His nose was dramatic, his mouth sweet. Skin deep brown, hair black and waving. Body wired with energy. Gat seemed spring loaded. Like he was searching for something. He was contemplation and enthusiasm. Ambition and strong coffee. I could have looked at him forever. 
 I found We Were Liars to be beautiful, sad, poignant and touching but I definitely didn't find it to be a suspense or mystery. I haven't gotten a chance to read any other reviews yet so I haven't been able to see how other people felt about this but I felt like the "twist" at the end was super obvious. In fact, I think that how the blurb really hints at some big secret or twist really worked against this book. The foreshadowing was just a little too obvious to me, especially when you are on the lookout for clues. If you're going to say on the back of the book "THIS IS A MYSTERY. THERE ARE SECRETS. DON'T TELL ANYONE THE ENDING" then you have to REALLY get it right to surprise people. 
 I also happened to have recently read Leaving Time by Jodie Picoult - so if you've read that one and this novel you will know that they have similar endings and I actually think that Picoult did it SO much better. In her novel I really did not guess the ending. 
 That being said, I still loved this book. Just not as a mystery novel. This book was still a beautiful piece of contemporary writing. It's a book about families and their complicated relationships - my favorite subject. I have never read a Lockhart book before so I hadn't seen her style before but I loved it so much. I felt like the choppiness of it, the vivid images of people, the feelings that it conveyed worked so well. 
 If you didn't already know - this book is about an old money, all-american family who own a private island where they spend each summer. The family is a father, his three daughters and their children. The story is told from the perspective of the oldest grandchild, Cadence, and her time spending summers on the island with her two cousins, Johnny and Mirren and a family friend, Gat. They are the Liars. 
 It is clear from the start of the book that this family is dysfunctional and watching dysfunctional adults from the perspectives of their children is always so interesting. Its by far the most interesting thing about the book. I don't know why, I just think that families are the most rich, diverse, fascinating and lovely writing subjects. They can be so beautiful and so ugly, sometimes at the same time. This family has a lot of ugliness that they try to hide. 
 The beauty of this story for me is definitely Cady's relationship with Gat. I just really felt that first love, hard and passionate and all consuming. Gat was really a great character for me. There was so much about him that was two levels. You could see how he was very wise beyond his years and Lockhart managed to put in a lot of adult things that were going over Cady's head but you could still see the issues. 
 One day I looked at Gat, lying in the Clairmont hammock with a book, and he seemed, well, like he was mine. Like he was my particular person. 
 And the ending. The ending. What can you say without giving it away too much - for those who can't guess it in the first 50 pages. Even though I saw it coming it doesn't make it any less. It doesn't take anything of it away and I still feel sad about now, a few days later. I think that the story is a powerful one. About families and young love, young foolishness. The ending is sad. You know it is going to be, and you can try to prepare yourself for it, but there will be tears anyway. I think this book is a must read. I'll have to try out some of Lockharts other stuff now.