The Book That Haunted Me At 3 AM

Looking for a book that has a lingering sense of suspicion at the end of every page? I’ve got you! Behold, I present to you, ‘We Were Liars’. Where do I even start with this masterpiece? Exploring the themes of mistakes, family problems and greed, this book is a wonderfully crafted novel by E.Lockhart. 

Here’s a gist of what it’s about: Cadence Sinclair Eastman is a 17 year old girl who visits her maternal grandparents at Beechwood Island - their private island (yes, they are RICH) - every summer. However, something is “off” about summer 17, and she has no clue what it is.

The first thing that I would like to appreciate about this book is how lifelike and natural the familiar issues are. The book magnificently captures how innocent lives are victims of greed. What do you think happens to blameless souls when they are exposed to the harsh realities of the world? Well, read the book to find out, I promise you, you will not regret it.

Secondly, I genuinely enjoyed reading Cadence’s interaction with her cousins. I adored how the conversations and things they do together fit their ages. It’s nice to see teens acting their age and not overly, unnaturally mature. 

Something else worth mentioning is how…interesting the definition of ‘normal’ is in this book. It made me rethink my definition of ‘normal’ multiple times. This story proposes ‘normality’ as being calm, composed and collected. It does not matter if you have a hurricane of emotions rampaging through you, threatening to ruthlessly tear you apart into innumerable, irrecoverable pieces, you have to remain ‘normal’ - if you are a Sinclair.

Another aspect of the book that I noticed was how ‘the beautiful Sinclair family’, as mentioned in the beginning, turned into ‘the Beautiful Sinclair family’ towards the ending. What’s the difference, you may ask? It’s the simple capitalisation of the word ‘beautiful’. Doesn’t seem like such a big thing, now, does it? You see, in the first part, ‘beautiful’ is more of an adjective to describe the Sinclair family. On the other hand, in the second part, it’s more of a proper noun. If you look into the context of the book, the irony that you’ll notice is bizarre. 

This young adult literature and psychological thriller is a roller coaster. And no, I’m not exaggerating. The key to this book being so entertaining is, in my opinion, its writing style. Despite the timelines being a little bewildering (I had trouble catching up at times), I later realised that this was done to ensure that the reader truly steps into the narrator's shoes (Cadence is the narrator).

‘We Were Liars’? More like ‘We Are Traumatised’ because WHAT was that ending? Considering the fact that I completed the book at 3 am, that ending struck me extra painfully. I was so dumbfounded to the point that I had to re-read part 5 of the book 2 or 3 times. That ending threw me off so bad, so bad that even the tears resting on my eyelids had to pull out a ‘hold up, wait a minute’. My beloved book lovers, you know nothing is better than wrapping a blanket around you (like a burrito) and reading. The moment you have to tear your warm, welcoming blanket away from yourself and sit up and read, you know that this book is going to scar you for life. Guess what? That’s exactly what happened to me.