We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
Hi, I am Sarah. I am fourteen years old and an avid reader; it is one of my favorite things to do. Inspired by authors’ creations of magnificent places and surprising havens built by simple letters, I aspire to be an author and, meanwhile, nurture the love to write.
17-year-old Cadence is a Sinclair: tall, white, beautiful. She lives in Vermont all year and spends the summers on their family’s private island, Beechwood. There, Cadence becomes a Liar: one of the three older cousins and Gat, an almost-step-cousin who’s been there as long as it matters.
Beechwood is a place of glorious memories, of long summer days spent lounging as cousins, as best friends. It is spent in the glamorous halo of friendship and family and the beautiful facade of Sinclair perfection.
Under the surface, however, all is not as it seems.
In her fifteenth summer, Cadence suffers an accident, resulting in crippling migraines and terrible amnesia. In her sixteenth summer, she’s gone to Europe. It is summer seventeen, and Cadence returns to Beechwood, determined to find out what really happened two years prior.
We Were Liars is the suspense novel the likes of which you’ve never read. Its prose is daring and original. Its story spills from complicated, cracked-open secrets at every turn. It is intense and heartbreaking and intricate and mindblowing. It is a pretty picture cracked into a thousand unrecognizable pieces. What I like best about this book, however, is that despite its twisting plot, it is unapologetically whole. The characters are imperfectly human. They are flawed and broken, they are brave and true. And they are liars.
Welcome to Beechwood Island, and the story of a lifetime. You’ll read this book, you’ll hate it or love it, but one thing is certain: you’ll never be the same.
