If you want to know what Gen Z is reading, Book Tok is where it’s at. I decided to read some of the suggested and hyped books, so you may not have to. Last week I read We Were Liars by E. Lockhart, and I have lots of thoughts.
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What is We Were Liars About?
Cadence Sinclair spends her summers on her family’s private island with her cousins Johnny, Miren, and their friend Gat. They are nicknamed the Liars. It’s Cadence’s seventeenth summer on the island. She is recovering from an accident during summer fifteen and has no memory of it. Her family doesn’t discuss the accident around her and hopes her memory returns naturally. What happened during summer fifteen? Cadence intends to find out.
My Reading Experience
I didn’t have the best time with the book. The book is easy to read and only 250 pages long. But in all, We Were Liars is a clever book; the writing style did not jive with me. E. Lockheart’s writing was choppy and fragmented, and they used nouns as adjectives. As someone with an English degree, poor writing in a traditionally published book is a pet peeve. How did this pass the editor? I have the same problem with Twight, but I won’t get into that today.
Throughout the book, there’s little to no plot. While I enjoy character-driven books, We Were Liars lacked both. Nothing happens until the last twenty-five pages; the other 225 pages are of Candence whining. The plot’s biggest annoyance to me was that Lockheart never tells us why the group of cousins is called the Liars. It’s the title of the book. You would think it would be an essential detail, but it wasn’t.
As for the characters, I hated every last one. All the adults were money-hungry jerks, and the kids were spoiled brats. By the end of the book, Cadence doesn’t learn anything except she’s lucky.
At the end of the book, I was ready to chuck the book across the room. The twist ending would have been good if the setup had been better executed.
So, should you read it?
I wouldn’t recommend it, but I have some friends that had a different experience with We Are Liars and think I’m crazy for having such a horrible reaction to it.
But that’s the great thing about books; there is something out there for everyone, and just because I didn’t like a book doesn’t mean you won’t find value in its pages.
Don’t read it; the decision is up to you.
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