A
beautiful and distinguished family.
A
private island.
A
brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.
A
group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.
A
revolution. An accident. A secret.
Lies
upon lies.
True
love.
The
truth.
I honestly have to say that this was not
one of my favorite books. I contemplated giving it a half star less than I did,
but the ending and my after thoughts of the entire book brought it up that
little bit.
A lot of people will mention how the
ending is insane and so unpredictable, but I knew about halfway through what
the ending was. Granted, if you’re not as great a guesser as I, the ending will
completely blow your mind most likely. That being said, the fact that I knew
what the ending was going to be was still not the main reason I gave this book
such a low rating.
There was no reason why the four
main characters were identified as the Liars by Cady. This really grated on my
nerves, so get ready for a wee rant. Cady has amnesia throughout the majority
of the book, and the slow build through all the years at the island leading up
to the accident gave no suggestion toward the four characters being liars. They
did not lie about anything except for the accident, but Cady doesn’t remember
the accident so why would she be calling them the Liars for the entire book? I
would have been okay with it a little more had the story been told in past
tense rather than present. As is, Cady had this omniscient feel that was
unfitting for the story since she was the least omniscient of all given her
amnesia and the fact the story was happening as we were reading it. Of course,
after the accident is revealed there are so many nuances about every
character’s actions that suddenly makes sense, but the Liars title was not one.
Aside from that, I wasn’t a huge fan
of how the story was laid out. It was a very short book, which was good because
not a lot happened, but it had such a slow-as-snails-riding-on-turtles build.
The slow build is great for mysteries such as this one, but I don’t feel as
though the author, E. Lockhart, offered up many crucial mystery-solving clues
during this slow build. The book could have honestly started during the
seventeenth summer on the island, and I would have had a lot less dead pages to
get through.
Don’t get me wrong, the beginning
and the ending of the book are great. The ending had me bawling like a baby,
and Lockhart gave such beautiful metaphors throughout the book. However,
everything that was revealed in the first half of the book could have been done
just as easily during the last two summers. I’m sure that watching the
characters grow into who they become during the accident is great for character
building, had such a thing occurred. Honestly, the descriptions Cady gives about
her “Liars” throughout the book told me more about them that the actual story
did.
Sorry if this isn’t the huge
appraisal review most have been giving about this book, but it just wasn’t
enough for me. It wasn’t enough mystery, or thrill, or character building. I
knew light-years more about every secondary character than I did about all of
Cady’s “Liars” combined. Granted, the ending was amazing and it did bring every
character into new light and I’m so glad I got to read that beautiful ending.
I’m just sad I had to wade through the rest of the book to get there.
XOXO Tia
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