BOOK REVIEW: We Were Liars by E. Lockhart - Demidork's Archives

 

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart - The Story of the Sinclairs 

Book: We Were Liars 
Author: E. Lockhart
Genre: Fiction
Sub-genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Trigger Warnings: Death, under-age drinking, grief, depression (sort of), and racism.
Age Rating: 14+

Synopsis: (Goodreads) 

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. 

The Sinclairs have their own island. They are all old money, the three daughters who are dependent entirely on their father for money, and their eldest children who are very close. The story is about the eldest Sinclair granddaughter, the Heiress, Cadence, and her cousins: Johnny and Mirren, and an outsider family friend of sorts (who happens to be Indian) - Gat. I dove into the book thinking it would be something along the lines of "I Know What You Did Last Summer," but boy, was I wrong. 

The Liars belong to one of the Last Great American Dynasties - 

The Sinclairs go to Ivy League schools. They are extremely wealthy - their Grandfather owns a freaking island. If you are a K-drama fan like myself, think like Boys Before Flowers and Heirs. They have got the money and they ain't afraid to flaunt it - but they (especially their grandfather) also values what he regards as "traditions" (translation: patriarchy). There's a saying in my language - the bigger the house, the bigger the secrets. I feel like this is the perfect way to describe the Sinclairs. 

"Silence is a protective coating over pain."

  

We Were Liars: What Did They Do?

We are liars. We are beautiful and privileged. We are cracked and broken.

Here's the thing - I didn't really get why they were called liars. Maybe they lied a lot when they were children? But that aside, I really liked their bond. The book reminds me somewhat of the Indian epic Mahabharat - the power moves by each family member to gain the throne, not caring that it's their own blood who will lose if they win - if that makes sense. Except that the Liars are totally not in it. They don't want the metaphorical throne, they just want their summers the way they used to be. Throw in the little Heathcliff element. There's Gat, the Indian, the outsider, the Heathcliff who is obviously in love with Catherine - that is, Cadence. Does Grandpapa accept their love? (Spoiler Alert: he doesn't, in true Wuthering Heights fashion). 

I can't say I didn't expect that revolution to come. I loved it. I loved it more when Gat put it as "burning the seat of patriarchy." But what I didn't expect was the twist. The very last twist was like a punch in the gut. Greed destroys entires generations - hence, proved. 

Always do what you're afraid to do.

Although Cadence was a very unreliable narrator, I loved the narration. (Unreliable narrator? Again like Wuthering Heights, one might say). It was very easy to read, and I completed the book within a day. Among the Liars, I liked Gat the best because he was the only one who kept reminding them they were far from perfect, as their grandfather would like them to believe. He is the one who, sort of, teaches the highly-bathed-in-privileged-Cathy, basic humanity. For example, he'd said: 

“Not everyone has private islands. Some people work on them. Some work in factories. Some don’t have work. Some don’t have food.”

CONSEQUENCES OF THE LIARS' REVOLUTION: 

SPOILERS AHEAD - 

The Daughters - the Dennises, the Sheffields, and the Eastmans (the mothers of Johnny, Mirren and Cadence, respectively) have obviously made their patriarch father upset by divorcing.  And although Cady was the oldest, Johnny was only 3 weeks younger - making him a good contender for an heir. The Sheffields had Mirren, and although she was the youngest of the three, they were the most in need of money. Hence began the battle. The mothers began to use their own children as pawns, regardless of their personal feelings. The result of pushing around 4 teenagers who have a strong bond with each other, especially pushing them against each other, can never be good. 

"The universe is seeming really huge right now. I need something to hold on to."

The result was what happened in the end. 

Demidork's Archives: Rating for We Were Liars

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