REVIEW: We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
Dear readers,
Something I plan to do this year is review more “older” recent books. Don’t get me wrong. It’s nice being able to review new releases. Especially the part where I can recommend the ones I like to readers and seeing those readers like them, too. That satisfies me.
But I miss being able to discuss books with other people, and I find that hard to do with new releases. So I’m trying this out in 2015 in the hopes of spurring more discussion.
The first book I picked for this experiment is We Were Liars by E. Lockhart, which came out in the middle of last year. I meant to get to it, but I’m sure you all know how the TBR pile goes. That clearly didn’t happen, because I’m reviewing it now, several months later.
Despite the fact it is months later, I stayed pretty spoiler-free about the book. Surprising, considering how many people read it and kept talking about it. It was just very hard to miss. In the end, I went into this book knowing two things: it was a contemporary, and there was a twist. And since there was a much-touted twist, I assumed it was a mystery or a thriller of some sort.
All of these things are true. In fact, I think knowing there is a twist might have ruined the book for me. Because I saw the twist coming from almost the beginning, and didn’t even realize it was the much-touted twist until I went to read reviews after I finished, because I was completely confused and thought I’d missed something major.
We Were Liars is about Cady, the eldest grandchild of the Sinclair family–which is a very rich, privileged, white family. But like many fictional rich families, the Sinclairs have issues. Cady’s mother is one of three daughters, and they’ve been squabbling over their inheritance. The Sinclair patriarch is…special, making his daughters jump through hoops to prove their loyalty and earn his benevolence. And the grandchildren, including Cady, are caught in the middle.
For the past couple years, however, Cady’s been suffering from excruciating migraines. Her memory of the last summer she spent at the Sinclair ancestral home, two years ago, is fragmented. For as long as she can remember, she’s spent those summers with the other Sinclair grandkids: Mirren and Johnny, along with Johnny’s friend/sort-of cousin, Gat. They’re tight. But the one summer she doesn’t spend with them on the family island, they don’t answer any of her emails or phone calls.
Cady wants to know what happened the summer when everything changed: why she was found floating in the water, why the others didn’t keep in contact with her, and why her mother and aunts insist on keeping secrets from her. And piece by piece, she’s going to find out, whether her mother, aunts, grandfather, cousins or dear-friend/something-more like it or not.
I think there’s a danger in knowing a book has a twist when you go into it. It makes you hyper-aware that something is coming. I don’t know how other readers’ brains work, but mine definitely chews on stuff in the background as I read along. And in a post-Sixth Sense world, I think media consumers have learned to pick up on clues.
The fact I picked up on the twist pretty early on does compliment Lockhart’s ability to drop clues into the narrative. The problem is that because I figured out what was really going on pretty quickly, I didn’t have the transformative experience when the truth was revealed. I’m a little sad about that, because if there’s one thing I like, it’s experiencing that moment where everything you thought you knew changes. Sadly, that didn’t happen in We Were Liars.
I’m also starting to notice a…trope? Trend? In certain kinds of books.
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I’m interested in hearing from other people who’ve read this book. Did they have a similar experiences as me or was the plot twist indeed a plot twist? There was a lot of chatter about this book, so I can only assume the latter was more prevalent, but I want to hear from actual readers.
We Were Liars is an extremely quick read. I read it in a couple hours. I don’t feel like I wasted my time, but I also don’t know that I plan to pick up another Lockhart book. C
My regards,
Jia
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I’ve read a number of reviews for this book and a lot of them were dissatisfied with the book (and were not fans of the twist) so I’ve stayed away from it. After reading your review, I’m mighty curious.
Thanks for the review. I wonder if I can go without clicking your spoiler alert? Probably not.
I started this last night and made it as far as Chapter 16/Part 2. I have somehow managed to stay spoiler free and also somehow missed that there is supposed to be a twist. I think I have already figured out the twist and TBH, a statement in the non spoiler section of your review makes me think I’m right while hoping I’m wrong.
The only author in recent years that I think has truly surprised me with what I consider to be good or interesting plot twists is Kate Atkinson. I’ve since read enough of her books that I actually make a game out of trying to figure out where she is going and I’m far more successful now than I was in the beginning. I don’t know that I feel like I’m missing out on the twist experience because I enjoy the figuring out part so much. I actually have two of her books unread because I use them as rewards to myself.
