We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

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Publication date: 2013
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Pages: 225
My rating: 3.5 stars
Ages: 16+

Two summers after an accident left her with no memories and debilitating headaches, Cadence is returning to her grandfather's island where she is determined to find out what happened. But no one will talk about it and she's left with dreams and flashes of memories as she picks up the pieces of the relationships she left behind.

I chose this book because I've previously read Lockhart's Printz winner, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, and loved it. While Liars is well written and intriguing, it's a very different style than History is. Lockhart makes use of an almost disjointed writing style that mimics Cady's disjointed memories and family.

One thing that I found a little confusing was the metaphors--or what seemed like metaphors sometimes and didn't other times. Cady talks about "bleeding" over things, and most of the time it definitely seemed like a metaphor for how she was feeling while other times it could have been literal.

I really liked the twist at the end (I never see them coming, though other people seem to be able to figure them out before hand) and it made the book that much more interesting. I wouldn't say that this is the best summer book, despite it's setting, because it is a little depressing. It's a pretty quick read and I think would be great for high schoolers to read as an example of how literary techniques are used in contemporary writing.

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