Review – We Were Liars by E. Lockhart (3/5 stars)
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Length: 256 pages
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Release Date: May 13, 2014
ISBN-13: 978-0385741262
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Borrowed from Library
Rating: 3/5 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.”
I have heard a lot about how great this book is…as usual when this happens I thought the story was okay but not really all that groundbreaking. It was actually kind of slow moving and boring.
The story mainly revolves around a girl who had a tragedy happen one summer that she can’t remember. She spends the summer a couple years later trying to piece things together.
The setting of a rich private island was somewhat intriguing and the twist at the end of the story was surprising (but felt really contrived to me).
The mystery made this a pretty engaging and quick read, it really drew the reader forward. However, there wasn’t much unique or different about this story from many other YA contemporary fiction novels I have read.
As happens a lot to me when I read really popular books, I ended up being confused by why this has been such a popular book. It was okay but didn’t make me want to read more by this author.
Overall this was an okay story. It’s a fairly engaging mystery but felt a bit contrived and moved pretty slow. I would recommend to those who enjoy YA mystery reads about the young and rich.
