Friday 13 June 2014

WE WERE LIARS | Book Review

Title: We Were Liars
Author: E. Lockhart
Originally Published: 2014
Published by: Hot Key Books
Page Count: 225


"We are the Liars.
We are beautiful, privileged and live a life of carefree luxury.
We are cracked and broken.
A story of love and romance.
A tale of tragedy.
Which are lies?
Which is truth?" 
(Source: Goodreads)


It's no lie that this book is huge right now. It has seen growth through the great marketing campaign by Hot Key Books, who have really utilised the power of social media. The #LiarsLiveRead gained trending status on twitter, and there have been countless reviews by booktubers and book bloggers alike. But what is the book actually about?

Like everyone, I feel it would be an injustice to the book to give you any direction of where it's going. All that I will say is that its genre lies within the contemporary side, with tropes of mystery thrown in there for good measure. 

The book is filled with lies. And instead of telling you any of them, I'll note vaguely what I liked/disliked, so you can get a sense of what I thought and whether this is the book for you.

Liked

1. The characters, while some are temperamental and incredibly confusing, each person was more than the one dimension they appeared to be in the beginning.

2. The setting was a great choice. 
3. The writing style was fragmented and genius. 

Disliked:


1. I felt the family and setting were not described well enough, it relied way too heavily on the map and family tree at the beginning.

2. The love interest - you knew it'd be in here, it does work well as it fits the nature of the characters but I just can't stand YA romances.

I can be quite critical of YA but this was one of the best YA books I've read. Give it a read this summer, I'm sure Hollywood will get the rights to it. Personally, i'd love it to be made into a small independent film, it would blend perfectly. 



4.5 stars.