Tuesday 26 August 2014

We Were Liars review

WARNING: Contains spoilers, though they are clearly marked.
We Were Liars is one of those books that is really blown up in the book community as of late. It's surrounded by so much hype, that I thought I'd buy into it all and buy it quickly, before the book lost its appeal and buzz.

Now, when people were recommending this book, they all said to go in without really reading anything into what the book was actually about, this way, you got to experience everything yourself.
Now for me, that was a hard thing to do. Deciding on whether or not you're going to enjoy a book by only the few mysterious sentences on the back cover, which read(on my copy anyway):

'We are liars. We are beautiful and privileged. We are cracked and broken.
A tale of love and romance. A tale of tragedy.
Which are lies?
Which is truth?
You decided.'

Soooo, like I said, that isn't much to go on at all, but I still ordered it, and then waited - impatiently - for the book yo arrive so that I could immediately start reading it.
So here are my actual thoughts....

First off , I want to comment on how beautiful the writing is in this book. It's completely flawless. Every sentence had me longing for the next one. The metaphors were sometimes so long winded that for a second, you would think these things were really happening, and I loved that. I grew accustomed to them and grew excited every time I read them.

We Were Liars is indeed a book you should go into without much knowledge of.
It's split into five 'parts' and I think that works perfectly for this book.

It's quite a short book, at just over 200 pages, so I found myself flying through it.
But it doesn't quite seem like 200 pages, it feels more like double that, like you really know that time has passed during the book. It is paced to perfection, and the main setting, on a private island is quite magical.
How this whole family comes together in this one single place every year.

It's a somewhat dark story, yet not exactly.
It's a journey of self discovery with an underlining theme of dealing with the consequences of actions.

The one thing that mostly grated on my nerves was the use of the term 'Lairs' to describe the main foursome. The term is never explained or expanded on.
I want to know how the nickname came into play.

If you've read this book, you know its ending.
I genuinely had no idea the story would end the way it did.
I had convinced myself that Cady's 'accident' had something to do with Gat, like he'd accidentally pushed her, or even attacked her.
It wasn't until the beginning of Part 4, titled; The Fire. That I began to question my previous theories.
What do you think happened to the 'Liars'.
Were they ghosts? Inhabiting Cuddledown because they had always said the place was haunted.
Or were they merely hallucinations on Cadence's part, a way for her to deal with a tremendous loss that she wasn't quite willing to face yet, that her consciousness was trying to give her hints on. 
Either way, it was a pretty cool twist ending.
I couldn't help flicking back through to reread certain passages, to see if there were clues there all along that I had missed.
This books really does keep you guessing until the very last moment.

I love that part right at the very end.
'"I love you, Cady," she says.
She says it all the time since I got sick, but only now do I see that what Mummy means is,
I love you in spite of my grief. Even though you are crazy.
I love you in spite of what I suspect you have done."

Though quite freely admit that this book is a riveting read, I felt it didn't quite engage me the way I hoped it would.
I wasn't truly invested in the 'Lairs' as characters, and I didn't much care for the rest of the Sinclair family wither, but I was intrigued by their stories. My whole attention was focused solely on Cadence. Which is a name I love by the way.

Overall, though I didn't dislike this book, I feel like I can only give this book 3.5 stars.

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