Before I get started I just want to apologise for last week. No blogging happened because I was stupidly busy brainstorming my contributions to Ely and Inge's Read-A-Long Diaries Event (eek! Can't wait). Life also decided to be really inconsiderate and happen.
***
Look, I'm not even sure I'm supposed to be reviewing this book.
The entire book community has been keeping the plot of E. Lockhart's We Were Liars under wraps for over two years now. They believe that it's absolutely vital you should go in blind, and that it's best to know as little as is humanly possible from page one. Only then can the absolutely astronomical plot twist pack the intended punch.
And do you know what, I agree. The mystery is vital, but I need some way to SCREAM ABOUT HOW AMAZING THIS BOOK IS. So, with my frankly brilliant bloggerly skills, I intend to write a full review of it without mentioning a single plot detail.
I'm going to need an awful lot of luck.
I can only describe We Were Liars as a perfect storm of characters with beautiful faults and prose so bare it is heartbreaking. The fractured sentences take a chapter or two to get used to, but that's only because as readers, we aren't used to writing being so unapologetically raw or gorgeously real. Again, I am at absolute pains to not over-explain, but it just channels the main character so organically, as if you're reading her thoughts out the back of her head.
Then there's the gorgeous setting. It's like summer in a bottle: the sand, the family cookouts, the swimming and the sailing and the sun . . . clearly, the holidays are just a million times better when you have your own private island.
The characters are flawless too (I mean flawlessly written; as people they're delightfully screwy) but I can say almost nothing specific because - nope. Can't even tell you that.
THEY ARE CALLED CADENCE, JOHNNY, MIRREN AND GAT. I'm pretty confident I can tell you guys that much without being killed by the secretive book community ninjas, but if you don't hear from me for a while, you might want to check out their secret lair, just in case I'm tied up in the dungeon.
Basically, this book is an amazing piece of twisted beauty, and you need to read it. It will make you feel a waterfall of emotion. (And by that, I mean a stream of tears.)
Please read it! PLEASE!
***
In the comments: Are you annoyed by my refusal to tell you anything? Trust me, it's for your own good. (Those of you that have read the book, don't you dare ruin anything. I'm watching *manic grin*
AHH I LOVE THIS BOOK!! And I totally understand how hard it is to review, omg, it's best gone into 100% blind, right?! It totally knocked me over with those mammoth plot twists at the end. I LOVED IT. AHH. And by "loved" I mean "my feels got punched" but pfft, that's the same thing, right? ;)
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by @ Paper Fury!
We need to make a club of people who've tried to review this - to attempt recovery, of course, because EVERYONE seems to struggle. If it wasn't such a fantastic book, I think I'd go on strike ...
DeleteBut it's ok. My feelings have been punched, so I'm happy ;)
This is why the book community is amazing, because we all just agreed to say NOTHING about this book without actually agreeing to anything. THAT BOOK IS THE ABSOLUTE BEST BEACH READ. I loved it to pieces and then I gave it to my parents to read. The writing style was one of my favorite things about the book. But let's be real, it was ALL my favorite.
ReplyDeleteYES EVERYTHING IS MY FAVOURITE AND AT LEAST WE CAN BE REAL TOGETHER. But your parents voluntarily read something you gave them? You have no idea how lucky you are. I've been trying to get my Dad to read The Hunger Games for FOUR YEARS.
DeleteI DID MY WAITING! FOUR YEARS OF IT! IN AZKABAN!
Yes!! They've actually both read tons of stuff I give them, including The Fault In Our Stars and Divergent. I'm trying to get my mom to read These Broken Stars now, but she's not a huge sci-fi person. Although TBS is the first sci-fi book I read and absolutely ADORED, because up until discovering "Doctor Who," sci-fi wasn't my thing either.
ReplyDelete*giggles hysterically*
I need to get round to These Broken Stars: everyone keeps saying it's brilliant and anyway the cover is gorgeous, so it can't be that bad.
Delete*giggles hysterically back*
I am amazed at how wonderfully accurate but non-spoilering this review is, like that is exactly it and yet if you hadn't read it, you would know nothing!
ReplyDeleteTHANK YOU SO MUCH YOU'RE AMAZING FOR YOUR BEAUTIFUL COMPLIMENT.
Delete