"When I was young, I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old I know that it is."
~Oscar Wilde
The Sinclairs are a high-society family. The family, consisting of patriarch Harris Sinclair and matriarch Tipper, are as wealthy as Gatsby. The two had three daughters who also married high-society men, Carrie to William, Bess to Brody and Penny to Sam.
Each have their own children, but Penny's daughter Cadence, is the eldest and the heir to the Sinclair fortune.
The Sinclair family spends their summers in a small, private island off Massachusetts. However, during the year of Summer Seventeen, the cousins of the Sinclair Family, Cadence, Johnny, Mirren and outsider Gat, plot a plan to get back at the Sinclair Family. And everything goes up in flames.
Normally, I do not like books where I cannot rely on the narrator. "We Were Liars" is told from Cadence's point of view as she tries to remember what happened during Summer Seventeen and why now, in Summer Eighteen, everything has changed. Harris is rebuilding the main house, the dogs from last year have disappeared, Cadence's dear love in Gat has strangely become a push-and-pull game and Cadence's mind fails her in places she needs it the most.
While Cadence was unreliable, the plot twist that happens will have your jaw dropping on the floor, re-reading the passage because not even the most experienced with plot twists will see this one coming.
I cannot recommend this book enough. Unreliable narrator and all, this book shows just how troublesome a memory can be, and what it can take to relive past trauma in order to move forward.
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