We Were Liars by E Lockhart
Published by Delacorte Press
I REMEMBER the buzz that ran through school and friends when this book initially came out. A thrilling, dark and mysterious YA novel, earnest and excited praise of which spread in classrooms and texts and households during the year of its release in which it won the Goodreads Choice Award for Young Adult Fiction.
The huge cultural impact of Lockhart’s work can be expected to come back to life soon. Not only has there been the recent release of a prequel – Family Of Liars – but confirmation that the original book and the prequel will be adapted into a television series by Julie Plec, most famous for work on young adult TV sensation The Vampire Diaries, and Universal Television.
For this reason, now is the time for We Were Liars to fascinate a new generation of teenagers.
The book is one of those which operates on a favourite trope of mine – the perfect surface with endless dark secrets beneath, waiting to be uncovered. It’s an examination of the imperfections wealth and beauty attempt to hide.
It is this one thing, more scary to many than death, that forms the basis of this story – the threat of secrets being uncovered.
It is centred around the character of Cadence Sinclair Eastman, whose wealthy family revolves around her grandfather, Harris Sinclair, and his private island, Beechwood, in Martha’s Vineyard.
Every summer, Cadence has spent those beautiful months on this island with extended family and friends, and the three around her age whom she’s always been closest to, Mirren, Johnny and Gat. This group of four, known as The Liars, had grown deep relationships and fond memories, all of which shattered in one year with one event.
On summer number 15, Cadence suffers a head injury, the circumstances of which she cannot remember and that no one else seems to want to speak of.
From this moment on, that perfect image of summers at Beechwood is forever altered. When finally in year 17 she returns to the island, she finds both the way these summers are and the way she feels about them has changed. Cadence’s life goes spinning out of control as she searches for answers about the accident and becomes entangled in secrets beneath the superficial calm and glamour of the Sinclair family.
With every hint to scandal and secret revealed about this family, the reader is let in on the lies one by one, and as Cadence’s memories of that fateful year return, the picture becomes clearer right up to the ending and a widely praised shocking twist.
Through every moment, you’re able to root for Cadence, as she becomes more excluded the more she questions the secrets surrounding the Sinclair family.
To them, to be noticeably imperfect is a crime and with this Cadence represents the reader, hidden from the truth and trying to catch up on every page.
This is the kind of story you devour, the kind you want to tell your friends about and most of all, look forward to hearing more from. A wish set to be fulfilled with Family Of Liars and the upcoming series.
