A Little About The Plot
Our narrator, Cady, is a slightly dramatic 17-year-old girl. Cady’s suffered a head injury and can’t remember the events that led up to her accident two summers prior.
Each year, Cady and her divorced mother, Penny, spend the summer vacationing on Penny’s father’s private island off the coast of Massachusetts. There, Penny and her two sisters, Bess and Carrie, each own summer homes, given to them by their parents (whose own summer home is also on the island).
Cady has two cousins the same age as herself, Mirren and Johnny (Bess and Carrie’s kids, respectively), and the three cousins spend their summers hanging out together, along with their close friend, Gat, every year. Throughout the story, Cady lovingly refers to this group as the Liars.
As the novel progresses, Cady tries to remember exactly what happened the night of her accident. Doctors warned her family not to bring up the details, and all Cady knows is that she was found on the beach with a head injury, wearing nothing but underwear, with no one else around.
Little by little, memories start coming back, and Cady is finally able to piece together the moments she’d been suppressing for nearly two years.
My Thoughts And Star Rating
I picked up this book at Barnes & Noble, after the cover and a quick flip through the pages caught my attention.
I read a lot of suspense/ mystery/ psychological-thriller novels—in fact, that’s mostly what I reach for when it comes to fiction. Typically, I’m not really into coming-of-age stories or teen fiction, and if I’d realized that’s what this book was, I probably would have passed on it.
As I was getting settled into this book, I was actually feeling kind of disappointed. I’m not a huge fan of teenage narrators; I usually avoid YA novels like the plague—the endings are usually exactly what you expect, and they’re full of characters that don’t act or speak like real people.
I really thought I knew how this book was going to end. As I was reading it, I kept waiting for the author to let me down with a corny, predictable “twist.” But I’m so glad I was wrong.
Instead, I got a plot twist I truly didn’t see coming—my favorite kind!
I was so pleasantly surprised by the ending that I had to give this book 5 stars on Goodreads (a rare occurrence in my world).
For once, I’m glad I spent the money on this book, and I’m even planning to read more from E. Lockhart.
Have You Read It Yet?
Comment below and tell me what you thought!
