Under The Mountain

I've been curious about We Were Liars for a few weeks now, after seeing it on a lot of blogs. I was a little worried about the mysterious Hype that takes hold of books and attacks you suddenly with expectations, leaving you disappointed in a book that everyone else seemed to love, but I saw a copy in Waterstones as part of a buy one get one half price offer and immediately grabbed a copy.

The problem when someone tells you that a book has a plot twist is that you immediately spend the entirety of the book trying to guess that plot twist and that's exactly what I did. I can't even blame myself for reading reviews, as soon as I opened the book I was greeted with 'delivers a satisfying and shocking twist ending'. Thanks for that.

I will review this book ignoring my issues with the plot twist, however. I seriously loved the writing style, the short sentences and beautiful imagery throughout kept me reading and I finished this the same day I bought it. The little fairytales throughout were perfectly written and hilarious too - I read a few out loud to my partner who thought they were hilarious!

Cadence reminded me of another character in a book I read recently, Fia from Sister Assassin. Both were damaged characters with a strange way of speaking, due to emotional trauma in their lives. Cadence's story jumps back and forth, before and after the accident, as she remembers new events. While I did want to know what happened I did find some of the story a little slow for my liking.

The heart of this story is something most of us are familiar with - a dysfunctional family. A rich family, but I liked that because it showed that all families are the same in the end. Especially when it comes to money! Cadence and her friends just want to spend their holiday on the island same as every year but it seems tat at every turn they're getting bullied by their parents to try and become their grandfather's favourite, all over money.

Did I guess the plot twist? Yes, very quickly but somehow I wasn't expecting it at the same time. It broke my heart, but in a good way. The title is very clever, once you've read the book you suddenly understand it a whole lot more. I do hope E. Lockhart writesa lot more stories like this, I would love to read more.