Cadence Sinclaire comes from old money. She spends her summers with family and friends on a private island off The Cape. Then one summer something terrible happens. She can't remember it and nobody wants to talk about it; even her youngest cousins are instructed to politely change the subject.

I picked this up for a breezy airport read, and it was perfect for that. E. Lockhart writes well, the mystery is intriguing, and the prose is often surprisingly lyrical for YA. Layers of summer romance, a family that doesn't understand, and coming-of-age narratives weave seamlessly into the mystery. Much of the intricacy of the family's power dynamics are conveyed through allegorical fairytales

"Once upon a time there was a king who had three beautiful daughters"

which become increasingly more heavy-handed and literal as the book resolves. While others have cited this heavy-handedness and the similarly unnuanced treatment of race, class, wealth, and privilege as failings of the book, I can excuse these as YA elements peeking through what is otherwise a well-developed and intriguing mystery. Themes of narrative crafting, perception vs reality, and the rewriting of history serve as interesting balances to the heavy treatment of class and race.

That said, I found the end of the book inexcusable. The excellent pacing and development for most of the book is destroyed by a twist in the last 20 pages that is both overdone and incompatible with the world that Lockhart has built for us. The climax feels too abrupt, like too hostile of a "gotcha", and the denouement does little to smooth how jarringly the twist is executed.

Overall, We Were Liars is a charming experience rooted as much in power fantasy, lyricism, and romance as it is in mystery, that I loved up until the mystery was unsatisfyingly resolved.