All I can really say about We Were Liars so far is that Lockhart is no Atkinson and that I’m happy this was a library loan. The prose is so messy and Cady is the only character that seems to have any depth. Lockhart has made me care about what happens to Cady so I give her credit for that. I’m willing to cut some slack on the messy prose because it’s obvious that Cady is broken in some way and because of her age/maturity level. At this point I’m willing to stay in Cady’s unreliable head and see where we go.
Now I’m wondering if I just read too many “twisty” books and most have become predictable to me? I don’t know. I just think this one seems to be pretty obvious but like I said earlier, I hope I’m wrong. If I am wrong, I suspect my satisfaction with the book will increase.
@Anne:
I’ve had a similar experience with Megan Whalen Turner. Great twists, but now I know to anticipate them!
@Anne: I thought The Girl With All the Gifts by M R Carey went in some interesting directions which I was not expecting.
Ditto Anciliary Justice.
I don’t know if I would classify those books as having “twists” exactly but they both had moments where I needed to think of a bunch of plot points in an entirely new context.
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@Rowena: I understand the dissatisfaction. If you go in expecting a thriller or mystery, it doesn’t quite live up to that. I personally find
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explanations to be problematic on multiple levels.
@Anne: Sometimes I wonder if I’ve read lots of books with twists or unexpected plot developments — enough so that it takes a lot to surprise me these days. I do like being able to puzzle out a mystery and being right, but I also like being surprised, too.
Didn’t like this book, I would give it a D. Also don’t know how to do spoilers but hated what was done to certain animals.
Thanks to all for your suggestions. I had to laugh when I found The Thief and Ancillary Justice in my TBR folder and the others on my library hold list but it helps with the prioritizing.
A friend gave me this book with a raised eyebrow “tell me what you think” edict. I agree with your grade. It wasn’t bad; it was smart and original and different, in a time when it feels like so many books are telling the same story. I didn’t know there was a twist when I started reading, but I figured out pretty early on that there was a twist, and I thought I knew what it was, but my guess turned out to be the exact opposite of the truth. I think if someone described the book to me I’d think it was a really awesome story, but the writing style made this a really challenging read for me. If you try a sample chapter and the writing doesn’t bother you, this is worth picking up. But it is hard if you know there’s a twist coming because you spend so much time trying to guess what it is and missing the story.
The same friend who gave me this recommended “The Weight of Blood” (I think it’s by Laura McHugh… I’m too lazy to double-check) and instead of a “twist,” you just get the sense that you’re slowly getting pieces of something…something…omigod I was right, it’s something! And it’s not a big crazy twist, it’s just really clever and awesome and you feel brilliant when you put it together. If you’re looking for something like that, “The Weight of Blood” is really great.
Ha, I was glad to find this review, because I read this book right after it first came out, and I was underwhelmed. I think for me too it was a failure of knowing there was a big twist, and thus anticipating it, even if I didn’t quite guess what was going on (I’ve always been terrible at picking up clues though).
But then I started looking at the Top Ten YA Books of 2014, and this book was on practically EVERY SINGLE LIST. And I didn’t get it, because I’d liked it but not loved it, and it was certainly nowhere near the transformative experience everyone else seemed to have had. So glad to read this and know it wasn’t just me.
For anyone still looking for a transformative experience, I highly recommend Code Name Verity (and it’s companion, Rose Under Fire). I can’t say enough how much I love and cherish those books.
I definitely agree that readers are savvy to twists. I’m largely uninterested in twists anymore except as minor additions to otherwise solid stories; if the story isn’t worth reading with the twist spoiled or removed, I’d rather read something that will stand up without a gimmick. (For instance, The Enchanted and Shutter Island both have “twists” of a kind but each is fantastic even if you see it coming from miles away, which I suspect most people do.)
The worst offenders, though, are books in which the twist is hugely obvious to the reader but not to the characters. For instance, I generally adore Mira Grant’s work, but the twist in Parasite was so clear from a chapter or two in that it made the characters seem very, very, very stupid when they didn’t get it until they were flat-out told in the last few pages. Left me much less excited to read the sequel, even though the worldbuilding and writing was as excellent as in any of her books.
