WE WERE LIARS by E. Lockhart
★★★★☆
Delacorte Press, 2014
I read this because it’s allegedly a retelling of King Lear. It… isn’t really (and I’ll talk about that more when I one day inevitably do a blog post on retellings of King Lear) but I actually liked this a LOT more than I was expecting to. Usually when I read YA my overriding feeling is ‘this wasn’t written for me,’ but I actually didn’t feel that so much; this largely felt like an adult thriller when I was reading. Yes, it contains Teenagers Experiencing Emotions, but that isn’t something I have an issue with; there was this sort of cool detachment to the writing that I felt worked in its favor and it was a fantastically paced, cleverly structured book that wasn’t weighed down by the protagonist’s navel gazing. And yes, there’s The Twist—it didn’t blow my socks off because it ended up being something I’ve seen done in other books, but I actually thought the execution here was really fantastic and it was definitely worth the wait. I did feel like the whole thing came together successfully, and it’s hard to talk about without giving anything away, but suffice to say this book was just delightful escapism if you prefer your beach reads to have a sharp edge.
This book was just okay for me. I think I was expecting more because people acted like it had this ‘amazing twist’ and it turned out kinda predictable. It was a fairly entertaining read though.
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That’s totally fair! Yeah I was kind of… underwhelmed by the twist in the sense that I didn’t find it nearly as sensational as people seem to think it is, but I thought it worked well with the story so I wasn’t too bothered.
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You really enjoying a hyped YA novel from years ago is the one 2020 plot twist I didn’t see coming
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LOLOLOL
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Ah, I’m glad you ended up liking this one! It’s been a few years for me and my reading taste has changed so much that I’ve been wondering if I could trust my rating anymore (also 4 stars), but clearly I was correct. 🙂 However, the dogs still haunt me.
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YES you can absolutely trust your past self, it was a great and solid book! GOD, THE DOGS 😦
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Interesting! A YA which feels like an adult thriller. Loved your review. And I too have come across YA books which didn’t feel like they had young adults in it.
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Thank you! Yeah, this one was definitely worth reading 🙂
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The only modern retelling of King Lear I can think of is Jane Smiley’s A Thousand Acres. I imagine this is also the most famous one!
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That one’s on my list! I definitely plan to read it in the next month or two. If I don’t love it I will be very sad indeed.
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I had to double check that it was i fact you giving a 4 star to an iconic YA from years ago, 2020 IS weird
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I haven’t read this neither am I interested BUT I’m commenting to say YES TO KING LEAR RETELLINGS POST I NEED IT
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I have an Kindle copy of this one and I dont clearly remember when I did get it. Maybe your post will get me to pick it up. Thank you!
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I hope you enjoy it!
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