Someone once wrote that a novel should deliver a series of small astonishments. I get the same thing spending an hour with you.
Title: We Were Liars
Author: E. Lockhart
First Published: 2014
My Rating: 3 of 5 stars (average rating on Goodreads: 3.93)
I would recommend this book to: A reader in the mood for some dark YA
The Beginning:
Welcome to the beautiful Sinclair family.
No one is a criminal.
No one is an addict.
No one is a failure.
We Were Liars is a classic tale of a stereotypical, dysfunctional, white, rich family. We’ve all met these characters before; dads abandoning their kids, mothers so focused on appearances they don’t see how screwed up their kids are, siblings fighting each other for inheritance, kids suppressing their sorrow to the point where it all bounces back up in their pretty little faces.
“Be normal now,” she whispers. “Right now.”
“What?”
“Because you are. Because you can be.”
It’s not a story that blows me away, but I’m nonetheless fascinated by it, and enjoy reading various stories like it. Maybe it’s because it’s miles away from my own childhood. That’s what literature can do: show you a life you’ve never had to live yourself, but let’s you leave it again. If you can.
I had no trouble leaving this story behind me after I turned the last page. I was disappointed. There’s been such hype about this book and wild rumors about something incredible that was supposed to happen towards the end. Let me spare you: it’s not that big of a deal.
I didn’t really care for the writing either. To me, it seemed pretentious and just a tad silly. For some reason, Lockhart used this cheap trick with short, choppy sentences. I kept asking myself why? To appear sophisticated? Poetic? Judge for yourself:
Touching him is familiar and unfamiliar.
We have been here before.
Also we have never been here before.
For a moment,
or for minutes,
for hours, possibly,
I am simply happy, here with Gat’s body beneath my hands.