Book Review: We Were Liars

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Genre- Young Adult, Contemporary, Mystery, Thriller

Hardcover Edition-225 Pages

5/5 Lily Pads

Would I Recommend It? Yes
Beware of Minor Spoilers!!

Hey guys I'm back with a review. Today I am actually reviewing a stand-alone novel. It's been a while since I've read one because I've been reading so many series lately. I am reviewing "We Were Liars". I'll admit I was never really interested in reading this book. I didn't think it would be for me and I heard really mixed things about it. I decided to give it a try because it was in the bargain section of Books-a-million and the plot sounded really good so I decided to give it a shot. I'm so glad I did because I really enjoyed this book. A long time ago I actually read another book by her called "The Boyfriend List" and I remember not liking it. I'm surprised I liked this book. 

I'm not going to describe the plot a lot because it's one of those books where you should go into this book blind not knowing much. It just makes the reading experience so much better because it's a very mysterious book. I thought the plot sounded very interesting though. It's about a teenage girl named Cadence and every summer she goes to her Grandfather's island and she spends time with her cousins. She has her own group there, she hangs out with her cousins Johnny, Merren and their friend, Gat. Her relatives are rich. That's all you need to know about this book. I'm not going to spoil anything. 

My Opinion

I actually really enjoyed this book. It was a very short book. It took me 4 days to read just because I haven't been reading much. It's one of those books where you can read it in one sitting. 

I liked the author's writing style. It didn't really stand out to me. It was just very simplistic but she added in tons of metaphors and at times it was like reading poetry. 

I really liked the plot of this book. I love reading books about rich families, and the wealthy lifestyle in general. 

The pacing of this book was fine. I'll admit that not much happens in this book. It's basically just the characters living their every day lives during the summer. The ending has some action and it's intense though. I was never really bored reading it. It kept my attention the whole time. 

Finally I wanna talk about the characters. I had mixed feelings about the characters in this book. The character development was good but not great. I didn't really get attached to the characters. I liked the main protagonist, Cadence but she was an unreliable narrator. I liked her but she didn't stand out too much for me. I just didn't love her but I just liked her. I liked Johnny and Merren but they weren't that great either. Over time I liked them more but they were just plain. They were just regular teenagers, they didn't stand out to me either. My favorite character was definitely Gat. I don't know why but I really liked him since the beginning of the book. He was a good guy and I just really loved him. As for the romance, it was pretty good. There's not a lot of romance in this book but I liked reading about it. I didn't really care for the side characters that much. Her grandad was just okay, I didn't love him. I didn't care for her mom or Carrie or the other characters. Like I said the character development just wasn't that good in this book. I liked the characters but I didn't love them. I just wasn't very emotionally attached to them and that's why I didn't get sad at the end of the book. I didn't really care what happened to them honestly.    

What really threw me off with this book was, I knew there was a plot twist at the end. I've heard that and I think it sort of ruined the experience for me. I didn't predict the ending. However, since I knew there was a twist at the end, I was sort of rushing through the book trying to find out what the twist was. It got me to guess and think about what it was and my theory was totally wrong. I wish I didn't know there was a twist, and when I got to the end, it didn't shock me at all. I was like "that's it?" "that's the big plot twist?". Also, after I finished the book I was very confused about what happened. I watched some reviews for it on Booktube and it got me to understand the whole book and what happened at the end. I'm still confused though. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It wasn't amazing and it definitely wasn't the best book I've ever read but it was a good book. I gave it 5 Lily Pads because I didn't have any problems with it. I would probably reread it in the future so I can go back and try to find all the clues that led to the twist at the end. This book didn't stand out to me which is why it's not my favorite book. I would recommend this book though. If you love books with mental illness and unreliable narrators, I think you would like this one. My advice is to go into it with low expectations like I did. I think this book is worth a buy but I would recommend getting it from the library first just to make sure you like it. I think this book is worth a try and it's a good book to read around Halloween because it's very mysterious. Thank you so much for reading and I will have more posts coming soon so stay tuned for more. Bye and happy reading! :)