Focused on the inner-workings of a rich family in New England, We Were Liars illustrates how the implications of “favorites” and the suppression of emotion can have a shrapnel effect when tensions finally burst forth. Cousins Mirren, Johnny, and Cadence, along with their friend Gat, spend every summer on the Sinclair family island. The idyllic New Englander summer is steadily stripped away as family rivalries and jealousies ebb to the surface, causing the teenagers to withdraw more and more within their tribe, which they’ve dubbed “the liars”.
We Were Liars caught me off guard in so many ways. The book is short and rather unassuming, but I found myself quickly pulled into the Sinclair’s world – so much so that I finished it in two days. Like the length, the writing is rather unassuming, but as the story progresses so does the style. Lockhart paints a vivid, and at times painfully beautiful, account as Cadence struggles with her place in the family and her own identity.
You’re intermittently pulled out of the narrative and into one of Cadence’s “fairytale” adaptations, where she uses stories of kingdoms and castles to navigate and explain her own reality. Between the poetic styling and these brief fairytale interludes, the book feels like you’re listening to a conversation, slipping your head under water every now and then so the sound becomes muffled and distorted. It’s a unique opportunity to have the narrator’s mindset replicated in the reading experience, but one that Lockhart produces subtlety and masterfully.
I would suggest reading a print version because the Sinclair family tree and map of the island included in the front were helpful as the story was unfolding. I enjoyed flipping back and forth to clarify family connections and ground myself with where events were happening on the island.
Tear Warning: This book wrecked me by the end and I think the impact was so pronounced because I didn’t see it coming.
Personal rating: 7.5/10
Recommend? Yes
Re-read? I’d happily pick it up again in a few years
Time: 1:56