Amity Middle School Orange Book Blog

Read reviews by an avid young adult book enthusiast.

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart


I really enjoyed this well-written book.  However, I am only recommending this title to mature readers.

The narrator, Cadence Sinclair Eastman, has suffered a major trauma which affects her ability to remember clearly the events of her fifteenth summer.  The memory loss makes her an inconsistent narrator.  As a reader, one cannot truly guarantee that events occurred as Cadence recalls them.

Cadence’s extended family (her mother’s two sister and families) spends summers on their privately owned island off the coast of Massachusetts. Beechwood Island has four huge houses (one for each of the Sinclair daughters and one for their father & mother.) Cadence has spent each summer of her life at Beechwood.

Her two cousins Johnny and Mirren are her best friends.  The three have always been affectionately known as just “the cousins,” but the year they were eight, Gat Patil came to the island with Cadence’s Aunt Carrie.  After that the four were known as the liars.

Gat was different from the line of Sinclairs.  His skin bore the color of Indian dissent. Cadence’s granddad and grandma did not accept him.

Cadence’s affection for this boy who is different is evident, “Gat was my love, my first and only. How could I let him go?”

The trauma that occurs shatters the entire Sinclair line, but especially Cadence.


Read, We Were Liars to find out what could possibly have gone so wrong on such an idyllic summer island.

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