We Were Liars

by E. Lockhart

I wound up really liking this book, though I put off reading it for a long time. When I first heard about it, the description kind of turned me off, and the fact that it was getting lots of hype didn't help either. I have read another book by the author that I enjoyed (Fly on the Wall), so I eventually checked this one out after seeing yet another mention of it somewhere.

The book is fairly short, and the story is very gripping, with a surprise twist that you know is coming but probably won't guess. I thought I knew, I had some ideas... but I was wrong! And the reveal felt very exciting, which is a testament to the excellent writing, because the twist could easily have been flubbed. You've got some rich kids who spend summers together on a private island (you can see why I was a bit turned off...) and some kind of incident that happened a couple of summers ago; one of the teens (protagonist) can't remember what happened, and no one else will talk about it. The dark side of family wealth and fundamental unfairnesses related to social class are not ignored, and in fact they are fuel for the development of the plot, so the story is more than just a bunch of spoiled rich kids (even though it kind of is).

A very good YA book overall — some romance, some tragedy; tension and the right pacing/length. I would definitely recommend this book to lots of teens, and I might try to get my mom and sister to read it on vacation.