Family of liars -book talk (By E. Lockhart: author of We Were Liars)
Family of Liars, E Lockhart ( hardback,May 2022) – Books Paper Scissors
(This blog is safe to read if you’ve
not read the book, whilst containing discussions of characters it is spoiler
free! However, contains minor spoilers to we were liars, as does the book. Read
with cation…)
Dear Reader,
Right no need to throw things, I
know it's been a minute.
What a joyous and horrific four
months this has been! I sat exams, that will ultimately determine my success in
life, spent a month being subject to hypnotherapy and developed an obsessively religious
relationship with my water bottle, believing it would somehow-someway- fix all
my problems.
Spoiler alert:
It did!
The reels gurus stand true,
doubt them not: happiness spouts from your filtered fridge tap and the good
skin it inflicts on the true disciple. Re-filling water bottles and books of
course, what you're all here for.
If you’re new here (no way did
you make it through that waffle if you're new) you won't know about my slightly
romanticised habit of re-reading We Were Liars every summer, going on 5 years
now, because of how much it supplies the perfect summer aesthetic. Old money,
withering heights romance and of course- massacre.
Since the book exploded on TikTok,
it has been grilled by those who were underwhelmed by the hype surrounding the
novel, a belief system I will never understand, clearly these people have yet
to find God/ a good litre refill-bottle. Who remembers the good old days when you
didn’t know there was going to be a plot twist in a book you were about to read,
and it ACTUALLY landed like the author aimed it to? Not me! What’s that like? Anyway,
I’ll attempt to train my spite (Down boy!*) and get on with it.
As I’ve said, I am 100% biased in
my preconceived love of this book, due to my love of the original novel in all
its glory. I thought it was excellent; beautifully written and even more so
gorgeously plotted. The second book? Began similarly.
Lockhart was completely
successful in creating the atmosphere of the first book, her writing, particularly
the island description, was perfect in its reassembling of the peter pan wonder
of the first books setting. For this, I was ready to tumble out my window with
these new characters, towards the second star to the right from the 5th
page, completely elated to be back in this world I’ve so looked forward to returning
to once more.
On the topic of the characters, though
I believed Lockhart was able to build a backbone to the complex sisters we see
in WWL, the bridging gap between these two sets of characters still holds strong
for me. What I mean by this is that I was shocked by the decision to follow Carrie
and not Penny, when we follow Penny’s daughter in WWL and forgive me, but it seems
there is just so much more to Penny than Carrie in terms of expandable storylines.
Some of the things we discover about Penny in this book I found quite difficult
to align with the presented mother of Cadence in the first novel. Some of her
actions, for example, were so astray from what any sister would do to another,
that I found her character very easily hateable- with the only explanation
given that she believed herself ‘pretty’ enough to do-over all her loved ones.
This character development, I admit was not well tended to, and felt quite
forced and estranged in parts compared to the character development we see of Cadence in
We Were Liars.
The romance, I admit at the start
felt similarly malnourished in its rapid incline. It was almost as if the love
interest was served on a platter to the reader form the 4th chapter and
we were expected to understand this dramatic attraction to him- despite his
stupid name (I mean- Pfeff? Try making anything remotely attractive with that) and
unlikeable ‘poor little rich boy’ complex. However, I think this intentional dislike is set in
stone by Lockhart early on so we can very easily shift those feelings later in
the book, as we discover more about his character. One does wonder, could this
concentrated character exposure have been shifted to some of the other
characters in an effort to make that decline from heroism in Penny’s character,
hit the way I think, was intended? There was so much focus drawn to Pfeff that
the spotlight almost blinded the reader to what could have been a more versatile
and impactful reading of the twist between these two characters.
Some of twists and turns in these
books felt slightly devoid of the velocity and strength needed to make a larger
impact on the emotion of the reader. They were also generally quite frequent occurrences
in the book, it felt like every other chapter was serving us a shock that had
little to no effect on the reading experience. I almost think the beauty of we
were liars was that the twists were so mellow and subtle that they managed to
build to the final collision, almost without the reader noticing that steady incline
of tension, until they were throttled by it. Now I knew this was not going to be
another we were liars- I think it will be a while until I find something able
to employ that climax the way that novel did in it’s first read. But I was
still excited by the possibility of this book and where she would take it.
Could it have been a better story? Maybe. Was the whole creation of this book
to benefit of the humongous TikTok hype? Most likely, that’s good business. Despite
all of this, It still give me all the same feels and a very strong sense of nostalgia,
so I’d say over all it was worth the read.
I’m also thinking that it might be interesting to go back into We Were Liars with fresh eyes, as this book seemed to unveil so much about the mothers of our characters that may have an impact on my reading of them now, how they act, the black pearls, everything feels like it could shift to create a better understanding of the complicated family dynamic we see exhibited in the first book. For this, as a reader, I can only be grateful. That opportunity is one you rarely see explored within this industry, and overall, I’m happy it did get published and released for the fans to get a taste, of the wider world of such loved characters.
I’d love to hear your thoughts if you choose to do so! Email in, or contact me on twitter for any enquiries.
Until next time,
Issy
x
*If you are similarly spiteful feel free to read the below blog, it is excellent- much like this one
Booktok- The dangers of 'tiktok told me to buy it'. (ignorethetypos.blogspot.com)
