Rainbow List of Must-Reads: Blue - We Were Liars

This is the Rainbow List of Must-Reads: Where I review a different one of my favourite books each week! Fifth on our list we have a blue book with a blue cover:

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

      Right. You have to promise me right now that if you happened to have read this wonderful, wonderful book that you won’t tell anyone how it ends? Okay? Right, let’s begin.

 ‘We Were Liars’ has the most magnificent and astonishing ending to a book that I have ever read. It blew my mind. After I’d finished it I closed the book, put it down in front of me and just stared at it for about ten minutes, quietly weeping. It’s that good.

            ‘We Were Liars’ is a book that everyone seems to be raving about. There are countless videos and reviews out there that will tell you almost the same thing about it and it’s ending that I just have. I was worried when I picked it up a few weeks ago from Waterstones that the hype may have ruined it, as it sometimes can. I read the blurb – it gave away nothing – and bought it anyway.

   

         Out of the set of books I bought that day, I read ‘We Were Liars’ first. I was excited to finally get in on this secret that the whole world seemed to be keeping. I sunk into that book like you sink your teeth into a large sandwich after a long day’s work and was soon eating it up at an alarming rate.

   

         I loved the characters. Particularly Gat – he had me at ‘strong coffee’. The book contains some absolutely gorgeous descriptions and personable details making you feel like you could have known these people all of your life.

           E. Lockhart successfully manages to tell a satisfying and captivating story whilst still hiding the mystery from the reader for the duration of the book. She ensnares you into her world of Beechwood Island and teases you with miniscule hints and details until you are absolutely gasping to know what’s going on. When the puzzle finally slides into place, you wonder how you never managed to work it out before.

  

          The only complaint I have heard about ‘We Were Liars’ is it’s interesting choice of writing style. I completely disagree. One of the reasons I fell in love with this book is because it sounds so effortlessly beautiful in my head. It is a graceful combination of prose and poetry that allows Lockhart to display her character’s thoughts and feeling and explore the themes of friendship, love and privilege in the clearest, most elegant way possible. Every sentence was a feast.

  

          Usually in these reviews I like to give you a basic idea of the book’s plotline. I’m not going to do that today. A large part of ‘We Were Liars’’ charm is in its mystery. I feel that if I ruined any part of that then I might accidentally tarnish the experience as a whole. I want you to experience ‘We Were Liars’ in the same way that I did – completely in the dark, without even a clue as to what to expect.

           It’s the kind of book that once you’ve finished reading (and once you’ve finished crying) you feel like you need to make someone else read it too. I realise now that I needn’t have worried about the book’s hype, ‘We Were Liars’ is a book that is immune to exaggerations. The only way it could ever be torn down from its pedestal is if its audience decided to revolt against it, spilling its secret everywhere they could. But where’s the fun in that?

  

          There were some very strong competitors for the blue spot on this list. ‘We Were Liars’ beat them all by a landslide. I have no more words for it today - only a stunned, astounded silence. Just read the damn book, okay?

You can find out more about E. Lockhart here!

You can read the other reviews in the Rainbow List of Must-Reads here: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green! 

The Rainbow List of Must-Reads: Red

      Hello and welcome to my very first post on my brand new blog! I'm really excited to start this new project and I have a lot of plans for it in the future. If you haven't guessed already this is a book blog - a place where I can rant, rave and celebrate about books! I've decided for my first seven posts to go with a bit of a theme. 

This is the Rainbow List of Must-Reads: a list of a few of my favourite books in rainbow order. Starting off the list we have our red book with a red cover:

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Mark Haddon

Kicking off my Rainbow list of Must-Reads we have ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time’, Mark Haddon’s eloquent yet quirky insight into the mind of Christopher – a peculiar 15 year old boy with a love for the colour red. ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’ is as clever and thought-provoking as they come and offers up a reading experience like no other. The book is narrated by Christopher himself as he attempts to uncover the truth behind the tragic death of his neighbour, Mrs Shears’, dog, unravelling a much larger story in the process.

It becomes quickly apparent when reading this book that Christopher is not your usual teenage boy; he has a complicated relationship with emotions and is unable to identify facial expressions other than happy and sad; he calms himself in difficult situations by effortlessly carrying out colossal maths equations in his head; and he absolutely refuses to eat anything yellow or brown under any circumstances. After combining these strange behavioural quirks with Christopher’s peculiar way of recounting events, it quickly becomes clear to the reader that Christopher has some form of autism-like disability.

I first learned about the book from my sister when I was six years old – though did not actually read it until I was ten. When I asked my eldest sister what her book was about she gave me a funny smile and said:

     “It’s about a boy with autism, I think,”

     “What’s autism?”

        My sister thought for a while before answering: “It’s like… If I told you to stay off the grass, you’d just do it. But if I told a boy with autism to stay off the grass, you’d have to tell him when and why and for how long,”

This was a perfectly acceptable answer to my young mind and the explanation has stuck with me for all these years since.  Even before I had absorbed the story first-hand, the book had left a lasting impression on me, leaving me with a better understanding of autism and those affected by it.

Though Mark Haddon never specified Christopher’s condition, ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’ was able to explain mental disabilities to my sister in a way that was so simple that she could then go on to teach a six year old child. The reason I loved ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time’ is because I have never before found a book that has allowed me to look so clearly through the eyes of someone with such a difficult mental-disability. It has let me see into a world where things aren’t so clear and simple and shown the mentally disabled in a much more relatable light.

It’s the kind of book I want everyone to read, and one I take great pleasure in lending out. When I first picked the book off the shelf I ate it up within a few days and begged my Sister to let me borrow her copy as well.

For all these reasons, ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’ will always have a warm spot in both my library and my heart.

You can find out more about Mark Haddon and his other books by going to this website.