A review by glasscupp
We Fell Apart by E. Lockhart

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

 

Thank you so much to NetGalley for providing an E-ARC for this novel

NOTE: All opinions shared are my own.

This review contains spoilers, please be advised. 

We Fell Apart by E. Lockhart is set to release on November 4th, 2025. 

Before I read this book, I went back and reread We Were Liars and Family of Liars, 2 books that take place in the same world as We Fell Apart. I will have separate reviews for those on my StoryGraph page you can find here. I do recommend reading those two books before reading We Fell Apart. 

I have mixed feelings on this book. The first 40% or so, I was super invested in Matilda and her story. I found the relationship with her mom (or lack thereof) to be important to her journey to meeting her father and discovering the other half of herself that she never knew. However, after finishing the novel, I feel like we never really got to learn anything. I understand why, given how the plot plays out, but we lived a little bit too “in the moment” for me, especially with what this story is built on. 

Matilda wants to meet her father, to discover who her father is as a person. I loved seeing the noticeable traits she picked up from her dad, such as her artistic talents, even though she had never met him previously. However, I wish we had gotten MORE of this. It fell pretty flat in terms of what we find out about her dad besides his art, his son, and his dementia. 

With the twist of her dad being in the extreme stages of dementia, and June essentially holding him hostage and drugging him (and others….  wtf?) I feel like this severely impacted being able to explore Matilda’s dad's past and the connections that could’ve been made. I really loved the complicated relationship Matilda has with her mother, and found it interesting how her mom described Kingsley with very few words (I won't quote them in case there are some editing changes in the final publishing). But this ended up falling very flat because of the development of Kingsley in the present day, and it felt very unrewarding for me as a reader. 

I think overall the thought was truly there for this book, the twist itself just felt very meh to me, and in return made the rest of the book feel very empty. My current rating is around a 3-star, though I do plan to reread this once the final publication is out, so my feelings may change!!!

Again, thank you so much to NetGalley for providing this ARC!