We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
Fiction
The
Sinclairs are perfect. They live on a private island and are rich, beautiful,
and skilled at hiding secrets. Cadence has spent nearly every summer of her
childhood on her grandparents’ private island and is used to holding herself
together in times of stress. She spends the summer with her cousins, Mirren and
Johnny, as well as Gat, who is not quite a family friend due to his poor
background. After an accident, Cadence develops amnesia and is unable to
remember a major event at the end of her last summer. As Cadence tries to piece
together what happened, we learn that some secrets are too big to remain hidden.
Lockhart creates a world that is puzzling and confusing, leaving the reader as
much in the dark as Cadence is about what happened the previous summer. This confusion escalates and culminates until
the world the reader was made to believe was true comes crashing down,
revealing one never expected. Lockhart uses language that is poetic and
beautiful, but at the same time creates a division between the reader and the
characters. This makes it difficult to understand and relate to the characters,
which may be Lockhart’s intent. Everybody lies to keep up appearances. In the end, Cadence realizes that while lies may seem to make life better, living requires the truth.
