[Review: We Were Liars by E. Lockhart]

"We Were Liars"
Author: E. Lockhart
Series: None
Pages: 240
Genre: YA, Contemporary, Thriller
Date Published: May 13th, 2014
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Format Read: Hardcover from the library

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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.

-Goodreads 

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My Thoughts:

An Open Letter To We Were Liars,

What can I say about you? I don't think that I should say much. I think this review is going to be small and yet full of thoughts. You were a whirl wind. You took me on a journey and you entranced me with your pretty pretty words. Oh how I loved your words, but even with all the goodness that filled you, I still uncovered the twist far to early on to really get a full experience out of you, which makes me a little sad.

-The White Unicorn

This is one of those reviews where you want to say everything, but nothing at the same time. As a reader who figured out the "all mighty" twist in the novel at around 25% I'm at a loss for what a true spoiler would be regarding this book. I feel like the answer is glaring, even if it is confused by the wonderful storytelling, it's still there. I guess I just knew what to look for. 

I have to admit that I fell in love with Lockhart's writing style. It's so bare and clean and beautiful. We Were Liars is an extremely easy and fast read. Lockhart strings words together in the oddest ways. They're so strange that they're wondrous. You read, not only because you want to see what happens, but also just to see what sentences she chooses to use. I feel like this is something that I could go on and on about, but I won't. Just know what I want to read her other books when I can.

The other thing that I loved so much about this book is the social commentary that Lockhart uses at the forefront of the novel. She calls people on their crap and makes you think about things in a way that's interesting. Of course I can't tell you what actually happens, but I can tell you that I loved the family dynamic that Lockhart picked to use. It's one of the most interesting things about the book.

The characters weren't my favorite separately. I didn't actually find any of them likeable. That being said, as a whole I really liked them. They worked as a team of characters so well that, even though I didn't like any of them, that didn't end up mattering to me as I read. I also found the "love story" to be silly and completely unneeded. I understand why it was there, but I think it would have been better without it. But let's just chalk that up to personal preference.

So, that's all I'm going to tell you about this one. I think it should be read and enjoyed by anyone who is interested. I liked it a lot, but like I said, I figured things out really early and I think that affected how I read the story.

Rating:

3 Unicorns = I liked it a lot but it had it's issues!