City News

 is young adult fiction or physiological thriller and it can be enjoyed
by thirteen and above.
We Were Liars is a story about the main character Cadence Sinclair
and her summers on Beechwood Island, a family owned island near the
coast of Massachusts. This particular story by E. Lockhart has a bit of a
mystery to it and the book is laid out in a unique and interesting manner
that really makes the story interesting.
Synopsis: To start o􀆋 the book we are initially introduced to Cadence
Sinclair the main character as well as the narrator of We Were Liars. Right
from the start the reader can easily tell that something is wrong. She’s in a
weird state of mind and seems to barely have the basic necessities despite
her family's wealth so it really makes you question, what is going on with
her? Before we can get to that question the story takes us back in time to
the summer of 11. This was otherwise known as the summer at Beechwood
Island where Gat was introduced to the story and the place where The
Liars began. Cadence and her friends are nicknamed the Liars for the
reason the them being Sinclairs. They are a tightly-knit group until one
summer when Cadence ends up in a serious accident. As Cadence pieces
together the circumstances of her accident, she will discover the truth
about herself and her family.
Summary: (!SPOILERS!)
In Part One (Welcome), she starts by describing the three
generations of her family. The family spends every summer on a
family-owned island. One aunt’s longtime boyfriend and his nephew, Gat,
always join them there. Cadence, her two oldest cousins, and Gat are
known in the family as “the Liars,” for unexplained reasons. Cadence and
Gat fell in love when Cadence was fourteen, but the next summer there was
an accident of some sort. Cadence doesn’t recall much, but apparently she
su􀆋ered a head injury. None of the Liars stayed in touch with Cadence
during her long recovery. The following summer, when her father took her
on a trip to Europe, they didn’t reply to her emails. In Part Two (Vermont),
Cadence struggles to remember more of her accident. When Cadence’s
father wants to take her to Europe again next summer, Cadence insists on
returning to the island. Her mother and father reluctantly settle on a plan
for her to spend just the first month of the summer there. Granddad’s mind
is starting to fail, the younger cousins gossip about Cadence being a drug
addict, and the cousin on the phone thinks the island is haunted. Part
Three (Summer Seventeen) begins with Cadence’s arrival at the island. To
her shock, the old Victorian house where Granddad and Granny used to
live has been completely rebuilt, as an unattractive modern structure. She
reunites awkwardly with her aunts and the younger cousins, but her
reunion with the Liars goes better, despite her still holding a grudge over
not hearing from them in the last two years. Over the next week or two,
Cadence begins to remember what happened two summers ago.
Granddad and his daughters argued about the family home back in
Boston. In the present, Cadence makes progress reconnecting with the
Liars, but for the most part questions about her accident went
unanswered. In Part Four (Look, a Fire), Cadence starts to grasp what really
happened. There had been a big fight between Granddad and his
daughters, about the division of the family inheritance. The fight ended
with all four adults angrily leaving the island for a short time with the
younger cousins. The Liars stayed behind. Since much of the family
conflict had been about Granddad’s house and its contents, the Liars had
deliberately burned the house down. Cadence is pleased that in the new
house, Granddad and his daughters treat each other more kindly.
Cadence’s feelings change, however, when she realizes that Granddad’s two
dogs died in the fire. She and the other Liars are responsible for their
deaths. In Part Five (Truth), finally, Cadence confronts the whole truth: she
alone survived the fire. The other three Liars died. They have spent the last
few weeks with Cadence as ghosts, waiting for her to remember and
understand. Now the Liars must leave Cadence says final goodbyes to her
two cousins and her beloved Gat. She carries with her the guilty knowledge
of her role in their deaths. She is resolved to be kinder toward her surviving
family from now on.
Main Characters -
● Cadence “Cady” Eastman: The narrator and protagonist of We
Were Liars , Cady Eastman is the oldest grandchild of the
wealthy and ostensibly perfect Sinclair family. She lives in
Burlington, Vermont, with her mother, Penny.
● Gatwick “Gat” Patil: Ed’s nephew and Cady’s love interest.
Although he is not related to the Sinclairs by blood, Gat begins
spending his summers at Beechwood when he is eleven.
● Harris Sinclair: The patriarch of the Sinclair family, Harris and
his late wife, Tipper, have amassed a considerable fortune. They
use their wealth to buy a private island that they call
Beechwood, where they build separate houses there for their
three daughters—Penny, Carrie, and Bess—and their children.
● Penny Sinclair Eastman: Cady’s mother, Penny, is the oldest of
the Sinclair sisters.
● Johnny: The second-oldest Sinclair grandchild and one of the
Liars. His mother, Carrie, is divorced and began dating Gat’s
uncle Ed when the boys were eleven years old.
● Mirren Sinclair She

Check out We Were Liars from NBPL!