We Were Liars

Welcome friend! With E. Lockhart’s new release, We Fell Apart, I decided to revisit the first book, We Were Liars. I read it in my pre-blogging days, and all I remembered was that the ending stunned me. The story follows Cadence, a seventeen-year-old whose wealthy family spends each summer on their private island. After an accident two years ago, Cadence lost her memory—but returning to the island is slowly revealing the truth of what happened that summer. She was once inseparable from her two cousins and in love with a friend, and she doesn’t understand why no one has spoken to her since.

We Were Liars is a page-turner even as a reread. I read the deluxe edition while listening to Emily Alyn Lind’s masterful narration. Both were wonderful! The writing is sharp, the mystery of Cadence’s accident is immersive, and the emotional layers hit differently the second time. I’m so excited to share my thoughts on this haunting story!

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We Were Liars – Review

There is so much I did not remember about We Were Liars but the beauty of a reread is I can work backwards from the ending. What was said early on that pointed to how it would all unravel?  From the very start, Cadence is set up as an unreliable narrator. When her Dad moves out of their house and lives, Cadence recounts the event, “Then he pulled out a handgun and shot me in the chest.” (pg 5) She likes a twist of meaning and uses it many times in sharing her tale.

In the beginning, Cadence talks about the Sinclair family, their old money, the private island for the summer, her grandfather, her aunties and her cousins, Mirren and Johnny. When they are eight, Gat joins the group. He is Johnny’s mom’s boyfriend’s nephew and Johnny convinces their grandfather to spend the summers with them. Over time, Cadence and Gat fall in love. Summer fifteen is the glorious summer of their love blossoming.

But an accident that Cadence does not remember changes everything. Cadence emerges with burn marks, migraines, and amnesia. Her dad takes her to Europe for two of the following summers and her cousins do not answer her emails.  She was never in touch with Gat outside the island, so the silence cuts especially deep. She wonders what she did wrong when everything between them felt so right.

I love how We Were Liars unfolds. Interlaced between the story of the family are various fairy tales that Cadence has written. They are all stories about three daughters and a flawed king. They hint at everything simmering beneath the Sinclair family’s surface. 

“Now let me ask you this. Who killed the girls?

The dragon? Or their father?”

We Were Liars, pg 60

I keenly observed Cadence’s family, their interactions with each other, their remarks. Long before the truth of summer fifteen starts to unravel, the flashbacks that Cadence has compared to how life is now in summer seventeen shows a huge contrast. While the aunties were fighting over properties and inheritance two years ago, they are gentler to each other now. They lost their mom years ago and their father is scumbling to dementia. But this is not normal living. There is a lot of drinking, denial, sadness and grief that no one talks about. That is something Cadence points out about her family repeatedly. They don’t talk about the hard stuff. Her mother constantly tells her to smile for Granddad, show up to family dinners and get herself together. She is not allowed to fall apart because of her migraines and health and no one is allowed to remind her what happened.

It struck me this time how fitting the title is. The Sinclairs don’t lie outright; they lie by omission, by silence, by pretending everything is fine. That kind of lying leaves its own wounds. In refusing to name their grief, they create a world where pretending is easier than truth.

There is so much nuance to this story. The family was already fractured, and the accident only deepened the wound. Cadence speculates on what happens and two years later, returning to her summer homebase, she is driven to find out the truth. When she sees Johnny, Mirren and Gat again, she can’t help falling back into old patterns but she also asks them questions. And slowly and steadily, she remembers. 

As she remembers the past, she also confronts her recent actions: the harsh things she’s said to her mother, her spiraling withdrawal, the way she’s treated her family. Shame mingles with clarity. Cadence begins to understand grief differently, and she finds a way to move through it rather than drown in it.

Lockhart’s writing—with its sharp line breaks and fragmented rhythm—creates space for slow emotional processing. It mirrors Cadence’s fractured memory and lets each revelation land with weight. I also appreciated how Cadence describes her migraines — sometimes like a witch whispering spells, other times like a hammer splintering her skull. They aren’t just symptoms; they mirror the emotional pressure she’s under. Emily Alyn Lind brought the right emotions and pauses to the writing. I read We Were Liars in two sittings and found the experience even richer this time. 

I think this is the rare book where I’d willingly believe in ghosts just to let Cadence’s experience of summer seventeen be real. And that is all I can say without spoilers.

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In the end, We Were Liars is a story that lingers long after the last page. I returned to it after 8 years for a reason. It is not for its twist alone, but for the way it asked me to reconsider memory, loyalty, and the stories families tell to protect themselves. It reminded me how powerful a reveal can be when it’s rooted in emotion rather than shock alone.

I closed this book and just sat there for a moment. It’s one of those stories that rearranges itself in your mind the second you know the truth — and that’s where its real magic lies – and a reread becomes even more delicious. 

In the prequel, Family of Liars, E Lockhart returns to the island in another time, when the aunties were Cadence’s age. I’m excited to see what it reveals about the Sinclair legacy. Stay tuned for that review!