Welcome to another edition of the Cephalopod Coffeehouse whose idea is this: on the last Friday of each month, post about the best book you've finished over the past month while visiting other bloggers doing the same. In this way, we'll all have the opportunity to share our thoughts with other enthusiastic readers. Click on the pic/link to see who else is doing this and consider joining to share a book you've read.
This month I'm going to tell you about We Were Liars by E. Lockhart, which was not my favorite book of January but I'm going to tell you about it anyway.
The Premise (stolen from Amazon): Each summer the wealthy, seemingly perfect, members of the Sinclair family gather on their private island. We Were Liars is the story of those annual reunions; in particular what happened during a summer that protagonist Cadence is unable to remember. Prejudice, greed, and shifting patriarchal favoritism among the three adult sisters contrasts with the camaraderie and worldview of the teenage cousins and their dear friend Gat. Lazy days of sticky lemonades on the roof and marathon Scrabble games give way to twisty suspense, true love, and good intentions gone horribly wrong.
A lot of people have reviewed this book on Amazon, and over 75% gave it four stars or better. I don't know how many stars I'd give it. I didn't love it, but mainly because I didn't love any of the characters. In order for me to give a book four or five stars I really need to care about someone and for whatever reason I just didn't feel that for Cadence, or any of the other characters.
On the other hand, I absolutely did not see what was coming, even when a pretty good clue was thrust right in my face, and then when I thought it wasn't going to get worse it did. Cadence has good reason to want to forget what happened and I was determined to find out, even if I didn't love her, or her dysfunctional family.
Hence my hesitation in giving the book a rating. Because even though I didn't love the characters I really wanted to know what happened and I think I read it straight through one evening when I was sick.
Has anyone else read this book? If so, I'd love to know what your thoughts were. If not, tell me what you're reading and whether you're liking it...
Have a wicked fun weekend :)
When you can't connect with any of the characters, it's tough.
ReplyDeleteAgreed.
DeleteIt is tough, but I do want to reiterate that I enjoyed the book!
DeleteI haven't read it, but I have heard good things about it. It sounds like a tense book, with lots of conflict, so that would probably drive me forward as a reader.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing!
V :)
Haven't read this, but glad to hear about it. I'm like you though. I like to like the characters.
ReplyDeleteYes, those are my favorite books.
DeleteI haven't read this but the premise sounds intriguing. I can see the problem though if you can't connect with the characters. I usually don't end up finishing a book when I feel that way. I think I'll check this one out though and see what I think of it. Thanks for sharing about it!
ReplyDeleteSometimes I won't finish the book, but the plot was interesting enough to keep me reading.
DeleteAnd another Cadence. For some reason, that character name keeps popping up around me...
ReplyDeleteI haven't read it. This is the sort of book I'd give 3 stars to. It wasn't for me, but it wasn't awful. A nice, middling score.
Yes, because it wasn't awful at all. I enjoyed it like I would a dish of ice cream that wasn't among my favorite flavors
DeleteI read this book last year, maybe? I wasn't a fan—and a big part of that was a lack of caring about the characters. No connection there. It was a very tedious read for me. I think I ended up giving it two stars on Goodreads. Which probably meant more like 1.5 stars, but they don't let you do half stars on their site.
ReplyDeleteI didn't find it tedious because I was interested in what had happened to make the mc forget. I just didn't love it because there weren't any characters to love (like Buffy).
DeleteI don't have to like the characters, or approve of what they do, but I do have to care what happens to them. My best book (so far) this month is non-fiction, an account by Lady Astor's maid of life in service.
ReplyDeleteNow that sounds like an interesting book. Maids are privy to all sorts of interesting behind the scenes activities...
DeleteSounded like a good made for TV movie?
ReplyDeleteOoh, it would!
DeleteThe premise sounds interesting. I haven't read it but I don't know if I could read a book with characters I don't care about. I don't have to like them, but I have to care enough to see it through.
ReplyDeleteI usually finish books unless they're really awful, and this certainly wasn't.
DeleteInteresting... and intriguing for me on a personal level. I have been lucky enough to spend some time on a private island in the part of the world she wrote about. The island I know doesn't quite match the one in the book though.
ReplyDeleteI'd like a private island...
DeleteI haven't read that book, and I don't know if I will. It's hard to give a good diddle about what happens in a book if none of the characters resonate with me. I just finished reading a bizarre book last night called "The Beauty." (If I remember right, the author's name is Aliya Whiteley.) It's a disturbing, brilliant, disgusting, imagination out the wazoo allegory. I'm recovering from that one with a piece of fluff romantic comedy now.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, the flower in your header is gorgeous! It's rare to see such a vibrant shade of blue in nature.
I'm going to have to check that book out! And that flower is/was in California *sigh*
DeleteFirst what a fabulous header photo !
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea for the book but sad that you could not find one character to root for.
Plus "stars" for finding a reason to finish the book.
The book I just finished was about magical chickens !
cheers, parsnip
Magical chickens?! I hope you liked it!
DeleteEnjoyed it !
DeleteI just finished Lee Childe's book PERSONAL. I felt much the same way about it; didn't love the writing style and it felt too info-dumpy, but the story concept was intriguing, as were the characters.
ReplyDeleteCan't say I liked it, but it wasn't a chore to finish either.
Some books are like that. I didn't feel like it was chore to finish at all. I wanted to finish and find out what happened!
ReplyDelete