"We Were Liars" (2014) by E. Lockhart REVIEW

Don't judge me. I only read this because it was the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Young Adult Novel of 2014. However, I have to disagree.

Meet the Sinclairs: A perfect family. No one is poor. No one is starving. No one is a criminal. When seventeen-year-old Cadance Sinclair returns to the family summer island of Beechwood after her accident that caused amnesia, she notices things have changed since she was last there two years ago. At least, from what she could remember and what her mother told her. Cadence tries to have a fun summer, with her cousins: eccentric Johny and soft Mirren. She wants to get back together with a long ago love, Gat. However, Cadence knows that information is being kept from her about what happened on the summer she can barely remember.
Something big.
So big,
in fact,
it might just
blow your mind.*

I'm not in the target audience, but I'll try to make my review as unbiased as possible. However, I really enjoyed the main plot (the part of the story where Cadence is trying to solve her mystery). It was the only part of the book that kept me hooked and led me to finishing it. The writing is also great for the most part. The narration is beautiful in most areas, but the dialogue feels flat nearly all the time. The dialogue in John Green's The Fault in our Stars is more realistic than the dialogue in here, but it is still readable.

Then there's the 40% of the book I couldn't care less about: the romance. Now, don't get me wrong, I try to keep an open mind with everything I read and watch. In fact, I find romances I actually enjoy (The Fault in our Stars and Looking for Alaska for example). Although, the romance in this book is so sappy and cliche, it was worth multiple eye-rolls and audible groans. Thankfully, it was only 40% of the book.

"It's Gat. My Gat. But is he still my Gat?"

Though well-written, the focus of We Were Liars is unbalanced. I wanted more of the main plot than anything else, which was absolutely great with an amazing twist I didn't see coming, but that 40% really bogged down my enjoyment. Twist of the year? Maybe. Best young adult book of the year? No. If you want another one close to the same synopsis, I highly recommend The Half Life of Molly Pierce by Katrina Leno instead.

2/5 Stars

You can order your copy of the book from Amazon right here!

*If you did not like the style of how the synopsis ended, you may not like the book.

Comments

"Need for Speed" (2014) REVIEW

I know I'm not the only one who thought this movie was going to be a flop. I mean, not only is it a high-speed street racing movie, but it's also a videogame movie. Still, I gave it a shot, but mostly for the D-Box experience. Even with the earnings from winning illegal street races, Tobey Marshall (Aaron Paul) is still unable to keep his auto repair shop from his father open. For a chance to get $500,000, Tobey takes an offer from his street racing rival and successful car dealer Dino Brewster (Domonic Cooper) to finish building the Ford Mustang that Caroll Shelby was working on when he died. After building the car and selling it without Dino's consent, Dino challenges Tobey and Tobey's friend, Pete, to a street race for the money. Nearing the end of the race, desperate for revenge, Dino pushes Pete over a bridge and drives away, leaving Tobey to be blamed for vehicular manslaughter. Two years later, fresh out of prison, Tobey seeks out to knock Dino off his p...

Books on Film by Black Authors

There's no real order to this list, nor can I guarantee which ones are worth reading or not. However, the quality of the books are not the point, but rather we should lend these voices our eyes, ears, and time, giving them a stronger voice than they would have had without at least mentioning them. Titles link to the Goodreads page for the specific book and additional links will be listed to buy the book from Barnes & Noble and/or Thriftbooks (non-affiliated). Don't forget to see if your local bookstore might have these in stock! Missing your favorite? Tweet me @AuthorKLau and I'll update the article! Independent Visions: A Critical Introduction to Recent Independent American Film by Donald Lyon Far from the big money movie machine of Hollywood lies the cutting-edge, artistically fresh world of American independent film. These independent filmmakers, working outside the formulas and constraints of the big studios, produce today’s most exciting and innovative movies. In ...

Blue Beetle Rebirth Vol. 1: The More Things Change (Rebirth #1, #1-#6)

2/5 Jaime Reyes as the Blue Beetle has interested me and been on my reading list for a while. When I first discovered the character watching Batman: The Brave and the Bold , seeing Jaime as a relatable teen arguing with the sentient suit that gives him his powers, his New 52 line had already been cancelled. Then Geoff Johns wrote Rebirth and added a little scene with Jaime Reyes that I thought was both very interesting and promising. In short, Keith Giffen doesn't deliver in this volume until issue #6, where he kind of gives a small splice of what the series could be. Getting the obvious out of the way, the dialogue here is absolutely horrible. I tell myself it feels like a first draft, but then there are moments of repetition and sentences upon sentences of nothing going on. By then, it feels more like a very bloated outline with the characters speaking mostly hot air. The dialogue here isn't flat, it's completely empty. This, in turn, makes all the charac...

Kevin Lau

Search This Blog