Cadence and the rest of the Liars, you can put two-and-two together. But I didn't because I'm a numbskull. Really, the whole time I thought they were hallucinations but that just CAN'T be possible either. The Liars had their own mind, they're own actions, and they themselves also gave out hints as to what happened that decisive night. Cadence couldn't have made that all up in her head. So, the only logical conclusion I can get is that the Liars were ghosts because they appeared in front of Cadence even after she knew that they were dead, and said goodbye to them.

 I have never hallucinated because of drugs before but seriously? Cadence would have to be bat-shit crazy to be hallucinating ALL of that. That's just my opinion though. I kind of stuck with the hallucination thing for a while after I read the book for the first time because I thought We Were Liars was a realistic type-of-book but now, I think there was some kind of supernatural activity going on.

Another thing that intrigued me was how the Liars seemed to have been interacting with the rest of the family. They were supposed to be dead, right? But somehow, a few of the family members mentioned them doing something in present tense.
For example, on page 65, Taft says, "Mirren read me a story." How could that be? Could he see her too?
It's very, very interesting.
Gat says, on page 193,

"Penny said it was best. And--well, with all of us being here, I had faith that you'd remember." 

How did he know what Penny said? Was he talking to her? He says, "with all of us being here", meaning that they were there to help her remember. Because, I guess, they wouldn't be there then.

Not to mention, Bonnie seems to have taken an interest in "creepy dead stuff", as described by Liberty. Hmm, I wonder why...? I have just absolutely no clue. ;) That was one of the clues I didn't catch by looking back on it, it's kind of disturbing how she's literally obsessed with it. It might be how she copes with the incident though.

Speaking of coping with incidents, a lot of things changed as a result of the fire. Before, we see in a past memory that one of the Liars motives for burning old Clairmont down was because of the aunts fighting over the property.

Carrie wandering around at night especially killed me. She even asked for Johnny, which tore my heart to pieces, but again, when I first read it, I didn't think that she could possibly be interacting with Johnny; I thought that it was her way of coping. The fact that Will has nightmares at night and calls for her, and she just keeps wandering just felt like someone freaking tore my heart apart and stomped all over it.
Carrie seems to be so emotionally distraught at nighttime that she doesn't even respond to the wails of her son that's alive.
One good thing that came of it though, was the bonding of the three sisters. They was some tension between them before, as they were arguing with each other but this tragedy is just, it really hurts, and it brought them all closer.

The fairytales were possibly my favorite thing out of the whole book. I don't know why, but I liked the way it kind of told the Sinclairs' story in a different way.
There was one, especially chilling, on page 54, about a dragon that terrorized the village and the king thought that maybe his daughters could charm the dragon to calm his rampages. At the end, they all get eaten and Cadence says, "Who killed the girls? The dragon? Or their father?" And the three princesses are, of course, in reference to Harris's daughters, Penny, Carrie, and Bess but I didn't exactly understand how that had to do with the story. I guess...maybe...because Harris was luring them in with his assets, they were fighting over it, thus breaking their bond as family? That sounds pretty far off though. :/

And lastly, the tragedy. Oh. My. God.
I kind of suspected that all three of them were dead but E. Lockhart's writing delivers again! My heart sank, I felt so bad, and it just destroyed me to hear the truth. Sometimes the truth hurts but it needs to be heard. Ignorance is only temporary bliss. 
I will probably look like a jerkface but I honestly didn't feel much when Cadence remembered the dogs dying in the fire. I mean, I felt really, really sad but it didn't affect me as much as the thought of causing the death of your three best friends in the world. That was very traumatizing. I guess it could be the fact that I don't own any pets so I don't know how it's like to be close and attached to one but I LOVE DOGS, I really do and I want one very badly and I'm going to stop because I'm just rambling now.

The last few chapters absolutely killed me. Okay, so my heart was ripped out a few times when reading this book but the last few chapters. They were powerful. I totally understood Cadence's emotions; the words flew off the page and just connected my soul with hers.

