Friday, May 16, 2014

DNF review: WE WERE LIARS by E. Lockhart

Title: We Were Liars
Author: E. Lockhart
Publication date: May 13, 2014
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Source: An e-galley provided by the publisher for an honest review

A beautiful and distinguished family.
A private island.
A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.
A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.
A revolution. An accident. A secret.
Lies upon lies.
True love.
The truth.
 
Read it.
And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.



Honesty circle time: I don't want to review this book. At the same time, I do. But I don't. The thing is that I want to get my opinion out there (of course), but I feel like I should just go BAAA because as you can see, I DNF'd it. I tried my hardest, I really did. I stuck it out longer than most books I DNF, reaching all the way to 58%. Usually when I'm that far, I keep reading, but go into turbo-skim read. This time, I just skipped to the ending, I couldn't handle the feeling of it being a ball and chain around my neck. 

Me throughout reading. Unfortunately, false.
Problem #1: Boredom. I thought I'd get this problem out of the way since it's the biggie and most obvious one. Usually when I DNF, it's out of boredom. When a book is annoying, but interesting, I actually tend to stick it out. But boring? Adios. We're introduced to Cady, the narrator, who has suffered an accident and can't remember what happened last year. There's this THING that happens, but since she's the narrator, we're left in the dark as well. I feel like I am the ONLY one who was on the same page as Cady. Everyone else's updates seemed to be all "oh, I totally guessed in the beginning," but I had no clue. Now, you'd think that that would help me. WRONG. The only thing it did was make me frustrated because I was completely lost in the story. I was trying to find the plot in it all and wanted something interesting to happen. I love twists and the "big mystery" plot usually in books, but I felt like I was a elementary algebra student who accidentally ended up taking a calculus class. 


Problem #2: The writing. One area the boredom stemmed from was the writing. I can see many people LOVING this style and others not so much. I adored Taherah Mafi's style in Shatter Me and I can see how these are similar, but I didn't like it at all in this one. It felt forced, annoying, and boring. That's a terrible triple threat. 

Problem #3: More awkwardness. This is most definitely related to problem #2 above. Along with the writing, the narrative felt strange. Really random scenes, awkward conversations, the oh-so annoying and repetitive "Gat, my Gat" mantra. It all meshed together and formed this awkward mess for me. Like I said, many people adore it all and thought it was captivating and beautiful. I really wanted to be one of them. 


When I read glowing reviews for this and then finally got accepted to read an e-galley, I jumped up and down and thought "hello, favorite 2014 read." So I had high expectations to say the least. Even if I did lower them, I still don't think this book was quite for me, no matter how interesting it seemed to be. 58% through the book and I still couldn't connect, understand, or even care. 

I TRIED TO HOLD ON.
My recommendation isn't to avoid this book. It's to read other reviews. It's out now so look for it in the library. I'm the black sheep here so obviously, other people have enjoyed it immensely. I just wished I could've been one of them. 

Verdict: A potentially amazing book, but one that made me dread reading. 

Note: Any quotes used may be altered after publication. 

16 comments:

  1. I felt complicated about this book. Parts of it I loved... parts ehhhh. And I really didn't like that ending. It made me feel cheated. The best thing about this book was that it was short because I didn't think I would have been able to stick it out either.

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    1. You can tell that it was a bit painful for me because it felt like it lasted FOREVERRRR.

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  2. I'm sorry that this book didn't work out for you Summer, it's always more of a shame when you have high expectations going into based around so many other praising reviews, but thank you for your honest review, its always nice to get a differing opinion. :)

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    1. I'm guessing you haven't read it yet, Jasprit? I really want to know what you'll think!

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  3. Tbh, I didn't like it that much either AND I didn't see the twist coming. I think I literally stared at my copy for 5 minutes at the big reveal.

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  4. It wasn't my favorite of the 2014 releases, I'll admit, but I liked certain aspects of it. The writing is actually probably one of the strongest things for me. I do like an unreliable narrator, and I like that I felt like I was constantly caught off guard by this story and the turn of events. Wasn't overly fond of the characters though!

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    1. I think I would've appreciated the unreliable narrator if I had any sort of connection or understanding to the story. It just felt really dry, which is always hard for me :(

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  5. I have been thinking about getting this from the library, partly because it looks a little interesting, and partly because I have heard a lot of different things about it. And your #1 problem with it makes me think I probably wouldn't like it. I don't think I'm going to try it in the near future, but I might try it eventually just because I'm wondering about it now.

    And this has nothing to do with what I just wrote, but that kitten gif at the bottom is darling! :)

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    1. I'm really wondering how you would like it now, so I hope one day you'll try it just so that I can pick your mind ;)

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  6. I have some serious issues with this book. The craft of the writing is good for what Lockhart was trying to do BUT BOY do I have problems with the themes and end. (I guessed what the big reveal was going to be but was angry at how it was handled and how it impacted said themes.) It is really hard to have a decent discussion of this book without spoilers. Grrr.

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    1. Since I just skimmed and then read the end, I guess I never understood the themes/end so now I'm really curious at how you're processing it!

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  7. Great review! I did finish it, but two months later I'm still amazed that I did :)

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    1. Ha! That really did make me laugh, I'm glad I'm not the only one :)

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  8. I have this book on hold at the library and I'm excited to give it a try, but thanks to your review I'll go in with caution. I tend to love offbeat writing styles, so hopefully I'll be one of the people who think it's captivating and beautiful. I can see why you didn't like it, though, and you did a great job of explaining yourself with your math analogy and "it's a big mess" and kitten GIFs. *crosses fingers for a better reading experience*

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    1. I actually can see you really enjoying this one! Thanks, Emily ;)

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