Family of Liars fell flat for me. I like that the book ties into its predecessor in that even the older members of the family have secrets. Even Tipper has secrets. The big reveal just did not have the same wow factor as the surprise in We Were Liars. I was anticipating something bigger. Overall, I enjoyed reading the book, but it was forgettable. I can see my students enjoying this book though.

Was so excited to get an ARC for this book because I loved We Were Liars so much! I love that this book takes place years before the other one with the parent’s POV. It gave a good insight as to why the family acts the way they do and how the island changed over time. Of course it had a big plot twist and kept you wanting more!

Wonderfully written and a great companion to the first book. This will go over very well with my patrons. I love that we're told from the get go that she's a liar, but we believe her whole story....until she admits her lies. The unreliability of Carrie but the hope that she does in fact tell us the truth, is the gift of this book.

I really enjoyed this prequel to E. Lockhart's We Were Liars. This book in and of itself is a spoiler, so you may want to read We Were Liars first. This is less of a mystery than the first book, but is full of drama (specifically rich-people drama). Although there are some shifts in time, the novel takes place at the Sinclair family's summer retreat (private island) off Martha's Vinyard in the '80s. It revolves mainly around 3 (actually 4) young sisters and their inter-minglings with unknown boys that arrive as guests of their cousin. It is a summer fantasy...until it isn't. I read this quickly as the plot was compelling, but I also enjoyed the characters that were well-defined and somewhat haunting. Thank you NetGalley and publishers for providing a digital ARC or review.

I will forever remember the reason I read [book:We Were Liars|16143347]. I will forever remember my shock when I read the twist. I've let go of many books in my life, but not that one. That one I cherish.

So it was with reluctance that I asked for a digital ARC of the book and with even more reluctance that, once approved, I picked it up and read it. I was not surprised when I realized I wasn't hooked. I decided to ask for the audiobook version from my local library to see if it made the tale more palatable, but it did not.

I was not invested in Caroline (Johnny's mother) as the narrator. I found her whiny, self-centered, and immature. I couldn't believe she fell for a character as disgusting and manipulative as Pfeff. I knew he was going to use her physically and emotionally, but it was hard to believe that she couldn't tell that as well.

I don't know if I don't love this book because it is connected to We Were Liars, if I just don't enjoy Lockhart's writing, or if it is that the book itself is only so-so but I was disappointed with the author's latest effort.

How would I give this book less than five stars. E. Lockhart is one of my favorite authors. The plot in all of their books are so well thought out. Like it is so hard to critique them. My only issue was that I could predict the ending quite easily. I've gotten good at doing that, but for most they probably had no idea until the end. Would totally recommended to anyone, seriously. There isn't only one specific age group that would enjoy this. Everyone will.

Thank you to netgalley for providing an e-galley for review. As soon as rumors of this book dropped, everyone that had read We Were Liars had been waiting with baited breath and this did not disappoint. Lockhart managed to create a whole new story with just a hint of the previous book in it. While a reader does not have to have read We Were Liars to read this, there is a spoiler that makes you want to read that one first. The feel of a beach getaway gone wrong with an unreliable narrator shines in this book too.

Family of Liars contains all the trappings of We Were Liars and provides incredible insight into the corroded and at times grotesque inner workings of the Sinclair family.

FoL takes places one generation back, with the narrative fro Carrie’s point of view. She is narrating her story to *someone* and fro this tale we are transported back to her youth and one summer in particular.

In all, it’s a page turner and fans of WWL will devour this prequel.

This was written to be the prequel of the original book, but it does contain a few spoilers and even a kind of conclusion to it. This is definitely for those who read the first novel. The novel starts off with an explanation of the family structure, but slowly the tense family relationships emerge among the Sinclairs. It darkens even more as summer visitors arrive, “stirring the pot”.

Identity, beauty standards, and romantic entanglements, as well as commentary on class and wealth are woven into the novel. Secrets upon secrets propel the novel forward. Although at several times, there seemed to be passages which could have been shortened, invested readers will want to keep turning the pages.

Thanks to Random House Children’s Books and NetGalley for the e-galley. I listened to the released audiobook for this review. My ratings and reviews are my own.

SPOILERS AHEAD




CW: infidelity; attempted SA (not on page); gaslighting; alcohol consumption by minors , sex (consent issues) when one person is intoxicated (off page); drug use; drug abuse; addiction; toxic friendships; murder

We Were Liars will forever be a book I absolutely love and one that I will recommend to anyone who will listen so when I heard a prequel was coming out I knew I had to read it. While this wasn't as amazing as WWL I still really enjoyed the read. To be totally honest I went in knowing it wasn't going to be better than WWL, because how do you top that? I found this book to be very intriguing. I wanted to know more about Carrie and the Sinclairs, and what I found out was worth the wait! The ending was already wild and the twist was even more interesting. The fact that Carrie is telling this story to SOMEONE the entire time and that she used to be visited by someone else when she was young was also very interesting and made me want to reread WWL again.

Overall, I had a good time. I loved revisiting the island and the Sinclair family. This was a really good sequel. I feel like it didn't answer any questions, but it revealed more truths and just added to the insanity that is rich, white families.

