Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

168 reviews

itsjusterika's review against another edition

sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I didn't expect the plot twist.

why did she call her mum Mummy it was so weird.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Grief, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Animal death, Racism, and Classism

Minor: Addiction, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, and Alcohol

katherinek's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This absolutely tore me into pieces. It was so beautifully written and I didn’t expect the ending at all. The characters felt so real. Some of the metaphors confused me, though, which took away some of the shock factor for the first plot twist for me because I found myself going back trying to figure out if it was real or not. The middle also slows down just a bit, but after the ending I realized why so many of the seemingly unimportant details in the middle were actually so important. This is one I would totally go back and reread to try and find all the clues I missed—

How they never went to dinner, they didn’t want Cady to jump off the rocks, the kids seeing ghosts, none of them receiving her gifts or responding to Cady’s emails, Aunt Carrie walking around at night, the lie about the donut shop, why Grandad kept calling her Mirren, etc etc.

I don’t think a book has ever made me cry as hard as this one did.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug use, Racism, Medical content, Dementia, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Cancer and Suicidal thoughts

pumpkinbread02's review against another edition

mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

the dogs.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Animal death, Chronic illness, and Abandonment

Minor: Emotional abuse, Racism, Dementia, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Classism

ashleyvharris's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

This was not fun. I only finished this book because I heard promises of a great twisty ending. It left me feeling meh. Not shocked or outraged or slighted. Just underwhelmed. The whole story felt super pretentious and unrelatable, more like watching an episode of The Kardashians where they’re bitching over shoes that cost more than a tropical vacation. Genuinely do not understand the hype. 

The one thing I will give this book is the RARE representation for chronic illness. I appreciated the portrayal of chronic pain via Cadence’s migraines. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Racism, Dementia, Alcohol, and Classism

mattiedancer's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Writing: 5⭐️/5 

Hmm. How to discuss this without spoiling it or ruining the fun of reading it? I think, very plainly, I’ll say it’s some of the most technically controlled and interesting writing I’ve read in a YA novel. 

Characters: 4.75⭐️/5

Again, I’m going minimal with this review. Don’t expect anything, but do understand that the characters will jump off the page.

Plot: 4.5⭐️/5 

No way to talk about this one. Take the mark as it is, but go in expecting nothing. 

Post-Reading Rating:  5⭐️/5

Stunning.

Who Should Read This? 

• Fiction fans
• Fans of gossip girl vibes, but looking for more serious themes
• Someone looking for a well-balanced book with virtuosic writing control, well-developed characters, and an interesting plot

Final Rating: 4.75⭐️/5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Chronic illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

sarah1026's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

This book was very confusing. There were many times where it just seemed like the book was lying to me, which makes sense I guess with the title. It was also never clear which timeline we were currently in. The plot twist that I had heard was great was pretty good, the book did get better at the end. <Spoiler> the plot twist was very good. It had me rather shocked, and I liked how we came to realize it with the main character. I am still rather confused on how it worked. How she was interacting with the characters, even kissing them, when they were dead. I also very much did not enjoy the addition of the dogs dying and the description of them waiting for help. I do wish I had heard about that before reading, because it was really rough to read. I also still do not know how she ended up naked in the water. <Spoiler> 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Racism, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Classism

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Alcoholism, Cursing, Self harm, Torture, Medical content, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

imaginefishes's review against another edition

mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I hated the Sinclairs — good characterisation of the rich and the inheritance wars that come about because of their fortune. I liked Gat. Because the story unfolds like it’s revealing clues (to a mystery you don’t understand), the plot twist at the end hits you like a truck.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Dementia, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug use, Infidelity, Murder, and Alcohol

Minor: Fire/Fire injury

rosemelody's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Listened to this as an audiobook, it’s a page turner and made the drive to quickly. A bit confusing and not the best for a YA rated book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Blood, Dementia, and Classism

Minor: Animal death, Infidelity, and Alcohol

james1star's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I did enjoy reading this book more then the actual book if that makes sense and Yhh… these are my thoughts. 

I’d say I didn’t really like main plot twist and much after the fact about the dogs (all I’ll say) and the characters I couldn’t really connect with or like all that much. But with these ups and downs they are portrayed as real I guess. The writing style was good, some parts I didn’t like that much tho. 

What I did like was the pacing I feel, it’s very fast but also only details a rather short timespan. It is very readable, relatively easy to understand and I feel it would be quick to get through - I finished it in less than 2 days which is very unlike me. The plot twist I didn’t see coming and how Lockhart does this storytelling is good and you’re constantly trying to figure out what’s going on and then when you discover the truth you relate it to past events and Yhh it helps your brain ticking. 

As far as the actual plot… we follow our protagonist Cadence who is part of ‘the Liars’ alongside Mirren (her cousin), Johnny (cousin from a different aunt) and Gat (Johnny’s ‘stepdad’s’ sister’s son and her love interest) who meet on the family island every summer and just have fun kinda. Basically, an incident (her accident she calls it) occurs during summer fifteen which she doesn’t remember, she returns to the island two years later and tries to piece together what actually happened. All I’ll say cause I don’t want to spoil anything. 

Overall, I enjoyed reading this and flew through it, the twists were ehh-ish but makes you think. I didn’t really like the characters that much but Yhh… solid 4 stars ⭐️ 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Death, Dementia, Grief, and Alcohol

grace_cr1's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Racism, Blood, Dementia, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Alcohol