We were Liars
OBy: E. Lockhart
Released: May 13, 2014
Length: 240 Pages
Genre: YA
Rating: 2 Stars
Acquired: BEA
We are Sinclairs.
No on is needy.
No one is wrong.
Oh, those Sinclairs. They are rich, snobby, and train wrecks waiting to happen. The narrator is Cadence “Caddy” Easton, the eldest grandchild. She got on my nerves the most. She called her mom, mummy. It became a huge pet peeve of mine that I didn’t even know I had. I didn’t like her at all. I didn’t find her interesting or relatable. She was a little too whiny, actually. After the great accident that left her with mysterious headaches and memory loss, she was even more grating.
Categorized as a suspense novel, I didn’t find it as such. At least it didn’t seem that way on the surface. Sure, there was one event that happened that you don’t know the facts of until the very end, but there was much suspense leading up to it. The suspense leading up to it, if you want to think of it as such, was just Caddy’s constant falling over due to her headache. She does question certain family members over her memory loss, but it’s not truly in a suspenseful whodunit way. If you are looking for a good suspense/mystery novel, I would look elsewhere. What I will say, though, is the reveal at the very end, the twist, is amazing. It’s revealed in not the best of ways, kind of like an after thought, but it’s a great reveal. It’s just unbelievable. I loved it. It’s the only reason why this book gets two stars instead of one. It’s smart, edgy, and caught me off guard.
Let’s talk characters. Boring. Boring, boring, boring. I didn’t connect with any of them. None of them left a mark on me. Caddy’s mother was a nightmare; her sisters weren’t shining stars either. Grandpa was MEAN and very racist. Then there were the liars- three cousins and a family friend, Gatnik. I only remember Gat because he of his unusual name. But, out of all of them he was the most annoying. He was constantly talking about politics and race etc. He was trying to sound smart and impress Caddy. He was also a cheater and smooth talker. The liars didn’t really lie, so I am confused about their name, but that is for another discussion.
Overall, I was an unsatisfied reader. I read the book really fast, so you would think I liked it, but I didn’t. There wasn’t much to it. The suspense wasn’t very suspenseful. The characters were lackluster. The plot was just okay. There wasn’t much that I liked. However, I know I am in the minority. This book won goodreads choice book of the year. It’s one of those love/hate books. I just happen to fall in the latter category. If you pick this up, you may fall in the former. John Green calls it “Thrilling, beautiful, and blisteringly smart.” How can I disagree with John Green?!?!? But, I do. Sorry, John! Read at your own risk.