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mikathereviewer's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Summary of my review: Short chapters, interesting story line, fast- to medium-paced, nice writing style, showing us readers how the book was planned (first sketches, scenes, etc.), weird romance, all story parts felt so different from the previous ones, disappointing ending, explanantion as to why they are called 'liars' were only mentioned in the afterword instead inside the story
When I saw that the book has 87 chapters I was like: What
But guess who's happy now for getting short chapters to read :D
Writing style was, well, interesting. I mean sometimes it was out of place and I was confused or preferred if it wasn't written down some parts, but some of them were really cool. Especially the beginning of the book. The eerie feeling was great!
The original hand drawn things, poems, and 'how I wrote We Were Liars' were really cool. Most authors don't include this, even though I think it's good to see the progress of a story for people who might plan to write their first one themselves.
(Also kinda glad the name 'Let's do and say we didn't' was changed to 'we were liars')
Despite everything I still liked the story. The plot. What happened. It didn't turn out like I hoped for, but it was still interesting to read. And honestly I wasn't triggered by anything.
Also, thanks for the spoiler warning for the #0 book as I wanted to actually start this one and didn't know that it would spoiler the other one 😅
All parts of the book are so different. The beginning gave me eerie and kinda spooky feelings — I was totally invested.
The middle part was medium-paced and gave me standard thriller vibes.
The romance was so weird. I used to find it cute at the beginning but it turned out to be more dramatic than necessary and both their decisions weren't really great and I think only hurt their relationship more than doing good.
The ending was disappointing. I had many theories how it would go and this wasn't one. So one could say the ending wasn't predictable, which I usually love, but I wished for it to be something else actually. I thought the story is perhaps about grief and the whole gory things were metaphors for being sad inside and needing to supress it as everyone in this family does it. I mean they don't even want to talk about people that passed. And the eerie vibe at the beginning made me think that it includes perhaps a bit of horror.
I had so many theories and so many great ideas for an ending, I even thought it was a Shakespeare re-telling of King Lear. What a disappointment.
I think the explanation at the end of the book why they were called bad liars was great, but it would have been better to include the scene of origin for this in the book so that we readers don't feel confused about it the whole time while reading.
Afterword
Before anyone says that the whole book copied other books (as one can see in her sketch for the book) I would disagree, as she only got Inspiration for a few aspects and didn't copy everything. I would call it Inspiration. And inspirations are great, they help you to get a better picture of how the story is supposed to be and might even motivate you.
Her whole preparations are well organised and I very very much appreciate her for showing us them. It can help so many. Help them to start they own book one day.
27. July 2024
When I saw that the book has 87 chapters I was like: What
But guess who's happy now for getting short chapters to read :D
Writing style was, well, interesting. I mean sometimes it was out of place and I was confused or preferred if it wasn't written down some parts, but some of them were really cool. Especially the beginning of the book. The eerie feeling was great!
The original hand drawn things, poems, and 'how I wrote We Were Liars' were really cool. Most authors don't include this, even though I think it's good to see the progress of a story for people who might plan to write their first one themselves.
(Also kinda glad the name 'Let's do and say we didn't' was changed to 'we were liars')
Despite everything I still liked the story. The plot. What happened. It didn't turn out like I hoped for, but it was still interesting to read. And honestly I wasn't triggered by anything.
Also, thanks for the spoiler warning for the #0 book as I wanted to actually start this one and didn't know that it would spoiler the other one 😅
All parts of the book are so different. The beginning gave me eerie and kinda spooky feelings — I was totally invested.
The middle part was medium-paced and gave me standard thriller vibes.
The romance was so weird. I used to find it cute at the beginning but it turned out to be more dramatic than necessary and both their decisions weren't really great and I think only hurt their relationship more than doing good.
The ending was disappointing. I had many theories how it would go and this wasn't one. So one could say the ending wasn't predictable, which I usually love, but I wished for it to be something else actually. I thought the story is perhaps about grief and the whole gory things were metaphors for being sad inside and needing to supress it as everyone in this family does it. I mean they don't even want to talk about people that passed. And the eerie vibe at the beginning made me think that it includes perhaps a bit of horror.
I had so many theories and so many great ideas for an ending, I even thought it was a Shakespeare re-telling of King Lear. What a disappointment.
I think the explanation at the end of the book why they were called bad liars was great, but it would have been better to include the scene of origin for this in the book so that we readers don't feel confused about it the whole time while reading.
