I liked but didn't love this prequel. Plenty of it was great with a shock or two here and there, but too much of it felt like a dream. I was frustrated with a few of the characters and their choices, which pulled me out of the narrative. I'm glad I have some backstory, but it wasn't as satisfying as I would've hoped. There was no "oh wow!" moment like in the first book.

Family of Liars by E. Lockhart is the highly anticipated prequel to We Were Liars. It goes back a generation and tells the story of another summer on the family's private island. In this story, the three aunts are the privileged teenagers. We learn more about the family's history and the ethos that created The Liars of the first book. The book moves at a nice pace and the lyrical writing gives a hazy, wistful quality to the story. Highly recommended for fans of the first book as well as teen readers of realistic fiction.

I wanted to like this book because I loved the first book so much. I have started this book numerous times but it took me months to really want to read it and get into the story. We purchased the book for our teen collection and it is popular. I feel like "We Were Liars" was better as a standalone book.

“To be a Sinclair and to have the security and good standing that all our hard work and dirty money and unearned privilege and intelligence has bought us…” is a rather hefty price to pay in this family! When what was yours is no longer yours, the question of who you are and what you are willing to do comes forth. In a labyrinth of a summer vacation, narcotics addiction, date rape, murder and lies, so many lies loop into themselves to become a thought provoking tale of one woman’s experience.
Lockharts characters were strong and gave all the feels in one way or another, and her plot twists around in depravity and loyalty and love, no matter how warped. A great summer read!

A great follow up for Liars fans. The way themes of family, acceptance, and teen drama are woven together makes for a thrilling and meaningful read.

This book was okay. I LOVED the sequel but I felt as if I didn't really get anything from this read. I was an okay storyline but I felt it wasn't anything special to the general story.

We Were Liars captured a lot of attention upon it's release and with good reason. Not only did it shine a stark light on privileged families and the destructive nature of inter-generational wealth, it did so with a compelling narrative and innovative structure. And it was a complete engaging book that left us thinking, left enough unanswered that we thought about it and debated it afterwards. But it didn't leave much room for further exploration, at least not in the form of a sequel. So it was not surprising when I learned that Lockhart was revisiting the Sinclair family that this was done in the form of a prequel. There are references in the first book to secrets and lies from the previous generation and this book endeavors to tell us about those secrets. But I'm not sure we really needed this. It doesn't break ground the way the first book did, ends up feeling like a rehash of the same ideas. If you're a true fan of We Were Liars this might be worth a read but I wouldn't make it a "must-read".

So. I remember when I first read We Were Liars that there were a lot of naysayers hating the characters, ending, etc. I loved it. Not sure what that says about me, but if my friends on goodreads are any indication, there were almost a million of us pulling an almost 4 star rating. So no, I wasn't alone. I jumped at the chance to read the prequel, because, in my pea brain that forgets most stories a week or so after I've read them, I was curious to revisit this one. It stayed with me. I am pretty sure I begged my daughters to read it (again, me reading their YA books), but my liking it had become a strike against the book. Still, I'm pretty sure they read it anyway.

I loved the prequel. I tried to forget there was more coming and to consider the book on its own, and I think Lockhart achieved something great here—a new and compelling story. The characters are multi-dimensional, and the "liar" notion is more well-defined. I want to reread the original now to understand how the small details were woven in to join the two together. As a point of reference, I am not a re-reader of books, especially given the tremendous TBR pile I am trying to whittle down... but I am going to finish the other book I am reading and go back to We Were Liars while this is fresh in my mind. It was totally worth the time, and a perfect read if you are at the beach, or on your own private island enjoying a little break ;)

This prequel to "We Were Liars," just didn't hit as hard as the original book. While I really enjoyed "We Were liars," this one just fell flat. Yes, secrets were revealed, but I just didn't connect as well with the characters in this generation as much as did in the previous book.
Overall, it was pretty good story- rich people behaving badly, teens acting like teens, secrets coming out.
Solid, but not exceptional.

Family of Liars by E. Lockhart; Delacorte Press, 320 pages ($19.99) Ages 12 and up.

...

On her family's private island off Martha's Vineyard, a 15-year-old girl is found shivering naked on a beach with a head injury and no memory of how she got there. Cadence Sinclair's struggle to remember what happened to her – and the shocking reveal when her memory returns – made for a thrilling read in E. Lockhart's 2014 blockbuster hit "We Were Liars," which was named a best book of the year by NPR, Time magazine, the Wall Street Journal and the Boston Globe.

