E. Lockhart
We Were Liars
Random House Delacorte (US & CA: 13th May 2014)
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When you overhype something, people expect it to be the best thing ever. And when we discover it’s NOT the best thing ever, we’re disappointed. I probably would’ve appreciated the book more if the publisher and the YA community had NOT overhyped it. It’s good, but not the best thing ever.
Cadence Sinclair Eastman is an unreliable narrator. Usually I’m okay with that – IF I like the narrator, but here I do not. Because of the liar/unreliable factor, this novel’s bound to be likened to Justine Larbalestier’s Liar, but Liar is much better.
Remember how a certain debut YA novel was so full of metaphors (rather than just telling it how it is), that it drove me batty? There is a little of that here, but thankfully nowhere near as much. e.g. Then he pulled out a handgun and shot me in the chest. That doesn’t literally happen; it’s just a fancy, figurative way of saying, “He punched me in the feels.” Also, bleeding is mentioned a few times when I think it’s actually tears and emotions – not actual blood. This is annoying writing, but mercifully there’s not too much of it.
In the ARC, the publisher has strongly advised NOT to share spoilers, but it’s my duty as a reviewer to provide trigger warnings. And the trigger warnings are spoilers.
SPOILER WARNING: There are spoilers in the Trigger Warning
TRIGGER WARNING: Incest (by marriage – not blood), dog deaths, human deaths
Tez Says 
Aw, I didn’t think it was the best thing ever, but I really loved this one. I do understand what you mean about the hype though. There’s another book right now that I feel is getting a tremendous amount of OMFG SO AMAZING and I’m a little nervous to read it.
Also…IS there incest? If we’re thinking of the boy Cady falls in love with, I believe he is her aunt’s boyfriend’s nephew, right? Incest is usually a literary dealbreaker for me, but this didn’t even occur to me to fall into that category. Or is there another relationship I missed?
Incest-by-marriage (instead of incest-by-blood) is still incest to me.
This book is hugely hyped, but for me it did fall into it. I got completely sucked in! And for the incest…Cady’s aunt and her boyfriend aren’t married, and he comes from a completely other family and is not a son to Cady’s aunt’s boyfriend. He comes into the family as a friend! It is an awkward scenario, but I wouldn’t label it as incest either 😦 I’m sorry this one was a miss for you! 😦