We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

(4/5 stars)

A beautiful and distinguished family.
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 National Book Award finalist and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart. 

Wow. So, I've had some time to mentally process this book and I think I can finally write a review for it. Maybe. Bear with me, this one is going to be set up differently from other reviews. Starting with...

What I didn't like: First things first, I didn't think Cady, Johnny, Gat, and Mirren needed to call themselves The Liars. The fact that they were all hiding something and lying about something was pretty clear without it having to be said straight up. Anyway, when I first started this book, I immediately thought I was going to hate it. I didn't understand the hype. To me, it seemed like a bunch of spoiled rich kids who were ignorant of the real world and spent their vacations on a fancy schmancy private island. Gross. Where's the plot in that? Where's the appeal? Sure, the writing was pretty and flowy and super well done, but Cady didn't have much substance. Then, things changed...

What I did like: The accident changed everything. And when you finally realize the enormity of what "the accident" actually is, it'll blow you away and leave you speechless with tears silently streaming down your face. Cady became something more; she became complex and multidimensional in the best way. With her change, brings change to the rest of the island. We see that it's not all sparkly and shiny. The Liars become complicated and confusing. And in the end, you feel shattered. Because let's be real: nobody actually saw that ending coming. Or at least, I definitely did not!

I don't want to say any more about this book because 1)avoiding any spoilers is difficult and 2)it would take away from the art if I said anything else. It's worth a read, and don't give up on it. Follow it to the end, and you'll be glad (and depressed) that you did. 

-Annie