Much has been said of We Were Liars that I am going to repeat here. The book itself is impossible to fully describe without spoiling the depths lurking beneath the surface of its pages. The plot summary I could provide is almost meaningless due to how vague I am required to be. Cadence is the eldest grandchild of the Sinclair household: a family almost dynastic in its rituals and run by their overbearing grandfather. Every summer Cady and the entire family, her and her mother, her aunts, her cousins, her grandparents, are reunited on the family's island. Her cousin's best friend Gat, a young Indian boy and nephew of Johnny's (the aforementioned cousin's) step father of sorts starts also spending the summers on the island. Together Johnny, Cady, Gat, and the other cousin Mirren make up a group dubbed "the liars" and spend their summers enjoying themselves and getting into trouble amongst the very uptight and controlling Sinclair family. And then near the end of the 15th summer, Cady gets into an accident that leaves her severely brain damaged and suffering from massive headaches. Cady finally returns to the island several summers later and is reunited with the liars, except no one wants to talk to her about what actually happened during summer 15. 
 And that's really all I can say about the plot. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and found Cady's journey to discover what happened to her particularly interesting. The family dynamics give the book a sinister undertone as the reader observes how horrible the family is to one another. It was definitely worth the read. However, I fear that I might have gone into this book with too high of expectations. The review I am writing right now is the only one I recall seeing that was less than 5 stars. I heard praises galore thrust onto the book and when everything was revealed, I felt a little let down for not living up to those high, high expectations. This is not the book's fault. Any author would be glad to have written a book whose main criticism results in having others praise it too much. But I felt that the book was a little simplistic when compared to how much it was hyped. 
 Perhaps my lack of uncontrolled enthusiasm for the book stems from the seeming disconnect between what the book was trying to say about the family and what happened to Cady? Without getting into specific spoilers, throughout the book you see how horrible and selfish the family members are, how insular and judgmental everyone is, how privileged and set in their old fashioned ways they are, and how the family's actions are a direct cause to the events of summer 15. But the family after summer 15 is still horrible. The sisters still fight, the family still values money and class above everything else, is still selfish and self centered. The actions of summer 15 changed nothing but add a level of mistrust and melancholy to everyone. And I'm unsure why exactly the plot was constructed in this manner if it was to serve no real purpose other than to show the audience how horrible rich white people can be. 
 All of that aside, the book itself was very good. I kept stealing away time to read more pages. I am forcing my friends to sit and wait while I type this instead of playing out D&D game because I needed to verbalize my thoughts on the book. If the plot summary I was able to give was at all interesting, I recommend this book, just maybe don't go into it expecting it to be your new favorite novel.