Monday, September 01, 2014

Review- We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Goodreads Summary:

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 National Book Award finalist and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart. 

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


REVIEW:


When your favourite bloggers read and appreciate a book, you have to read it, no matter what. We Were Liars has already gone down in history as the fastest and most sincere recommendation I've taken from my buddy Tanja. I had been seeing the book around a lot and when I read Tanja's absolutely beautiful review for it, I began reading the book within an hour of reading her review, so you can imagine the impact her review had on me. Our buddy Glass read and loved the book as well so that was definitely a plus. I wasn't expecting much (as I've learned not to do) from the book, but it seemed like it would be a very good story. Unfortunately, my feelings are mixed and even more unfortunate is the fact that I do not like mixed feelings.

Let me start with the positives. This was the first E. Lockhart book that I read and the writing was amazing. It had such a pretty flow to it and it could be read as poetry. It's not always easy to read books written this way and I am well aware that most people do not prefer to read in this manner, but I get hooked on to it from page one. The writing was the second reason why I went fast with the book than my normal reading speed. The first reason, you ask? The mystery. The intrigue. The curiosity. Just like the writing, I was into the plot from the beginning. I was dying to know exactly what would come my way and my curiosity was piqued to the point that I wasn't even making up my own imaginary scenes as I just wanted to know, know and know more.

That brings me to the plot itself. While the story was quite strong and highly interesting, I didn't quite like the way in which it was executed. I loved the ending because I love these kind of endings, but somewhere, I felt that something was missing and that is purely my fault since I kept asking and waiting for something more. There were quite a few issues that were going on on the island on which this story takes place among the family there and they were really good and well developed, but issues like this are much more fascinating when there's more depth to them. I felt that they became very petty at some point. Also, the ending didn't have an impact on me. If anything, I was only trying to search for something that wasn't there. The characters were fascinating, I would say, with each person having flaws, making them more real, but I didn't connect to them save for a few truly exceptional times.

I really wish I had liked We Were Liars more like everyone seems to have, but then again, I am someone who goes left when everyone goes right. Anyway, I am so glad I gave the book a try since it is beautiful in its own way and the whole reading process was one amazingly cool experience keeping me at the edge of my seat throughout and when a book does that,  it is a good book. The few aspects that I didn't quite enjoy or "get" end up being the main parts unluckily, but that aside, this was a good book.

RATING:



4 comments:

  1. We Were Liars was sort of an odd book for me. I really liked the plotline and the characters. I thought the twists and turns of it, left you till the end of the book. I think the writing style for me was hard to read sometimes, as it's so different from others I've read. Great review! :)

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  2. Aww sweetie I'm so proud that you read this one so fast! I love you for that. I need to get down some of your recommends! Anyhow I'm so happy you loved the writing and it was amazing I agree. Also I know how you felt about wanting more, but if nothing Jellicoe Road taught me how to be patient and that I'm with books. Amazing review, hon! :)

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  3. Humm, I'm a bit concerned that I'll feel the same way as you did, Sarika, so that is why I have been staying away from this one even though it has been massively hyped. I AM pretty curious about the ending that everyone is raving about, but then again, if everything hinges on that ending and you end up disappointed with it, then you will be disappointed with the entire book. Still, it's encouraging that you have no regrets about reading this one. I still really want to try it out!

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  4. I love Tanja's blog! Glad t see the recommendation came from there ;) I haven't read this book, but on the internet and book blogs I have seen a whole lot of mixed feelings about this book. I think you either love it or hate it, so I wonder which will apply to me when I read it! I am looking forwards to picking it up ^^

    http://olivia-savannah.blogspot.nl/2014/09/top-10-things-to-do-when-back-from.html

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