The Bibliophile's Bookshelf

Title: Family of Liars

Series: We Were Liars #2

Author: E. Lockhart

Genre: Young Adult, Psychological Thriller, Contemporary

Rating: 3 stars

Review:

The prequel to We Were Liars takes readers back to the story of another summer, another generation, and the secrets that will haunt them for decades to come.

A windswept private island off the coast of Massachusetts.
A hungry ocean, churning with secrets and sorrow.
A fiery, addicted heiress. An irresistible, unpredictable boy.
A summer of unforgivable betrayal and terrible mistakes.

Welcome back to the Sinclair family.
They were always liars.

*This review has spoilers throughout.

I don’t know how I feel about this book. There were parts I enjoyed, the book was well written, but this book was heavy and dark and dealt with a lot of heavy things.

I enjoyed getting to know the Sinclair family. They are a fascinating family, though dysfunctional. This book follows the parents of the characters from We Were Liars. I enjoyed seeing how the Sinclair’s become who they are. One of my biggest questions is why they call their mother and father by their names? I thought it was weird, and a little confusing, but ultimately not the biggest part of the story.

This was well written, and it was in the signature E. Lockhart style. I love how she writes, there is a certain disjointed-ness to it that I love, and I think it pulls us into the story more, or more it makes me like closer to the narrator.

On to the things that I didn’t like or struggled with. This book is much heavier and darker than the first. I will start by saying that, while this book is a prequel, it has spoilers for We Were Liars. This book is definitely 16 plus, but maybe even 18 plus, while I think We Were Liars is 13/14 plus.

Here’s where the spoilers come in. The main characters murder somebody and then cover it up. I was liking the book until this part- I wasn’t expecting it and it was heavy.

This book also had a lot of teen drinking and drug use, and the main character was addicted to pills. It wasn’t necessarily glorified, but it wasn’t addressed as it should.

One of the characters died very early into the story and that carried a lot of weight throughout the rest of the story. There was a lot of exploring managing one’s grief that I really enjoyed, but it was overshadowed by the murder. I think I would have liked the book more if it stayed focused on the grief and moving on with life.

I don’t think I really liked any of the characters, except for maybe Carrie, and that was only in the beginning. I did like Rosemary. I thought she was sweet.

I do enjoy the ghost aspect of all of these books; I find it fascinating and adding to the tragedy.

Family of Liars is a heavy, dark prequel to We Were Liars that introduces us to this dysfunctional family.