A review by josie1999
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

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.
 
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