Book Review: We Were Liars

For as long as I can remember, I've been an avid reader. I embody almost every stereotype about a bookworm: begging to stay awake for "just one more chapter", laying by the window with the streetlamp to keep reading when my previous request was denied, burning through The Baby Sitter's Club books and moving on to my mom's Danielle Steel collection in elementary school, garnering the most Accelerated Reader points in middle school, being a regular at the library and having to have a dedicated library tote big enough for all of my books in high school. . .the works. One of my friends calls me Gretchen Grundler, from Recess; Jon calls me Twilight Sparkle.

image via Disney Wikia

When we moved into our new place, I had a vision for a small space near the front of our apartment and conveyed it to Jon, who agreed it was perfect - thus, my reading nook was born. 

#ApartmentLife : My Reading Nook. On the opposite wall is a bookcase (although, admittedly, I'm a Kindle girl these days).

All of this to say: I like to read.

I recently downloaded We Were Liars by E. Lockhart based on the Goodreads Best Books 2014 Awards. I have a few other books I intended to read first, but it seemed like I kept seeing mentions of it all last week and I couldn't ignore it any longer.

image via Goodreads | Jacket photograph via Getty Images

I'm really pretty terrible at summaries and typically butcher them, so here's what Amazon has to say:

A beautiful and distinguished family. 

A private island. 

A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy. 

A group of four friends - the Liars - whose friendship turns destructive. 

A revolution. 

An accident. 

A secret. 

Lies upon lies. 

True love. 

The truth. 

We Were Liars is a modern, sophisticated suspense novel from New York Times bestselling author, National Book Award finalist and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart. 

Read it. 

And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.  

Typically, I cannot stand reading anything - books, blogs, cereal boxes, whatever - written in that dramatic, halting manner. It drives me nuts: please produce a full freakin' thought. This book is no different - varying sentence lengths, varying chapter lengths, varying usage of punctuation marks. . .it's one of those books that comes across as more of a work of art than a story. 

I hate art.

(See what I did there?)

And yet, I found myself crying into my pillow last night as I finished the book. Despite the style not being my cup of tea, I was absolutely intrigued. Tell me about these ohsobeautiful Sinclairs, give me their secrets - dirty and clean alike. One aspect I particularly enjoyed was the sprinkling in of fairy tales, seemingly written by the main character Cadence/"Cady" (thanks, Mean Girls, for teaching me how to pronounce that). It was fascinating and perhaps because I was so distracted by the style, I didn't see the ending coming - and even when it came, it still found a way to shock me even further.

Overall, while not a usual choice for me, it was an enjoyable, quick read. I don't know that I necessarily think it deserves the Best Book of 2014 Award in its category, but I can understand the argument that it's different than most of what it out there in the genre, and perhaps a little deeper/darker, too.

I'm going B- for this one, with the realization that it is a grade almost entirely based on personal preference. 

What have you read lately? Anything you're looking forward to reading over the holidays?

Recently Read: Symbiont, book two in the Parisitology triology from Mira Grant. Grade: A. 

On The Shelf: Bzrk, first in a new triology from the Gone series author, Michael Grant.