We Were Liars by E. Lockhart Review

If you haven't read We Were Liars yet, the first thing I want to tell you is that this book is best experienced with little to no knowledge of what it's about. I want to keep my review spoiler free for that reason, apart from information that can be found on the back of the book. That being said, pretty much all I can say in way of summary this time is that this book revolves around a group of rich kids that all meet up every summer. And that's it. That's really all I can tell you. As always, I will have trigger warnings for this book listed at the bottom of this post, so if you consider those spoilers, be aware of those. Due to the fact there's not much else I can say in this intro, let's move on to the bulk of the review.

What I enjoyed about this book:

- The characters! All of them are very vibrant and have clearly defined personalities. This book is very heavily character driven and at times it feels like the plot itself takes a back seat, so I'm glad the characters were so interesting.

- The writing! This book is heavy with imagery and metaphor and I knew while reading that the writing style would be pretty decisive, especially because of some unique formatting choices. It won't be for everyone, but I really enjoyed it. I always appreciate literary fiction elements making their way into YA, but that's a much larger conversation for another time.

- The setting! It might seem like a small element, but this book has a really tangible sense of place that helped it feel more grounded.

Parts of this book that weren't for me:

- The beginning of it is incredibly slow and directionless. For the first 50 or so pages, I had absolutely no idea what was going on. While I think the reader being confused isn't necessarily a problem, it just went on a little too long for me and I wish there had been a little more information about where the book was going in that first section.

- The second complaint I have about this book is pretty heavily related to the plot, so I won't share it here, but I may make a post some other time discussing it.

I ended up giving this book 5 stars. While it isn't perfect, I really enjoyed We Were Liars and, as mentioned before, I really appreciate the effort to bring more literary fiction elements into the YA age range. I know that the structure won't be for everyone, but I absolutely loved reading this book.

Trigger warnings will be listed below. If you'd prefer not to view them, don't scroll down. There are quite a few and some are plot relevant.

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TW: Prescription drug abuse, alcoholism, underage drinking, PTSD, racism (this is not physical violence or slurs/verbal threats, however it's a theme that runs through quite a bit of the book), and death (including death of animals).