[BOOK SUMMARY & REVIEW] “THE LIAR FAMILY”: THE ILLUSION OF A BROKEN MIND

I. AUTHOR INTRODUCTION:

E. Lockhart – real name Emily Jenkins, is an American author with many illustrated children's books, young adult novels, and other works of fiction. She often uses the pen name E. Lockhart when writing for young adults, and it has been widely accepted by the public. The book “The Liar Family” (Original title: We Were Liars) is part of her “Liars” series, released in 2014 and later adapted into a television series by Prime Video. This is one of E. Lockhart's outstanding works, highly regarded for its unique, concise yet emotionally rich narrative style, full of hidden meanings, creating excellent depth to the story.

II. INTRODUCTION TO THE WORK:

The story revolves around a young girl named Cadence Sinclair Eastman - a young woman from the Sinclairs, a wealthy family described as perfect in every way. The Sinclair family owns an entire large island where their children and grandchildren often gather in the summer for recreation. After an incident two summers ago, Cadence struggles with migraines following the aftershock of hitting her head on a rock while swimming at night. Cadence, now 17 years old, is brought back by her mother to reunite with the Sinclair family on the island and begins a journey to uncover the truth and secrets hidden behind that accident when she was 15.

Beechwood Island is the private property of the Sinclair family: there are four houses built on the island for the four families in the family, including Clairmont (for Mr. Harris and Mrs. Tipper), Windemere (for Penny, the youngest), Red Gate (for Carrie, the eldest), and Cuddledown (for Bess, the second child).

III. MYSTERIES OF TWO YEARS AGO:

At age 14, Cadence met and befriended liars.

At age 15, Cadence had an accident.

At age 17, Cadence returned to the island.

A void was created not only in Cadence by physical trauma, but also by a lack of connection to the starting point of everything – a two-year void that cannot be filled in just a few moments, but requires time and effort to trace back.

The story's unique aspect lies in its interwoven blend of fairy tales and the ambiguous connection between dream and melancholic reality. Some pages recount fairy tales of kings and princesses, mirroring the relationship between Harris Sinclair and his three daughters, Carrie, Bess, and Penny. The mothers of these deceitful children constantly try to please their father in order to inherit his fortune, a source of later tragedy in the story. Each fairy tale is told concisely yet meaningfully, representing lingering issues within the Sinclair family. For example, Gat's self-reflection on Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, or the comparison of the sisters' struggles to the tragedy of "King Lear," the king and the dragon, and so on.

The members of the "Liars" group gradually reveal themselves:

Jonathan Sinclair Dennis (Johnny): He is the eldest son of Aunt Carrie, followed by a younger child named Will. Cadence briefly introduces Johnny: "Johnny. He is the springboard. He is the effort and the monster."

Mirren Sinclair Sheffield (Mirren): She is Cadence's cousin and the older sister of the three younger children (Liberty, Bonnie, and Taft) of Aunt Bess - the middle child of the Sinclairs family. Cadence describes her as: "Mirren. She is sugar. She is curiosity and rain."

Gatwick Patil (Gat): Cadence's love interest and the nephew of Ed (Aunt Carrie's boyfriend). He is described as: "Gat, my Gat, the Gat of yesteryear - you came out here to meet me too… You are thoughtful and passionate. Ambitious and strong coffee."

Finally, there's Cadence Sinclair Eastman – the only daughter of the youngest Sinclair son. She's the central character of the story. A girl who, after an accident, becomes disfigured, dyes her hair black, and, according to Cadence, becomes a flawed version of the Sinclair family.

The existence of the Liars soothes Cadence's fragile soul; they are a source of comfort for her confused mind after the accident. The members are connected by blood – the seemingly perfect Sinclair family.

Impressions of the Sinclair Family:

The author immediately establishes a perfect first impression with the opening page, overflowing with concise yet flattering language about the Sinclair family:

“WELCOME TO the beautiful Sinclair family.

No one commits a crime.

No one is addicted.

No one fails.

The Sinclairs are athletic, tall, and good-looking. We are Democrats who inherited our ancestral fortunes. Our smiles are wide, our chins square, and our tennis serves powerful.

It doesn't matter if a divorce tears our hearts apart, making it difficult to keep them beating. It doesn't matter if our ancestral money is running out; if unpaid credit card bills are sitting on the kitchen table. It doesn't matter if there's a pile of medicine bottles on the bedside table.

It doesn't matter if any of us are madly in love.” Despair. Love so intense that it requires correspondingly desperate measures.

We are the Sinclair family.

No one is poor.

No one is wrong.

We live, at least in the summer, on a family-owned island off the coast of Massachusetts.

Perhaps that's all you need to know.”

The author forces the reader to acknowledge the Sinclair family's apparent perfection through repetition and a firm affirmation of outward appearances, leaving no room for the underlying breakdown. The repeated structure “No one is…” to negate vices such as addiction, failure, crime, poverty, desperate love, etc., creates a paradoxical psychological effect. By insisting in this way, Cadence is implicitly suggesting that these elements do exist and threaten the family's stability. As the story delves deeper, we gradually see the layers of masks peeled away, revealing completely contradictory truths that expose the elaborate lies.

