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| Narrated by Ariadne Meyers |
A private island.
A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.
A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.
A revolution. An accident. A secret.
Lies upon lies.
True love.
The truth.
We Were Liars is a modern, sophisticated suspense novel from New York Times bestselling author, National Book Award finalist, and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart.
Read it.
And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.
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We Were Liars is one of the audiobooks I listened to while driving from Texas to Virginia (you'd think you'd get a lot of listening done, but you'd be wrong). I had to squeeze my audiobooks in when the monsters fell asleep, because they wanted to listen to the Frozen soundtrack on repeat (and I came very close to losing my mind). We Were Liars wasn't very long, and the narration was enjoyable. I had no expectations going into this one, but knew something twisty would happen at the end. While I caught on to certain clues throughout the story, other revelations were still surprising. I can't be more specific without giving something away, and you definitely want to go into this one without any prior knowledge.
One thing I'm still uncertain about is the title. Why were they the Liars? We don't see them actively lying to anyone in the book, and the main character only mentions something happening during this or that summer. If that was a focal point of the book, I would've liked more details surrounding the nickname. If anything, they were ridiculously helpful. They were always taking care of the younger siblings (the Littles, I believe), and going along with what their parents asked them to do (with the exception of a few things... which I guess they did lie about). Their mothers (all sisters) were fighting over who would inherit what, and they wanted to use their children in their "battles" against each other. They tried to pit the Liars against one another, but it didn't work. Their bond was solid.
It took me a few chapters to get used to the writing style. Initially, certain comments would be really confusing and pulled me from the story. I would re-read sentences before continuing, and then suddenly everything would make sense. The way the main character explains certain emotions and reactions... the wording was extreme but not always literal. The author would have me thinking something entirely different was happening before it clicked that it was just the main character's way of expressing her feelings.
Additionally, I would have liked learning more about the secondary characters, but I understand why the author chose to keep certain elements very superficial. It created a fog around particular events and people, which the author slowly and expertly navigated the main character (and me as the reader) through. I really enjoyed watching the events unfold with the main character, and not learning something new until she did.
We Were Liars had me ugly crying in the car, and my kids asking me if I was okay (I most definitely was not). If your sensitive about animals and their presence in books, be warned. I wish I had known certain details ahead of time, since that would have likely prepared me for at least one sob-worthy aspect of this story. I'm sorry if that spoils something for you, but there definitely should be a warning when something terrible befalls a furry friend within a book. This is me warning you.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the story and the narration. It was a quick listen, and one that was mostly age-appropriate for the monsters (when they were awake and not asking for Let It Go). It was definitely a step above Goosebumps, although some of those can be pretty freaky. They can also give your kids terrible ideas, like sneaking into the bathroom while you're taking a shower and saying, "I'm Slappy!" in a super creepy voice. It's a good thing I was already in the shower, because I definitely peed on myself a little.
If you like twisty, suspenseful books, We Were Liars is definitely worth looking into! (★★★⋆☆)