I give my condolences to the Liars. What happened was absolutely terrible. No one is the cause of it.

Okay, this is going to be the last thought before I ask a few of mine own questions.
When I finished the book, I finally made the connection to what Cadence said in the beginning and the repeat at the end:

"My full name is Cadence Sinclair Eastman. 
I suffer migraines. I do not suffer fools. 
I like the twist of meaning. 
I endure."

 I might just be really dumb for not getting this in the beginning but if you just look up the definitions of  "suffer" and "endure", they do have similar meanings but different at the same time.

(From a Google search of the definitions)

Suffer

1. experience or be subjected to.

2. tolerate

Endure

1. suffer (something painful or difficult) patiently.

2. remain in existence; last.

 Well, at least we know she's not going to commit suicide. But it could also mean that she's suffering patiently. She's suffering from the traumatic loss, and of course, who wouldn't suffer from that, however, it's disheartening to picture a depressed, broken Cadence, living day-to-day half alive. I really don't like to think about that.

A few more questions I have about the book before I delve into the characters.

One) Why was Harris calling Cadence, "Mirren" sometimes? I understand that this became a thing after the fire incident but I don't know why he would mistake her for Mirren. Maybe because he doesn't want to admit she's gone? He did mention Gat too, saying that there was a book he wanted to give to him so...however, I don't believe he mentioned Johnny. Was it because of the fight they got in?

Two) Why was Mirren getting sick, while Johnny and Gat were okay? The book mentions several times about her feeling sick, vomiting, etc. and I was about to think that she was pregnant because she mentioned her ridiculous "boyfriend", Drake Loggerhead, which turned out to be a lie and she confessed that she's never had sex before. So, I kind of threw that theory out. But I have seen other reviews that speculated Gat got her pregnant and I could see how that was possible since he apologized to Cadence (for whatever reason.)

• Characters

 I'm going to keep this real short because I spent way too long talking about the plot. But that's because the plot was more interesting and evident than the characters. Sorry, I got to be blunt about it. We Were Liars is a short book, not even 300 pages long, and most of the book was pretty much dedicated to the mystery of summer fifteen. I felt like the characters didn't get enough development and there wasn't a single one of them that I felt attached to. So when they got burned in the fire, all I could think about was, "WHY CADENCE? HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW HOW TO SET A FIRE? IF YOU'RE GOING TO BE AN ARSONIST, DO IT RIGHT."
All joking aside, I seriously slammed my face on the table when reading that scene. I just...I understand they were a little drunk but Cadence must have been hella tipsy or something to make such a huge mistake like that.

I'm thinking that it might have been the detached writing style, the distance from the reader and the story that made this story mysterious and intriguing but at the same time, not being able to connect with the story itself. Sure the Sinclairs have an air of mystery around them, but what's the point of a good story if it can't pull the reader in? I literally forced myself to finish this book just to find out what the ending was.

I don't think...there were any characters I actually liked. xD I didn't hate them either but I didn't care for them. This is true for the romance too.

Gat and Cadence. Cadence and Gat. Nope. I don't see a spark between them at all. Of course, they were acting all lovey-dovey in private but I just felt like they were two kids kissing and holding hands with each other. No real love. Which is silly because everyone knows they are in love with each other but I just couldn't feel it while I was reading it. It's kind of surprising since I usually pick up on emotions in books pretty easily. Maybe I was just too focused on the mystery?




So yeah! That was my ridiculously long review of We Were Liars by E. Lockhart.
I give it a 3.10 stars out of 5 stars. It was slightly above the average book, but it fell flat in places. Opinions on this book are pretty much black and white from what I've seen; either you hate it or love it. I'm in the grey area, however. It wasn't the best book and I've read better books with similar premises but hey, E. Lockhart tried to go for something different. Props to her for trying.

Have a good day! You probably won't read this whole review but that's okay! Just wanted to share my opinion on this! <3