We Were Liars by E Lockhart

A beautiful and distinguished family.
A private island.
A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.
A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.
A revolution. An accident. A secret.
Lies upon lies.
True love.
The truth.

This is going to be a short review because I don't want to give anything away. There is a lot of hype around this, especially the twist ending. I enjoyed it, and until the very end I couldn't guess what the shocking twist was, which is always exciting. 

Cadence has had an accident and has lost her memories of summer fifteen; two years later she returns to the island and tries to remember what happened before and after her accident, which might not have even been one. As she speculates her memories and the cause of her migraines, she begins to piece together what happened that summer. 

It had this classy, old-fashioned feel to it, with the elite and famous family reputation and the whole family spending summers on a private island. But it was also full of lies and public faces; we learn that the kids carefree childhoods were undermined by slightly dysfunctional family ties. The three daughters fight for their father's attention, coming to a painful point after the death of their mother and the question of inheritance. The parents using the children to sway grandfather's opinion and the teens having enough to being played and used in petty, superficial squabbles.

I read this holding my breath, never quite sure what was going to happen when Cadence finally remembered the truth. Although I had heard varying opinions, all the hype did not ruin it for me and I really quite enjoyed it, weird as it was.

Published 15th May 2014 by Hot Key Books.