Cadence becomes addicted to painkillers after the accident. She and the Liars group all carry guilt within them. Her aunts and uncles are financially unsuccessful, living off their father's money; they are also failures in love (those abandoned, betrayed, and cheated on by their husbands)

The Anomalies of the Liars:

The Liars are the greatest mystery Cadence must confront, and her most terrible sin. Their presence in the summer of 17 is not a supernatural phenomenon, but rather an illusion sustained by Cadence's psychological defense mechanisms. These ghosts act according to the logic of her subconscious. The Liars don't eat much – reflecting their unreal state, existing as spirits. They are always tired and have headaches – reflecting Cadence's own condition and their painful deaths. But most remarkably, they gradually fade as Cadence begins to remember the truth, revealing a harsh reality that she is forced to see. The Liars, Cadence's friends and loved ones, are gone forever from this world.

The conversation between Cadence and the "Liars" is essentially an internal monologue, as she projects onto them her avoidance of pain and loss, so that Cadence can deny a harsh and painful reality. When Johnny speaks of "not wanting to die," it's the voice of the part of Cadence's personality yearning to live. And when Mirren speaks of "fear of being forgotten," it's Cadence's fear of losing her past. Perhaps these are the things Cadence thinks they want to say to her as a final farewell, the last time before Cadence crosses the thin line between reality and illusion to embrace the truth. She recreates them as a way to complete unfinished tasks: goodbyes, forgiveness, and an affirmation of love.

Cadence loved The Liars, she loved her siblings, she loved Gat—her first love—but she could never forgive herself for the sins that caused their deaths until she could break free from the illusions surrounding them. The Sinclair family's sins were not confined to one generation, but encompassed the entire family, from grandparents to grandchildren. They were liars, but the most truthful liars. And they paid for their family's lies with their own lives.

Cadence - When memories are fragmented by subconscious pain:

Cadence's psychological instability is already set in motion from the very next page as she recounts the story of the Sinclair family. The way Cadence describes the departure of a person shocks the reader even before the story actually begins:

“Then he pulled out a pistol and shot me in the chest. I was standing on the lawn and fell. The gunshot wound ripped open and my heart rolled out of my chest, falling into a flowerbed. Blood flowed rhythmically from my gaping wound, then from my eyes, ears, and mouth.

It tasted of salt and of failure. The bright red of shame for not being loved seeped into the lawn in front of our house, into the bricks of the path, into the steps leading to the front porch. My heart gasped like a salmon among peonies.”

Readers, on their first reading, may be shocked and believe this is a real violent event. However, this is simply Cadence's way of materializing the emotional pain. Cadence was not taught how to express emotions as a member of the Sinclair family—tough, unsentimental, and not prone to self-pity. Furthermore, this creates a surreal, semi-real atmosphere for the entire story, allowing the reader to delve into what is happening inside Cadence's head. Cadence is an unreliable narrator. Clearly, Cadence is not intentionally acting as such a witness; she is a victim of selective amnesia resulting from a traumatic brain injury and a psychological defense mechanism. Cadence isn't trying to tell her own story; it is we, the readers, who are invading her mind.

Cadence may not remember what happened, but she still feels pain, still sees the lingering echoes of a yearning to remember. Cadence's struggle to remember isn't simply about satisfying her curiosity; she's trying to understand the pain she's experiencing, why her life is still intact but the feeling of being alive has been taken away. What Cadence sees isn't what truly exists, but rather a reflection of what's shattered within her. It prevents her from remembering because the pain of the truth, when fully revealed, would be a psychological shock, overwhelming her with emotion and leading to mental breakdown. Therefore, forgetting is a defense mechanism preventing Cadence from this mental shock, proving that her memories are still there, stored in nerve cells, and sometimes they can surface in her consciousness to show her weak versions..

In the story, Cadence's return to the island and her actions show her attempt to overcome that psychological barrier. Cadence embarks on a journey to uncover the truth, which in reality threatens her brain's defense mechanisms. The hallucinations from the ghosts in Cadence's mind are people who are no longer there, no longer beside her as they were years ago. Gradually, these ghosts clash, revealing fragments of memories that Cadence has suppressed, reflecting her own struggle to reclaim her buried memories.

So what is the truth ultimately? What really happened to Cadence and the "Liars" group? Why do they call themselves liars, and what were their lies? What was stolen and what remains? These are the pieces Cadence gradually gathers to create a complete picture of past events.

IV. PERSONAL FEELINGS

The work doesn't focus on whether it's a good book or not, but rather on the impressions we get while reading it. It takes us into a world in between, where reality and illusion intertwine, everything is both real and strangely distorted. Readers can easily sense a dark, thick atmosphere enveloping the entire island, making us breathless as we follow the characters' actions, while simultaneously immersing us in Cadence's pain and emotions. Reality is inseparable from Cadence's mind, just as she cannot separate her present self from her past self that committed the sins. It is painful and shocking, making us feel pity for the folly of youth – a moment of impulsiveness and simple thinking inadvertently leading to a devastating outcome.

Each reread of the book reveals a deeper understanding of the characters' behavior and motivations, and the connection between the fairy tales and how they reflect reality, much like how the ghosts mirror Cadence's mind. A family teeming with criminals, yet always cloaked in the polished sophistication of the upper class, where adults act as catalysts for youthful mistakes and a struggle for material possessions and power ultimately leaves behind a desolate wasteland of decay. The price paid is three lives in their prime.

It's impossible not to mention Emily Lockhart's unique style, which elevates the story beyond a simple mystery investigation into a haunting memoir of someone who has lost their self in the remnants of psychological trauma and the ambiguity encapsulated in fragmented memories and a distorted reality.

They. All. Are liars. No one is innocent.