December 6, 2014: 'We Were Liars'

Welcome to Book City

Date: December 6, 2014

Spoilers Ahead

Headline

We Were Liars

E. Lockhart 

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. 

City Calendar:

This is what happened during the week.

Johnny comes one year with Gat. Cadence and Gat go on boat together. Gay gets a girlfriend named Raquel. Cadence gets jealous. She drinks herself into a stupor. She talks to Gat and kisses him when she cleans the attic. Tipper the grandmother of the Sinclair family dies. Cadence starts to cut in real time. She spend a summer going on a trip around Europe with her father who left her mother. She goes to the island for the next summer and meets her friends from the summers before, the four that call themselves the Liars. She sees the new Clairmont. She starts over with her summer love Gat. She remembers things slowly as she goes out and about. She remembers her aunt crying. Pieces of her shattered past flow forwards. She goes out with her grandfather that mimes what she did when she was not sick. She finally confronts her friends. As the story of the fire and the broken family comes forward, she remembers. She remembers her friends, her beautiful Liars, all died in the fire that was supposed to restart their family. The family was feuding about the house and the assets. She cleans the house she had been living in. She watches her ghostly friends leave her, leave the island. She accepts what happened and starts to move forwards. 

And that's what happened this week.

Personal Ads:

Cadence Sinclair.

Haunted by the death of her friends. Distant. Forgets about the accident, the fire. Has migraines. Needs pills. Part of the Sinclair family. Daughter to Penny. Friend to Johnny and Mirren. Maybe-girlfriend to Gat. Reader. 

Opinions: 

I first thought this book was overhyped. Then, I read the ending. Man. I teared up. Cadence's love for her friends lost in the fire was...palpable. I could feel it.

But.

I'll try to rationally think this review through.

The ending, as I mentioned, was amazing. It was a tearjerker, I tell you. The girl loved her friends. She cared. She wanted them to be alive. The way they left? Heartfelt. She couldn't stand to see them go. She wanted them to stay. She really did. 

But that's part of life. Letting go. 

I also liked the 'perfect' family. Man. That shows a lot about humanity in general. Even the most solemn, most rich, most beautiful, most smart people, or even families, can be broken. Can be imperfect on the inside. The outside isn't everything. The outside doesn't always show the truth. The truth might be on the inside. No. The truth is always in the inside. There is no perfection. And this book portrays it in a new light. 

But...this book is still overhyped. People made it sound like it is the best book in the world.

I don't think that. This book isn't perfect. It isn't amazing. It's okay. Simply okay. 

I think that Gat and Cadence have instant love. They have an instant connection. Their relationship wasn't built up really. Not on Gat's side. Cadence seems to like the thrill of being with someone her mother, and grandfather, doesn't like. I'm not sure I like this. They don't do much as a couple. I think that Gat hates cheating. He wants to be kind. And he isn't. Not really. He cheated on Raquel. But he was too nice to break up with her to be with his 'love' Cadence? I'm not sure what to think of it. It is no match made in 'Heaven' if that's what you think. It's bumbling and awkward. They don't do much. Kiss. Hold hands. Kiss some more. Their relationship doesn't develop. 

The writing was awkward to read. The sentences that started and ended on different paragraphs? That isn't easy for me to read. It is a similarly style to 'Shatter Me'. Didn't like that one either. The writing style is hard to read. And gets annoying. I know that Cadence might think that way. Even I do. But that doesn't mean it has to be that way. It really doesn't. I wish I was simply laid out. The complications make things worse. I prefer simple prose. 

I think that the way Cadence realized her past is confusing. Her revelations happen oddly. They come at odd times. And they just jump out at you. They don't have rhyme or reason. I think that they interrupt the story. They just happen. I would prefer it differently. 

The characters don't interest me. They have past. They have terrible things happening to them. But they don't seem to star enough. It's Cadence, but Cadence isn't enough for me. I don't just want her past. I want Gat. I want Johnny. I want Mirren. They can't be perfect. They seem too perfect, which contradicts the story. To me, this is a story about imperfection. And broken people. And that contradicts the simple characters. I wish there was more. 

Weather:

Sunny with 50% chance of rain

3/5