Book Review: We Were Liars

We Were Liars
by E. Lockhart
Release date: May 13th 2014
Published by: Random House
Source: Borrowed
Purchase: Amazon

Synopsis:

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.

We Were Liars is another kind of book that I usually avoid reading. I've read so many reviews about We Were Liars and although majority of the feedback are positive, almost everyone also noted two things about it: the unforeseeable twist and the tear-inducing ending. While I have no problems with plot twists, (I love twists!) I hate tear-inducing endings. I get attached to books so easily that I get so sad when something tragic happens so I avoid them as much as I can to spare myself from heartbreak. It just so happened that a friend lent me a copy of this book and I thought it would be a waste to let the opportunity to read this pass. 

Honestly, I don’t know what to make of We Were Liars. That unforeseeable plot twist that everyone’s been talking about… I figured it out quickly, just a few pages into the book. At first it was just a hunch, but as I read closely and paid attention to every detail, I managed to conclude my hunch to be correct so ultimately, the ending didn’t affect me like it did to others. On one hand, I was legit angry at this book because it seemed to me that this was written specifically to elicit depressing emotions. I don’t like books like this that are made to manipulate the readers’ feelings. But on the other, I was glad because at least I didn’t get depressed by it. But then again, anger toward a book is something that I’ve never felt before so there’s also that.

It wasn’t as if the characters were likeable either nor was the plot intriguing. The Sinclair family is a pretentious bunch, but you gotta hand it to the grandchildren for still having some sort of decency. Emphasis on ‘some’ because the decency doesn’t live long. The story is told from Cady’s perspective, but I thought her voice was really bland. Granted, she’s suffering from some kind of amnesia but still, I didn’t get her. I also didn’t get the thought process of the other liars. The three sisters and the grandfather – basically all the characters! Each and everyone of them were a total mess – just like what the author wrote them to be – but sad to say that it’s the kind of mess I didn’t enjoy reading about.

I’m also feeling a bit salty because the synopsis is way intriguing than the story proper. And the dogs! I think what happened to the dogs was the only legit thing in the book that I got sad about. Anyway, since my feelings about the book is already obvious, I think it’s also worth noting that there’s something about We Were Liars that got me glued to the pages from the beginning until the end. The mystery, even though I already lost interest in it less than halfway through the book, got me absorbed in it that I managed to read the whole book in one seat.

Rating: 2 stars