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We Were Liars by E. Lockhart Review/Summary

Writer: E. Lockhart
Publication Delacorte Press
ISBN-13 978-0385741262
Language: English
Genre: Psychological
Best Sellers Rank: #289,491 in Books
Custoer review 4.4/5
Publish Date: 13 May 2014

The story revolves around Cadence Sinclair Eastman, the eldest grandchild of the wealthy Harris Sinclair. Despite being the perfect image of refinement, Cadence knows that her family's wealth and privilege have taken a toll on them. Her family pretends to be perfect, and any sign of odd behavior or unhappiness is ignored or repressed. Harris Sinclair, Cadence's grandfather, owns an island called Beechwood Island near Martha's Vineyard and has built a home for himself and a house for each of his three daughters: Cadence's mother Penny, and her aunts Carrie and Bess.

The Sinclair family spends their summers on the island. Cadence, along with the other older cousins, Mirren and Johnny, and Gat Patil (the nephew of Carrie's partner, Ed), are known by the family as "The Liars." During the summer when Cadence is fifteen, known as Summer Fifteen, Gat and Cadence fall in love and begin a relationship.

During that summer, Cadence suffers a severe head injury, and she only remembers that she hit her head in the water. She loses most of her memories of that summer and begins to suffer from migraines. She becomes addicted to Percocet and is forced to repeat a year at school. When she tries to reach out to her cousins, they ignore her. Instead of going to the island for the summer, Cadence's mother forces her to go on a tour of Europe with her father, with whom Cadence is no longer close after he had an affair and abandoned the family.
The story revolves around Cadence Sinclair Eastman, the eldest grandchild of the wealthy Harris Sinclair. Despite being the perfect image of refinement, Cadence knows that her family's wealth and privilege have taken a toll on them. Her family pretends to be perfect, and any sign of odd behavior or unhappiness is ignored or repressed. Harris Sinclair, Cadence's grandfather, owns an island called Beechwood Island near Martha's Vineyard and has built a home for himself and a house for each of his three daughters: Cadence's mother Penny, and her aunts Carrie and Bess.

The Sinclair family spends their summers on the island. Cadence, along with the other older cousins, Mirren and Johnny, and Gat Patil (the nephew of Carrie's partner, Ed), are known by the family as "The Liars." During the summer when Cadence is fifteen, known as Summer Fifteen, Gat and Cadence fall in love and begin a relationship.

During that summer, Cadence suffers a severe head injury, and she only remembers that she hit her head in the water. She loses most of her memories of that summer and begins to suffer from migraines. She becomes addicted to Percocet and is forced to repeat a year at school. When she tries to reach out to her cousins, they ignore her. Instead of going to the island for the summer, Cadence's mother forces her to go on a tour of Europe with her father, with whom Cadence is no longer close after he had an affair and abandoned the family.

Two years later, during Summer Seventeen, Cadence returns to the island and finds that much has changed. Her controlling grandfather now suffers from dementia, and his estate, Clairmont, has been replaced by New Clairmont, a cold architectural monstrosity that has none of the charms of the previous Clairmont. The Liars act strange around Cadence and refuse to talk about what happened in Summer Fifteen. They reject the idea of spending time at New Clairmont and instead camp out at Cuddledown, formerly the estate of Bess and her family.

As the summer progresses, Cadence slowly begins to remember events from Summer Fifteen. She recalls that after her grandmother Tipper died, her mother and aunts began to argue over their inheritances. Though each woman had been given access to trust funds and education, none of them were able to earn a living independently and continued to depend on their controlling father to ensure their financial futures. Carrie had refused to marry Gat's uncle, despite living together for nine years, because Harris opposed her marrying a man of Indian descent.

Cadence finally remembers that in Summer Fifteen, she proposed that she and the other Liars should burn down Clairmont to get the family to stop feuding over the property. She is delighted with the idea that she was able to keep the family together until she recalls that the Liars forgot to release her grandfather's dogs, killing them. When she goes to Gat for comfort, he asks if she was able to recall anything else. In a plot twist, Cadence realizes that Johnny, Mirren, and Gat all died in the fire. She goes to visit the Liars at Cuddledown, where they tell her that their deaths were not her fault and reveal that they will no longer be able to appear to her. All of them then dive into the ocean and disappear.