We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

This book was haunting. It was one of those books you don’t want to ever think about again because it left you feeling just wrong, but you can’t stop thinking about it. It ripped my heart out. I just cried. Her whole realisation of what had happened, what they’d done, it was so so real and ugh it hurt. This book made me uncomfortable and made me ache. I don’t know how else to explain how it made me feel, but it messed me up. It gave me the shivers. E. Lockheart is a powerful writer. Hats off to her.

The plot of this book was so difficult to work out for yourself. Ugh, it was so clever. It kept you reading. Everyone was wrong, everything was wrong. But I just couldn’t put my finger on why. The whole plot is cleverly delivered to us on a silver platter, all shiny and perfect. We are hidden from the true story here until the very end. There are clues throughout, things that all add up at the end. But we only see what we want to see, and we are so far off the mark.

This book is all about privilege. It's subtle, I think. Whilst also slapping you right in the face. We follow a big family, on their private island, with their big houses and their rich father. But we don’t see what happens off the island, what happens behind closed doors. Lockheart shows us what the public is intended to see of this family. What image their money buys them. But as we read on, it all slowly unravels. Yet still, it’s not until the very end that the facade is dropped, and we see how far this family went to preserve their image. This book is horrible. It really hurt me. I don’t understand how they could’ve carried on after that night, yet they do.

I can’t tell you any more about this book otherwise I’ll ruin it for you. Ugh, I wish I could discuss the characters and the plot line and the plot twist and the heartwrenching final pages. But I can’t. I recommend reading this book, I think it is very eye-opening to how far people will go to be normal. How far we can be pushed before we break. But I am still trying to forget this book and forget how it made me feel, so if you’re like me, you might just want to google the plot or forget about it.

Holly

WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW

Okay, but I just have to talk about this book properly. I read this a year ago so if some of the stuff I’m talking about doesn’t make any sense it's because the time has distorted my memory.

They were DEAD?! All along?! And it was basically her fault?! And they all just acted as if everything was completely normal?! What??

So, first of all, the dogs. That killed me. The poor poor dogs. That was evil. I am very much scared of dogs, sure. But I also very much love animals and that just HURT. I hate it when animals suffer because of human actions. For example, I went to watch The Little Mermaid the other week and I sat there, ten minutes in, and genuinely was like no I’m not watching this when Max the dog nearly drowned because stupid Eric took his beloved dog on a boat in the middle of the ocean. It made me ache it was awful. Animals have no say in what we do and they shouldn’t have to suffer because of that.

Secondly, he was dead all along? They fell in LOVE. And he was dead. That really hurt because they had a connection and he was so young and he stayed on just to help her get through being the only one left. Then we find out he’s DEAD. No.

Thirdly, what? She’s running around with them all summer, not questioning why she never sees them interacting with anyone but her. And the whole rest of the family also doesn’t find it weird that even though she doesn’t remember, she’s spending the entire time in that house alone where they used to hang out. I’m so confused.

Fourthly and finally, this book was horrible. It was all her fault. They were all dead because of her idea, yet she lived. And even though all their kids were dead, they didn’t even talk about it, they hid it, and they still acted as if nothing had happened around her. I just can’t.

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Genre: fantasy; young adult fiction

Published: 29th September 2015

Stars: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