We Were Liars - E. Lockhart

Title: We Were Liars
Author: E. Lockhart
Publication date: May 2014
Purchased: ASDA - £3.85
Rating: three stars

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 decide 

*synopsis from back of book*

Honestly, I think I was expecting a little more from this book than I actually got. But whilst it was a good contemporary novel with a powerful story, it just wasn't one hundred per cent for me.

I thought that Lockhart created a fantastic setting, I really could see the island and the houses. She was really good at capturing each scene in the novel perfectly. The only drawback was that I felt like the protagonist Cadence had no personality. I never really got a grasp of who she was and couldn't really get involved with how she felt. She kept using these extreme metaphors to describe how she felt, but, to be honest, I didn't like them. But everyone else I got a real strong sense of personality, made especially by the writing style. Example a: "Mirren, she is sugar, curiosity, and rain" - I love how simplistic yet impacting these little descriptions can be. I thought it was beautiful.

It dealt with some real issues, especially surrounding family. Cadence's parents divorce and her complicated relationship with her mum, and the three sister's relationship with their father was of a lot of interest to me. I'm not a tall, blonde beauty born into a millionaire family with a budding financial problem, but I could believe what I was reading (mostly). The children being cleaved between the pressures of living up to expectations and just wanting it all to end is probably something a lot of people can emphasise with, and it was depicted well enough that I could sympathise.

However, in terms of plot Cadence's illness seemed pretty sketchy to me at some points. I know that there was a big old twist that had for the story's sake to be kept hush, but when it did come out (and no I didn't expect it) it made the story a little meh for me. I honestly don't know enough about what she suffered to prove it was unrealistic, but I felt like she would've know more than she did until the end of her weeks on the island. I really do, but I could be wrong. Like I said before, I didn't expect the twist, maybe that was silly of me not to, but I definitely thought it was the best bit of the book, I shed a little tear.

Overall it was a story with a great plotline, but at times I found it a bit puzzling and I couldn't really get involved with Cadence as a character as I would have liked to. Maybe I'm missing something, but it was just my impression.