30 Jan 2017

Review: We Were Liars


''Be normal, now. Right now.
Because you are. Because you can be.''

★★★★★

Once upon a time, on an island, lived four liars. They were beautiful children from a beautiful family. The perfect children smiled when told to, spoke as expected and kept their heads up high. They were the Sinclairs. They had square chins and fair hair. They were perfect. That's how you see them. Underneath the surface lies the truth. And the truth has never seen the light of the day before.

Cadence Sinclair Eastman spends her summers on the Beechwood island, owned by her Grandfather, Harris Sinclair. As a first born grandchild, a lot is expected from her. She doesn't want to meet those expectations, though. She wants to rebel. She just wants her family to be normal, not the Sinclairs with a stiff upper lip.

Okay, I need to put this here: Just what the actual fudge?!?!?! What have I just read? For the last few chapters I didn't breathe, I didn't dare to let out a sound. I didn't dare to do anything, because it could've changed the story. It could disrupt the truth I was seeing before me.

A page turner. Forget your life, forget your responsibilities, forget everything, everything. You are about to be sucked up to the world of the Liars, and the truth is way uglier than the protective lies. Knowledge adds pain. If you've already turned the last page, then you know what I'm talking about.

It's hard to write anything without exposing the truth. And that's what the book is about. But nobody's telling which are the lies. You won't know that you are lied to. You will know nothing.

There are some huge developments in characters, but that is due to the time jumps. The story is told in the present with the aid of flashbacks. But sometimes you won't realise what you just read was a flashback until a few pages later. You didn't know you were being lead onto another direction. To the direction of a lie, or a truth. You won't know.

One thing I realised after turning the last page, after returning the book back to its place on the shelf, was that it contained more Easter eggs than a Pixar movie. You were given hints all the time, but you can't connect the dots and form the big picture, because you weren't given any glue. Except in the end.

Just wait 'till the end. The truth will be a train wreck, it will be an aeroplane crash, it will be the death of your first and only love. It will crush you, demolish you and ruin you. And the best part, at that moment, you'll love the Liars.

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