‘We Were Liars’ is a phenomenally mysterious, thrilling and romantic standalone by the great novelist, E. Lockhart.

The story revolves around a family called the Sinclairs, who have a private summer home island on which the grandparents live. The Sinclairs are the perfect family, with proud grandparents and beautiful children and grandchildren. The eldest three of all the grandchildren are Cadence, Johnny and Mirren, who befriends a boy the same age by the name of Gat, and become the Liars. Every summer, the 3 daughters of Harris and Tipper Sinclair bring their grandchildren to the island of Beechwood.That is, until something happened.

The entire story is told from the perspective of Cadence, the eldest grandchild, following a mysterious accident in which no one will talk about and Cadence doesn’t remember. All she knows is that she woke up one day in a hospital bed, with selective amnesia and only glimpses of what happened.

“Welcome to the beautiful Sinclair family. No one is a criminal. No one is an addict. No one is a failure.”

The language used in the book is beautiful and fluent, like poetry, because it has such a lyrical quality to it. The world building is amazing, because it seems to be a separate world on that island than the rest of the world. Everything flows into each other extraordinarily smoothly, as if it were a real situation, with no gaps left for doubt. There is perfect sequence in how the events unfold. It’s a real page turner with a very unique, realistic and surprisingly grim factor, making it nothing like you’ve ever seen before.

The character dimensions are fantastic and wholesome. There are some teenage concepts, like friendship, romantic relationships, pulling back from parents and the need to prove yourself. This is because it reflects the mind of a -however fractured but still young- girl. There are also some dark elements that somehow add into the context of the story and makes it that much more interesting.

It is absolutely unpredictable and intimately intimidating. The perspective from which it was written creates a very thrilling and fragile environment, based on the character context. It’s the kind of book that makes you go back to the beginning and read it all over again once you’ve finished. No lies or truths are told outright, thus leading readers to become committed and curious, resulting in the book being a riveting, haunting and satisfying read. And let me warn you, nothing is ever as it seems.

 “Which are lies? Which is truth? You decide.”