We Were Liars by E. Lockhart: Review

Title: We Were Liars
Author: E. Lockhart
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Buy This Book: Amazon / Book Depository 

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.
Read it.
And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.(Goodreads summary.)

This is far too accurate!

This review is, I truly believe, the hardest review I have had to write on the blog so far. How do I even begin to express all my feelings about this book? This is where I know that whatever I say will in no way truly explain the amazing, the exceptional, the heartbreaking thing that is We Were Liars. I just don't have the writing talent that Lockhart does, I'm not going to be able to do her book any justice in this review. But I am certainly going to try and I am going to hope that it leads you to pick up this book and experience it for yourself.

The summary of the book is one of the greatest I have seen in a long while. It's very intriguing and it piqued my interest straight away. Then I saw all the love pouring in for this book and I knew I had to hurry up and get to my eARC of it. That one line: And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE. - that is beyond accurate because this has an end that you just don't want to spoil for anyone.

I didn't know what to expect from We Were Liars, but it delivered everything I could have wanted and so much more. It earned a place among my favourites, a place among the list of books that has made me sob and became the first book to ever make me cry whilst reading on my lunch break at work. This was ugly crying, this was the kind of crying that made me 5 minutes late back from my break because I had to get my crying under control. I didn't know what to expect from We Were Liars, but I honestly didn't expect that. This packed a definite punch, it was gut-wrenching and heartbreaking and I hated it but couldn't stop myself from loving it.

Our narrator is Cadence Sinclair Eastman, the first grandchild of Harris and Tipper Sinclair, and heiress to the Sinclair family fortune. The Sinclair family are old money, they own their own private island and I might just be completely in love with them. They provide everything you need in a book; intrigue, love, mystery, drama and everything in between. Cadence looks back on her summers on Beechwood Island, which she spends with her family, including the Liars. The Liars consist of Cady, her cousins, Johnny and Mirren, and Gat, the nephew of her aunts boyfriend. And I enjoyed every second of getting to know them all and finding out about their summers on the island.

Cady was a brilliant narrator for me because I couldn't trust her. This book is about discovering what happened during summer 15. This is where Cady suffered a traumatic head injury and washed up on the beach, where she was discovered by her mother. She has no recollection of what happened, why she was swimming in the sea in nothing but her underwear, or why her family refuse to talk to her about it. After she misses summer 16 on the island, Cady is determined to go back this summer, summer 17, and find out what happened to her that year.

The mystery aspect of this book was perfection. You were as completely out of the loop as Cady was, you feel as completely lost as she does and it makes it so easy to sympathise with her. Her family aren't telling her the whole truth and she's suffering daily pain that makes her almost wish she were dead. All she wants to do is uncover the truth and find out what happened that summer. I was just as desperate to find out as she was because I knew it was going to be something big.

Cady and Gat's relationship develops slowly as they spend their summers together on the island. I thought Gat was a hilarious character, but a very complex one as well. He spends his summers with them but doesn't feel an accepted part of the Sinclair family. Cady's grandfather does not accept him, or the fact that he and his uncle are both Indian and this bigotry begins to have a big impact on Gat as he gets older. He was hurting and he was an easy character to feel for, I really felt for him and the fact that no one else seemed to notice the treatment he was receiving. I loved and laughed at his hilarious one liners and moments like this, which he writes in a note to Cady:

'Someone once wrote that a novel should deliver a series of small astonishments. I get the same thing spending an hour with you.

Also, here is a green toothbrush tied in a ribbon.

It expresses my feelings inadequately.'

Sweet and funny, how could I not just fall in love with that boy?

Lockhart's writing was exceptional and it's made me ache to get my hands on more of her books. She writes in such a beautiful way, her writing was something I had to get used to. I had a moment of reading where I stopped and put the book down because of how shocked I was about what had just happened. After a second of collecting myself, I picked the book up again and realised what I had read was a metaphor and I'd had a heart-stopping moment over nothing. This occurred a lot for me in the book, but soon you get used to it and I loved this style of writing. I honestly couldn't put the book down, I could read this book on repeat for a week and be just as in love with it. 

Me after the big reveal. 

I didn't see it coming, I just didn't. I had no idea what I was expecting to be the big reveal about summer fifteen, but I was ill prepared for the truth. It was heart-wrenching but exquisitely done. I wanted to start back at the beginning of the book and look for any hint or clue about what was to come. I still do, it's only the fact I am behind on my ARCs that has stopped me doing just that. I loved this book and hated it for what it did to me. It's been a long time since a book made me cry out in utter shock, but this did it. I cried like a child whilst on my lunch at work, and I had to go back late because I needed to collect myself. Was it the end I wanted? Hell no. Was it utterly amazing and exceptional in every way? Hell yes!

Look at that, I've wrote an essay length review of this book and been absolutely unable to express how I feel. I have been unable to show how truly amazing I found every minute of this book. I've been unable to put across my absolute heartbreak from the moment this book utterly crushed me and made me sob like a baby at work. I haven't even covered everything I wanted to cover, need to cover and that's just because I can't. As hard as I try, I honestly can't seem to put into words every little thing I love about this book. 

5/5 Butterflies

More like 5+++++++ Butterflies. I adored this book, hated what it did to me and loved it regardless. My interest never waned and I fell in love with Lockhart's writing style. This is one of the best books I have read and I know I will be reading it again. This book and the reading experience will stay with me for a long time, this is a book I will be forcing upon others and begging them to read. The mystery aspect was perfect, I saw nothing coming and I loved how in the dark I was to what was going to happen. I am in awe of Lockhart's story, her talent, her writing. I know I have done this book no justice, but I beg you to give it a go and experience it for yourself. 

*I received a copy of this novel from the author/publisher/publicist via Netgalley in exchange for a free and honest review and received no monetary compensation for this review.