Friday, June 20, 2014

Review: We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Posted by

I received this book for free from Random House of Canada in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Review: We Were Liars by E. LockhartWe Were Liars by E. Lockhart
Published by Delacorte Press Genres: Contemporary, Mystery, YA
Source: Random House of Canada
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads
four-stars

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 an incredible, heartbreaking read that really messes with your mind until the very end. The writing, while not for everyone I’m sure, had me mesmerized. It’s so different and poetic and full of carefully crafted imagery. It’s a writing style that’s really out of the box, you’ll either love it or hate it. Me, I was thoroughly compelled.

The plot itself is one you can’t talk about or read about as you’re bound to find out spoilers. It’s the kind of story where the story itself is a spoiler from very early on. There are hints floating in every corner, pieces of this carefully constructed puzzle laid out for you to put together. My advice: go into this with zero expectations and you might find yourself as enthralled as I was! Although it’s a twist I have seen before in different variations (and thus I wasn’t completely caught off guard by the ending), it never fails to give me goosebumps and sting at my poor heart.

The cast is large, and the dark, twisted fairy-tale-like quality is ever-present inside this tale revolving around greed, power, and material things. This tone is maintained with actual short fairy-tale retellings scattered throughout that bore an eerie resemblance to the present story. It did take me a bit to get all the characters and different disaccords in order – the cryptic, mind-boggly nature of this plot and writing makes it hard to make sense of what’s being conveyed at times, but this is clearly purposeful and I ended up impressed by its cleverness.

But anyways, this review has to stay short because, la la la – no spoilers – it’s that kind of read. Plus the blurb told me to lie, so maybe this review is full of crock and this book is just a bunch of dancing elephants. In any case – 4 stars all the way!

four-stars

4 Hot Espressos

The following two tabs change content below.

Giselle

Canadian blogger, wife, mother, coffee lover, and sarcastic at heart! She has had a love for all things bookish since before Amazon and eReaders existed *le gasp*. You can also find her organizing tours and other fun things at Xpresso Book Tours.

Latest posts by Giselle (see all)

22 Responses to “Review: We Were Liars by E. Lockhart”

  1. Nick @ Nick's Book Blog

    I would have liked it had the book been about a bunch of dancing elephants. We need more elephants in YA books! 😀
    Anyways, I’m glad to see you enjoyed this, Giselle. I didn’t really like the writing style so the book never clicked for me. I also think I built up my expectations because of the hype surrounding it and ended up not liking it as much as I would have wanted. I have to admit though, all these rave reviews are making me want to pick it up again! Lovely review, Giselle.

  5. ShootingStarsMag

    I really loved this one too. I wasn’t SHOCKED by the ending, because like you said…it’s something that has been done before. However, I was surprised because I wasn’t expecting it, and that’s always fun.

  6. Katie

    Thank you for the spoiler free review! I always go into book reviews a little nervous haha. This books sounds like a really interesting read. I’ll definitely have to look into it. I tend to love when authors take an unconventional approach to the narration, so it sounds right up my alley!

    –Katie at Paperback Planes

  10. Meredith

    I have heard so many mixed opinions about this book. With that being said, I am still extremely curious about it. Plus, it’s a short read. I am happy to hear (or read) that you enjoyed this novel so much. Great review!

  11. Lyn Kaye

    First Steph, then you. Alright. I get paid on Friday, and I will purchase this sucker and read it, because now I have to see what all the fuss is about, and I am very excited to get my emotions ripped apart.

  12. Jeann @ Happy Indulgence

    Awesome review Giselle, I really look forward to reading this book because of the mind fuckery and the psychological thriller aspect! It sounds really unique and exactly like the type of book I like.

  14. soma rostam

    I need this book right now . There has been so much talk about it in the blogging world, its insane
    And I’m suh a great fan of mysteries, I’m sure I’ll love this
    Thanks for the awesome review
    Your reader,
    soma

  16. Michelle (Pink Polka Dot Books)

    I was very mixed on this book. Part of me loved it (those fairy tales and all that)… part of me was confused (why were they called Liars???), and that ending!! I felt kind of ripped off. I’ve read other books with endings like that too and they always make me feel like the author just said “and she woke up and it was all a dream”. Like it never really happened… even though it did. That really makes no sense, but yeah I was not the biggest fan of the “twist”.

  17. Jessica @ Rabid Reads

    You know, I used to be annoyed by books that you couldn’t say ANYTHING about without revealing too much . . . but that was before I started reading them, LOL. Now, if I see a book that’s getting all kinds of, “the less you know, the better,” reviews, it automatically goes on my wishlist (as long as it’s not a terrible review 😉 ). Great review, Giselle!

  18. Pili

    I’ve read both sort of reviews, good and bad, and thankfully all spoiler free, so I guess I really ought to get into reading the book already to see what I’d think!
    Thanks for the spoiler-free review, Giselle!

  19. Maddy @Symphony of Words

    I actually just purchased this book and I can’t wait to read it! I’m so excited to see what the huge reveal at the end will be, even though a lot of people have been saying it hasn’t lived up to the hype. Beautiful review, Giselle!

  22. Laura Plus Books

    This one wasn’t my favourite. Even though I really loved the story, I couldn’t connect with the characters and found the story pretty slow. But all in all, I do agree with most of what you said! And yay for no spoilers because it’s definitely one of those books that’s better left unknown. 😀 Fantastic review Giselle!