We Were Liars by E. Lockhart Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
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The four of us Liars, we have always been. We always will be.
I really don’t even know what to say when it comes to this book. In so many ways it had everything I have grown to adore in storytelling-a mysterious, not-as-it-seems story line, characters you never know if you can trust, beautiful, poetic writing, and overall just a vastly different way of delivering inevitable blows: slow, one-two punches to the gut. But with all this being said, there is one truth I can tell you about this story:
Everything I hate in a book, is this book.
Weird, isn’t it? How there can be so many things I love about a book, but more that I hate? I do so love a turn of phrase. 😉
It doesn’t matter if one of us is desperately, desperately in love.
So much
in love
that equally desperate measures
must be taken.
See, I have this fatal flaw where I literally feel guilty for rating a book low. Even now as I type out my reasons for rating this thusly, I feel guilty. But one thing I can say with absolute certainty is that when I clicked the 2 stars, it felt right. I have rated a few books that are written poorly with a shitty story-line 2 stars and in other books rated them 3 even though my feelings merited a 2 star rating. I feel that if a book is written well and I just didn’t love, it doesn’t deserve to be so low as a two: But I’ve found the exception. I can’t give this more than a two. I’m known to overrate for books that most likely don’t deserve it and STILL can’t give this more than two stars. The writing was beautiful and spectacular and the story was masterfully woven…but I felt like shit for every minute of it. I felt horrible and sad and depressed and, sure, I was so excited to see what the end was and, yes, I had been right in some of my assumptions, but I feel that while the end was awesome, this is a case where the end doesn’t justify the means.
“Do not accept an evil you can change.”
I wasn’t satisfied. I felt even more deflated, in fact. And more than that, the liars weren’t such bad liars. Whatever the fuck that means. View Spoiler »
One day I looked at Gat, lying in the Clairmont hammock with a book, and he seemed, well, like he was mine. Like he was my particular person.
I’m sorry to bring other books into this, but I am just so damn anal about what people think of me and my rating system. Ultimately, I want you, my GR friends, to see my reviews and be like, ‘Yeah, I trust what she’s saying and I can relate-she’s not being a total bitch for no reason.’ And I think if people can put into perspective my crazy method of thinking, it will help them to understand that while this one didn’t work for me, it might possibly work for them. So, here is a comparison where the reviews are mixed and I was entirely fair in my rating-View Spoiler » is the book I’ll compare. Now, I knew something horrific was coming in the aforementioned book, and, Hell, I was very damn depressed as I read, but I loved and enjoyed the story and the beautiful and vivid writing. It worked for me because, in my mind, the end did justify the means. Like….it was all built up and nobody wanted anything bad to happen, but you just knew deep in your bones something bad was coming, but at the end of it all…..did you or didn’t you enjoy the story? Did you enjoy the ride? Were there also enjoyable parts, or MORE enjoyable than disdainful ones? Did the story as a whole work for you?? It did. And that, my friends, is where WWL lost me. I don’t like to pay for depression-we get enough of that with the news, thank you.
She made me act normal. Because I was. Because I could.
I can’t really talk about this book. There isn’t a way to do so. But what I will say is, I bet this will be a spectacular movie. Honestly. And, most assuredly, I will likely be first in line to go see it. How does this make sense, you ask? Well…lemme explain. Look, it’s awesome that this book was all twisty and suspenseful and we didn’t know what was going on, but reading it was like stabbing my gut with knives at every twist and turn-in a movie, it plays out quicker and I won’t have to read all her inner depressing thoughts and instead it will be played out on-screen much more dramatically and….I don’t know. That hardly makes sense-but to me, it makes all the sense in the world-I’d rather watch the horrid truth that is this book on screen than ever have to lay eyes on this book again. In this case-the movie will be far superior to the book, in my humble opinion. And no, I didn’t rate this so lowly to make a statement-sometimes, you just don’t gel with books. I completely missed the boat on this one.
Maybe, maybe.
If only, if only.
And most importantly, why would I try to explain what this book is about?
It’s all a lie, isn’t it??
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