I’m glad to know I’m not alone in feeling this way & I’m glad I posted this review, so other readers could boggle along with me.
@Julianna: I’m not going to say that all YA thriller/suspense novels have this sort of writing style, but a decent number of them do, IMO. So it kind of rolls off my back these days.
I looked up The Weight of Blood on Goodreads and it looks interesting. I put a hold on it at the library. Thanks for the recommendation!
@Sabrina: Its appearance on all the Top 10 lists is what prompted me to revisit it and serve as the launching point for this experiment. I personally don’t think it belongs on those lists at all either whereas Code Name Verity absolutely did deserve being on every list in 2012. I also highly recommend the audiobook. I’m not really an audiobook person, but Code Name Verity’s was amazing.
@Molly: Oh, I find that super frustrating, too! It’s the worst when, as a reader, you figure out what’s going on, but the characters take much longer. I like smart characters. And that definitely doesn’t make them out to be smart.
While I haven’t read this one, I did read a different book by this author, and I wasn’t in love with it. The Secret History of Frankie Landau Banks was another one that was on all of the Best Of lists when it came out, which just left me going “…really?” I just felt that the author was too enamored of the Clever Thing she had done in the book (and it’s been long enough ago that I don’t remember what it was, just that I did not think it was a) all that clever and b) I think saw it coming) which has left me disinclined to pick up any of her other books. But she is a bit of a darling in the YA field and also with librarians; why I do not know.
Another complaint I heard bandied about was the overwhelming whiteness and agonizing levels of privilege that saturate this book. Which again, does nothing to make me want to read it.
@Floating Lush: It is definitely overwhelmingly white and full of rich people problems. I don’t know if either of those things could be improved upon because those aspects are actually part of the premise, IMO. The racism of the Sinclair patriarch is challenged, FWIW.
What you say about the author’s Clever Thing makes a lot of sense to me. I feel like the twist in this book is also a Clever Thing.
@Anne: LOL. The one thing I would say about The Thief is that it starts out slow and reads like a youngish YA whereas the later books have much more eventful beginnings and a more mature sensibility. So if The Thief doesn’t grab you, skip ahead to The Queen of Attolia.
@Jia: Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, rather. It was a finalist for both the Printz *and* the NBA, and it won a Cybil. Which…eh.
I haven’t read this one, and I agree with the overwhelming whiteness comment, but I actually loved The Disreputable History. That may be because it came out around Twilight time (or at least I read it then) and while I glommed the heck out of Twilight, I was so relieved to read a YA book with actual feminist underpinnings. And I really liked the voice and the story… The feminism was just glorious icing on the cake…
@Sarah: Another vote for Disreputable History here. Loved it.
I didn’t like how drawn out the twist was. It felt like it was such a long time coming and the rest of the book was just set up. I ended of skimming/skipping a lot to get to the main points.
I, too, found this book frustrating, but for different reasons than you did, Jia. I didn’t see the twist coming at all. When it was revealed, I was so angry! Not because of the twist itself, but because the book was in some ways trying to confront the issues of white and class privilege, and to empower its teen characters to do something about it. But what they do ends up being a total failure, a tragedy. This completely undercuts the message of empowering teens to try and intervene in issues of class and race privilege. NO, NO, NO!
Echoing Willaful and Sarah’s love for DISREPUTABLE HISTORY, though…
I think that knowing that there is a twist in this type of story could completely ruin the reading experience, depending on how quickly you are at picking up hints and clues. When I read this story, I had no idea about the twist coming, which made the story much more exciting for me. If you wouldn’t have known, do you think you would have enjoyed the book more than you did or do you think it was not your type of style? I personally got more into the book than I thought I would, and ended up finishing it the same night I started. I think I would recommend it regardless of any prior knowledge, but it is best to go in knowing nothing.
The book is rather short, short crisp narrative, short chapters – brevity creates magic here. I loved the book. 5/5for it’s narrative- experimental, smart.. but overall I would rate it 3.5/5
Maddie – I think that’s the key to reading this book. I knew that there was a twist coming from all the promotional literature and because of that, the twist was disappointing. Maybe if I’d read it from a different frame, my reaction would’ve been completely different. It all seemed really dreamy and I wished that the characters were more fully fledged out so that the ending had a greater impact.