First let me address the elephant in the room: I have failed at my bid to read 52 books this year seeing at I have only made it to number three and it is October. Sigh. When I decided to go for a cannonball I was pregnant with Love Spawn #2 and figured I would read while my belly grew and I was able to move less and less. Then life threw a curve ball by way of a difficult pregnancy and all bets were off. I was unable to focus enough to write emails some days, and other days my activity amounted to walking down the street and back. Focusing my brain on long strings of words was out of the question, and writing about them was an even more asinine ideal. My focus had to be getting through each day and giving my then two year old all of the attention I could wrangle.
I am happy to say that Love Spawn #2 was born happy and healthy in June, and finally after yet another difficult period (unexpected complications with recovery) I am finally back to being able to focus enough to read and gasp! write reviews! Pajiba has been wonderful in these times as I was able to engage as much or as little as I needed, and I am so pleased to have such an amazing little online community to dip my toe into every once in a while.
So, let’s write about we were liars without writing about we were liars because writing too much about we were liars could accidentally give away one of the big twists of we were liars which would impede one’s ability to enjoy reading we were liars once one gets around to reading we were liars. I think y’all catch the drift of what I am saying here. So I’ll divulge what I can, which is very little, and I will do my best to not give anything away, though the mere fact of knowing there is something to give away basically sets you up to figure it out, just as I did. I think my dilemma is clear.
So anyway we have a young woman named Cadence who is suffering from amnesia and severe migraine headaches who lives with her sad Mother. She is from the wealthy Sinclair family who spends each Summer on their private island and, as is wont to happen with wealthy families who own private islands, there be drama. Everyone on the island is related except the help and one young man who is the nephew of the boyfriend of Cadence’s Aunt, so naturally since he is not a blood relative there is young flirtation and romance.
We follow this ‘perfect’ family for two Summers in particular, one that culminated in whatever accident caused Cadence’s amnesia and headaches and a second one when she finally returns to the island two years later. The narrative bobs and weaves around events, offering tantalizing hints about what happened THAT FATEFUL NIGHT, including which players were and were not involved.
I read this book in one sitting, and though I figured out what I would assume was supposed to be the biggest twist right away, certain details surrounding the event itself were a surprise to me, which is a plus with a suspense novel such as this one. The writing is good and the characters are compelling enough, though I’m not sure I was quite as obsessed with the Sinclair family as the publishers thought I should be, seeing as they put together an entire website devoted to the family and seem to have created a mythology around them. I was much more interested in the feints regarding THAT FATEFUL NIGHT and trying to puzzle out how exactly Cadence was injured, which I did NOT guess correctly.
Seeing as my last two books were hella disturbing, it was refreshing to read something that kept me guessing and didn’t upset me in a deep, visceral way. As I said, I read it in one 3.5 hour go, so if you have a trip coming up and would like an easy, fun read, I would highly recommend this one. And if you don’t happen to figure out one of the twists, I think it will floor you in the best possible way.