This absorbing prequel, going back a generation, is set on the same private island, exclusive domain of the wealthy Sinclair family, and is told from the perspective of Caroline "Carrie" Sinclair, Cadence's aunt. It's framed as her response to a loved one's question: "What's the worst thing you've ever done?"

The new novel can be appreciated without reading the first book but it does contain spoilers; a family tree in the beginning clarifies the relationship of the Sinclair generations.

In the summer of 1987, 17-year-old Carrie and sisters Penny and Bess are returning with their parents to Beechwood Island a year after 10-year-old sister Rosemary drowned. Carrie feels that she is the only one truly mourning Rosemary. Her parents and sisters never talk of her; Rosemary's things have been boxed and moved to the attic.

Over the winter, at her father's insistence, Carrie underwent painful facial surgery that required breaking her jaw; complications from an infection and a second surgery left her addicted to codeine. Once on the island, she starts stealing her father's sleeping pills and Rosemary's ghost starts appearing to her. The combination of addiction and grief raises questions about Carrie's mental stability and the reliability of her account of events. Then she unearths an upsetting family secret when she finds an old photo of her mother with a strange man, his face scratched out, hidden in a drawer.

Her summer is upended further when her Uncle Dean arrives with his young son, 18-year-old daughter and three of the daughter's friends, and Carrie falls in love with one of the boys, a heedless youth who is careless with his affections.

As she did in the original, Lockhart uses fairy tales and a shocking twist to powerful effect as she explores family secrets and betrayal against a backdrop of a casually affluent lifestyle and the pressure "to be a credit to the family" that comes with being born into privilege.

Huh 🤔

Okay I love E. Lockhart—been reading her books for a long time now and have actually always loved her writing style. However, this book was totally not needed and really didn’t add anything to “We Were Liars.”

I read it pretty quickly, her descriptions are beautiful as usual but the dialogue left something to be desired. I was hoping the book would provide more answers to the lore of the island / ghosts and why the older Sinclair sisters are so cruel during we were liars.

I give it 3 ⭐️ Wasn’t for me but still love we were liars and e Lockhart!

I shrieked so loudly when this announcement came out and am over the moon with how good it was! Returning to Lockhart's infamous island and family felt like walking back into a childhood home-- but with so much more mysteries and twists! I loved everything about this story!

The prequel to “We Were Liars” and even though it is a standalone story, it begins with a spoiler to “We Were Liars”.

I liked “We Were Liars” better than this, but it was still a good story of the same family, one generation earlier.

Thank you @netgalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

#netgalley
#readmorebooks
#mybookishlife

I read this book having read We Were Liars when it first came out. I think I forgot how much fun the story was. This book was so engrossing and suspenseful that I could have read it in one sitting. I loved it.

This is a great prequel to We Were Liars. I loved reading more about this family and finding out more of the stories of the family. There are so many secrets and such a delicate balance to keeping the family intact.

An intriguing story about the parents of the cousins in We Were Liars. I enjoyed getting to know the background, culture, and expectations that the Sinclairs hold themselves to and how this led to the ending of Family of Liars.

I read We Were Liars back in like, 2015 I think. It was hyped up then- but not nearly as much as it has been with TikTok. I didn't love it like everyone else did. I predicted the big twist really early on and I didn't like the characters at all. I decided to try again by reading this one as it’s the prequel and I just wanted to see if the authors writing was for me or not. In my opinion, this was a much stronger book. I truly enjoyed this one. I might even go back and re-read We Were Liars because I’m so interested in the complexities of the Sinclair family! I also appreciated how this story dug a little bit deeper into some of the things that were touched on in the first book. We got a proper look at the origins of this family's privilege and lineage, which is pretty gross, but I liked this book for the realism and the honesty. I found the writing to have a different type of lyricism and darkness that the first book lacked. I love the island setting in the summer of 1985. I won’t get into the plot because I don’t want to spoil this for potential readers, but I will say that its an excellent addition to the series and I’m really glad I read it. I now look forward to doing a re-read of WWL in the near future. Pleasantly surprised!

This book was amazing. I coudn't put it down. It was magical. Higly recommended! The characters, the plots, the writting: wonderful and perfect.

Family of Liars is the prequel to We Were Liars, the story of the Sinclair family. It was a fast read and kept me engaged wanting to know the truth about Carrie and everything that happens on the island.

Definitely a messed up family and one that proves that money doesn’t buy happiness, it just gives people power to cover up the truth.

If you loved Lockhart's We Were Liars, here is the prequel of the family. It's impossible to tell much about the book because it would contain too many spoilers. Suffice it to say, if you loved We Were Liars, you need to read this book.