Bittersweet and We Were Liars: The Same Book?

As I read Bittersweet in October, I was struck by a lot of similarities between that book and the YA summer juggernaut We Were Liars. Both feature families who have a long history of luxury and prestige.The stories take place during the summer when aunts and uncles, grandparents and cousins descend onto giant and opulent estates; expecting that their every whim will be met. Both the Sinclair and the Winslow families have dark secrets that come to light.

So is it worth it reading both books or is one a better read than the other?

         

The protagonists in these novel are similar in age - Cady is a high school student and Mabel is a freshman in college. But they are very different people.  Cady is a member of the charmed Sinclair family and while there may be family disputes, she knows that she will be provided for by her grandfather's fortune. Mabel, on the other hand, has a family that owns a dry cleaning business and struggles to make ends meet. When she meets the carefree and enigmatic heiress to the Winslow family, Mabel is astounded that Genevra considers her a friend. While both girls have to come to terms with big secrets, Cady will have to confront the decisions of her past while Mabel has to make big choices about her future.

The two stories are very different in tone as well. We Were Liars reads like a young adult book, with a consistent focus on Cady and what she is feeling. Cady is prone to hyperbole and it may take readers by surprise when she says she was shot but really means that her heart was broken. Bittersweet is a more grown-up story with frequent allusions to Shakespeare and Milton. That doesn't mean that it feels highbrow though. Bittersweet feels like a soap opera in places with forbidden romance, mysterious deaths, and a race to find the truth about the family's history.

Bittersweet is a somewhat traditional thriller while We Were Liars is slightly more experimental. Both books are compelling reads as the characters grapple with truth, love, and commitment to their families. Each of them will make you consider the power and limits of wealth and prestige and what kind of legacy we pass on to those who will come after us.


Have you read either book? Did you read both? What do you think?

Review: We Were Liars

We Were Liars

By E. Lockhart

Delacorte Press May 2014

227 pages

From the library 

Cady Sinclair is living a life of luxury. She is a part of an extremely wealthy family, the kind where you all spend the summer on your own private island with multiple homes and a staff that caters to your every need. But this summer feels different. Cady had an accident two summers ago and everything is strange to her now. Her family seems aloof and they treat Cady with kids gloves. Her grandfather's beloved home has been torn down and replaced with a cold marvel of modern architecture. Worst of all, Cady is crippled by terrible migraines and can't quite remember what happened two summers ago.

Cady spends her time with three of her best friends - her cousins Mirren and Johnny and their friend Gat. While Mirren and Johnny take advantage of the same wealth that Cady does, Gat is an outsider and perhaps the only one who realizes the immense privilege that the Sinclairs enjoy. It is this bravery to speak the truth about all situations that attracts Cady to Gat and they begin a tortured teen romance. Gat has a girlfriend at home and Cady's grandfather decidedly does not approve of him for his beloved granddaughter. But the foursome functions best as a group, as they take part in time-honored teen activities like sleeping in, sunning and swimming, and availing themselves of the family wine collection. These four friends don't see each other during the school year, but the summer belongs to them. 

We Were Liars is poised to be the "it book" of the summer. Like Gone Girl before it, readers are pushing this one into their friend's hands with the warning that the ending will take them totally by surprise. This book is shrouded in some heavy secrecy. With kudos to readers for managing to keep the ending under wraps, I think this is one of those situations where all of the hype is damaging. The twist is indeed a good one. But this story is better if the big reveal is unexpected and hits you square in the stomach instead of you wondering if each chapter will be the one to disclose the big twist.

This story actually has quite a bit to say about privilege and the way that we perceive people. Cady tells the readers over and over again that they are Sinclairs. That means something, both to the members of the family and to the people they encounter. Cady even imagines her family as characters in various fairy tales as she struggles to figure out what has changed in her family and who has done the changing. The Sinclairs have carefully created perfect personas that hide the uglier underside of their lives. Everyone serves at the whims of Cady's grandfather, the family patriarch. His daughters are eager to appease him and inherit the majority of the family fortune, even if that means controlling their children so they appear exactly the way their grandfather would like to see them.

Lockhart's writing style in this book is unique. Cady is a teenager and prone to hyperbole and exaggeration. She explains her recollections and observations in broken prose that sometimes resemble poetry. She is also prone to characterize feelings as though they were events. For example, early in the story, her father leaves their family. She remembers her father getting into his car and then "he pulled out a handgun and shot me in the chest. I was standing on the lawn and I fell. The bullet hole opened wide and my heart rolled out of my rib cage and down into a flower bed." It takes the reader a moment to realize that these things didn't actually happen - Cady is conflating her feelings to actual injury.

We Were Liars is a story about breaking away from your family. It's about the moments when you realize your loved ones are not as perfect as you had always thought them to be. This book will make you think about the darker side of privilege and power and what exactly we pass on to our children and grandchildren. And yes, the ending will make you reevaluate everything you thought you knew about Cady and the Sinclairs. After all, she tells us, we were liars.