We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

 

Summary (from the publisher): 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 New York Times bestselling author, National Book Award finalist, and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart.

Read it.

And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.

Review: This had an intriguing premise - girl from a wealthy family is embroiled in a tragic accident - but it just didn't grab me the way I had hoped. The suspense of the novel hinges on the main character Cadence's inability to remember what happened to her the summer of the accident. Slowly, over the course of the novel, small memories and details begin to come back. 

This had some intriguing elements, including her budding relationship. Also, the novel hinges on the three daughters of Cadence's wealthy grandfather all competing and fighting over his inheritance. Many chapters begin with Cadence telling a sort of fairy tale, which all feature three of a kind of something - bears, princesses, daughters, etc. - that mirror her family structure. This is obviously meant to mirror her attempting to piece together the mystery and also her attempting to turn reality into a fairy tale ending. I suppose it's supposed to be a neat literary trick, but I found it repetitive and sort of grating after the first few times. 

This had short chapters and was suspenseful but because of the structure, much of this just felt like a tease. Everyone else around Cadence knows what happens so the whole time I just kept thinking, why can't they tell us already?? She just rambles on and-on-and circles around the night of the accident ceaselessly. It's just a lot of talking and very little plot.

I don't want to give away any spoilers, but I also wasn't wholly satisfied with the ending. I will say that I was not able to predict the reveal, although I'm not particularly good at that most of the time anyway. 

Stars: 2