I read We Were Liars nearly two years ago before it blew up on TikTok and seemingly every bookish teen within a 20 mile radius of my library came into request it. I don't remember much of it except for it revolved around a group of well to do teens who had lots of drama and a very surprising ending. Family of Liars goes back a generation further than the characters featured in We Were Liars and opens with "we were always liars". Family revolves around sisters Bess, Penny and Carrie Sinclair with the story mostly following Carrie who is the one everyone always relies on. This generation of Sinclairs bring as much drama as the last we visited. The sisters are mourning the loss of their younger sister Rosemary but none more so than Carrie who actually sees and talks to Rosemary's ghost. When cousin Yardley shows up with her boyfriend and two of his friends in two everything intensifies-first loves, bonding, suspicion, strained relations, family secrets and self-discovery. When one sister is put in a tragic situation the tie between the three is really tested. How are they going to deal? Can they heal from everything that happened over the summer? Has it all just been lies? Entertaining but I like We Were Liars just a bit more. This family is messed up and although there were some sweet moments none of these people are particularly likable. Still quick read and not a bad idea to pick it up if you were a fan of the first.

Family of liars, prequel of We Were Liars, follows the Sinclair daughters while they spend their summer on a private island.

Just like We were Liars, this book has a gripping plot which will follow the mysterious of Sinclair family one again. Some people say that you don’t need to read the first novel to understand this, which I think is true, however, if you want to really enjoy this novel it would be necessary to read We were Liars first.

In Family of liars we will dug a little bit deeper into some of the things that were referenced in the first book. We will follow a 17 years old Carrie Sinclair (mother of Johnny) while she spends hers summer on Beechwood. Soon some mysteries will be discovered and some hidden stories will be revealed.

I liked this book, but I missed the shocking plot twist of the first book which is one of the things that I enjoyed the most in the first book. Anyway, E. Lockhart has a great narrative and I really enjoyed this book.

The prequel follows Carrie Sinclair, Johnny’s mother from the original book. Both stories are written in the same style and takes place over a singular summer following a tragedy. I do not feel like this story was necessarily needed however it also doesn’t ruin anything about the first book for those scared about that.
I do actually think this book is way more enjoyable than the first book. Carrie is a more compelling lead. The entire story is saturated with melancholy. It's still rich people drama but it's a very compelling rich people drama. I love the depth we get into the sister's relationship. That’s truly what the story is all about. A Story of sisterhood. I fear I still cried my eyes out, unfortunately.
My only gripe is to do with E. Lockhart’s writing style. Very tell and not show. I also sometimes feel like the story is trying too hard to make me cry (but it did work). The Fairytales are still my favorite part.
Now if you hated the first book you'll hate this one but if you loved or even just liked “we were liars” give this one a chance.

i really liked we were liars when it came out, so i thought this was really interesting! it def wasnt as good as the first, but still intriguing!

Loved the setting. Loved the relationship between the sisters/cousins. Loved to hate Pfeff. Very well-done though lacking in the hard smack of a twist We Were Lairs had.

I’m trying to decide if I liked this better than We Were Liars, and the answer is…maybe? Both books are, to me, a tad too bleak and depressing (especially because each contains enough plot that is NOT like that to allow the books to stand with out it). To me, the best part of We Were Liars was that E. Lockhart got me with the twist. Didn’t see it coming, and was impressed at how well she pulled it off.

There’s no real twist or big reveal here, just a mixed bag of a novel that is outstanding in some ways, not great in others.

On the plus side, I loved the atmosphere of this. Lockhart does so well with small touches and detail, and I probably would have happily read an account of life on the island during a summer in which absolutely nothing of note happened. And her characters are wonderfully drawn, complex and nuanced and worth investing in for the reader. Though I had a few issues with Carrie (more on that in a moment) I liked her for the most part. And oh man, Harris and Yardley! I wish I were related in some way to those two.

The best part of the plot is the murder (and everything surrounding it). I loved this part of the story, and only wish there were less of the grief stricken bleakness (or perhaps just less focus on it). I also really didn’t need the addiction subplot. This really bugged me. I’m not sure why we now jam this particular plot point into almost every novel now, but it’s irritating and didn’t add anything to the story.

Ultimately I think I’ve learned that between this and the original Liars novel, i much prefer Lockhart’s lighter fiction (Genuine Fraud, Disreputable History…), though I’m not at all sorry I read this, if purely just to enjoy the author’s beautiful, evocative writing.

I enjoyed falling back into the world of the Sinclairs. I didn't remember much from We Were Liars, so I immediately went back and re-read that book after finishing Family of Liars.

Thank you the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC. We are taken back to the Sinclair family and beechwood island off the coast of Massachusetts’s. The Sinclair’s were always liars. Carrie Sinclair is 17 when the boys arrive at her families private island for the summer, she is addicted to pain pills from a cosmetic procedure her parents encouraged her to have, she is visited by the ghost of her sister. I wanted to know what happened so I kept reading but I didn’t really like any of the characters, maybe that was the point.

In this prequel, we were able to discover the backgrounds of many of the characters in We Were Liars and got a better picture of why some characters acted the way they did. This book was well-written and made me want to keep reading. However, with that being said, I feel like this book would have been much harder to understand if I hadn't first read We Were Liars. I also felt that a lot of the book had some unnecessary descriptions and side stories that didn't really matter in the end. Overall, I still enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone that enjoys interesting family dynamics.

I’ve been waiting for another Liars book since the first one came out several years ago! The story and characters did not disappoint. If anything, this book just added to how much I enjoyed being in the family’s universe.