Afterword
Before anyone says that the whole book copied other books (as one can see in her sketch for the book) I would disagree, as she only got Inspiration for a few aspects and didn't copy everything. I would call it Inspiration. And inspirations are great, they help you to get a better picture of how the story is supposed to be and might even motivate you.
Her whole preparations are well organised and I very very much appreciate her for showing us them. It can help so many. Help them to start they own book one day.
27. July 2024
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Addiction, Cursing, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Blood, Dementia, Gaslighting, and Classism
Minor: Rape, Vomit, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Alcohol
The book also includes survivor guilt also known as KZ syndrome_angelbxby8's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Xenophobia
madamenovelist's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Racism, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Ableism and Dementia
prism_'s review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Grief, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Mental illness, Racism, and Xenophobia
josie1999's review against another edition
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
4.0
Based on the fact that all the characters are liars, I found myself questioning whether the author was lying to the reader and whether the information we were given about the accident and what happened was true. In some ways that is accurate, but for the most part the author is not intentionally lying to the readers. The story focuses on the Cadence recovering her memories surrounding the accident during the Summer Fifteen. The jumping back and forth between Summers Fifteen and Seventeen were a little hard to follow. Over the course of the story I found myself jumping ahead and trying to anticipate what had happened. Several of my hypotheses of what led to Cadence's accident were proven false.
I did not expect the twist at the end. After reading the truth, I had to stop for a minute to process whether I actually believed it or not. (I was still in denial and joked that maybe the author was trying to misdirect the reader or that Cadence did not actually remember.) Thinking back, once the twist settled and the accident was explained, I was able to piece together parts of the story that pointed to the twist being what it was. Even after reflecting, the few details were easy to miss and hidden enough in the story that a reader would really need to pay attention to anticipated the ending.
The way the story is laid out with little pieces at a time and uncovering the truth along with Cadence is an enticing way to the keep the reader engaged.
One question I have that is still unresolved is whether Penny told Cadence the real truth or the truth that Cadence believed (i.e., she hit her head on a rock while swimming). I assume that is what Penny told her, otherwise it seems she would have known the truth the entire story and was looking for confirmation.
I did not expect the twist at the end. After reading the truth, I had to stop for a minute to process whether I actually believed it or not. (I was still in denial and joked that maybe the author was trying to misdirect the reader or that Cadence did not actually remember.) Thinking back, once the twist settled and the accident was explained, I was able to piece together parts of the story that pointed to the twist being what it was. Even after reflecting, the few details were easy to miss and hidden enough in the story that a reader would really need to pay attention to anticipated the ending.
The way the story is laid out with little pieces at a time and uncovering the truth along with Cadence is an enticing way to the keep the reader engaged.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness
Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, and Xenophobia
Minor: Animal death and Fire/Fire injury
vvsmydiamonds's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
We Were Liars was nothing like I expected. The first huge chunk of the book I fought the urge to skim and skip to the "good part" which I was so sure would come. It did not. There was a surprising twist near the end. Cady came to terms with things and had some character development, but I can't say I liked her, or really any of her family. The vivid descriptions of her headaches were beautiful, the poetry style and the fairytales were a nice touch, so stars for that. I've seen people saying they re-read it to piece together details they missed, and while I was confused for most of the book, it is not good enough to re-read imo.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Mental illness, and Alcohol
Moderate: Racism, Xenophobia, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal death and Suicidal thoughts
swiftie4evermore's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I got only halfway through the book and it is not appropriate for ages under 14. I heard that the farther you go the more inappropriate it gets.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Xenophobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Addiction, Vomit, and Grief
Minor: Racism, Sexual content, and Alcohol
chellebell048's review against another edition
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, Emotional abuse, Xenophobia, Dementia, Grief, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Animal death
bthebookworm's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
I did not enjoy this book. It’s the book you take with you on a weekend to the beach, not bad but not good either.
Yes, there is a central conflict almost interesting enough to keep you just interested enough to soldier on but it leaves you with something to be desired.
Yes, there is a central conflict almost interesting enough to keep you just interested enough to soldier on but it leaves you with something to be desired.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide attempt, and Murder
Minor: Animal death, Self harm, and Xenophobia
a_wren_that_reads's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Classism
Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Racism, and Xenophobia
Minor: Drug abuse