We Were Liars

I was talking with a fellow avid reader the other day and our conversation got around to narrators.  Specifically, the implicit trust that exists between the reader and the narrator: we take at face value that the tale being told is “the truth” and that the narrator is our confidante, our guide, “us” as it were.  It’s rare, in fact, that we as readers don’t align ourselves completely with the point of view, biases, and experiences of our narrator; and on that rare occasion when the narrator betrays our trust, we’re shocked, outraged, and left feeling betrayed.  My friend affirmed this – she dislikes an unreliable narrator to the point of hating books that rely on this wily, unscrupulous creation.  I, on the other hand, relish it.  I’ll dive into a book that announces from the beginning that our guide is going to lie to me (Liar, To Be Perfectly Honest) to see if I can “catch” where the narrator starts to lead me astray; but I’m even more delighted when the complex web of deceit is a surprise, revealed slowly (or suddenly) and I am dumbfounded by the narrator’s cunning and my own obliviousness.

Little wonder then, that I’d scoop up e. lockhart‘s forthcoming We Were Liars, as soon as the ARC arrived in the mail.  The custom box it shipped in was slathered with quotes, blurbs, and plugs from many current YA authors, all extolling this slim volume, luring me, tempting me, and saying “dive in!”  Of course, how could I not know that Cady Sinclair would take me on a twisting, turning journey where nothing is what it seems, I mean the title all but gives it away… and yet, I once again fell lock step into her tale, following the breadcrumbs and believing that her story, as she told it to me, was real and was “honestly” unveiled.

It’s been 2 summers since 17 year old Cady’s accident, about which she can remember nothing, on her wealthy family’s private island off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard.  Since the accident she’s been depressed, plagued by crippling migraines, and bereft without contact from her beloved cousins, Mirren, Johnny, and Gat, with whom she’s spent every summer on that island since she was a child.  Cady has finally convinced her mother to take them back again, believing that being “home” on the island, with her family, will provide the restoration, answers, and comfort she craves.  But life on the island has changed: their mercurial grandfather has torn down the family’s ancestral house and replaced it with a modern, lifeless structure; the Aunties are guarded and distant; and the cousins, the Liars, have retreated to one of the beach cottages and refuse to give Cady the solace and warm reunion she so desperately wants.

Curious? Willing to trust, knowing your trust will be betrayed?  Ready to be swept up in a tale of the rich and privilged where nothing is what it seems?  If so, pick up We Were Liars when it comes out in May 2014.  And then let’s share a coffee and our love of being lied to.

• Posted by Cori