We Were Liars by E. Lockhart is probably one of my least favorite books I have read in a while. The story attempts to paint trauma and mental illness in the eyes of a teenager. It tries to be relatable to the reader, and while I believe that this could have been achieved, the main character of the novel is quite frankly a horrible character.
The main character is a rich white girl by the name of Cadence Sinclair. You can already see how being relatable to the reader is going to be hard with this character. The author attempts this by trying to show her as a flawed character, who makes mistakes just like the rest of us. However, these mistakes are usually just out of pure stupidity or from being extremely privileged, such as not knowing the names of the workers who work for her family, or judging her family for being rich.
If you’ve ever seen an M. Night. Shyamalan movie, you’ve read this book. The plot twist at the end, while unexpected, leaves more questions than it answers. While the climax is indeed tense, hindsight is 20/20, and in hindsight it is extremely disappointing how this book ends. It feels like a cop out, completely removing all of the progress that the story has made and killed the book for me. While reading, it’s very easy to get bored of this book and forget about it. My distaste for this book cannot be overstated enough.