We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

The first few sentences make it clear that Cadence Sinclair Eastman is an unreliable narrator. She paints a perfect picture of her rich family as the story unravels secrets of their past. This reminds me of a psychological thriller I read called, "Thr3ee," by Ted Dekker over a decade ago. Except in this book, E. Lockhart uses the first person point-of-view to create a dreamy, nightmarish narrative. The reader knows from the get-go that all is not well with the mental state of Cadence or Cady. She describes as her father leaves them with his packed suitcase as looking at her. "Then he pulled out a handgun and shot me in the chest." She doesn't describe it as a simile but literally. "I was standing on the lawn and I fell. The bullet hole opened wide and my heart rolled out of my rib cage and down into the flower bed." If the absurd second sentence wasn't there I would get confused by the description. Cady is a melodramatic or disturbed person. The author's beautiful writing pulls the reader in and slowly reveals the dysfunctional family that is chained to Granddad's oligarchy and the tragic consequences of certain family members actions on each other.

Eighteen-year-old Cady is self-absorbed and readers quickly discover how she and her mother rely on Granddad to fund their lifestyle, as well as, two of Cady's aunts. Each summer Cady's family goes to Windemere House on Beechwood island off the coast of Martha's Vineyard. Cady hangs out with her aunts and cousins: Johnny, Mirren, and Gat (step cousin) dubbed, "The Liars." Cady, who is Caucasian, is in love with Gat who is Indian and whose dad lives with Cady's aunt. Granddad doesn't accept Gat or his father because they are Indian, but he tolerates them. Gat likes to think philosophically, unlike Cady, Johnny, and Mirren who are comfortable with the superficiality of their lives. However, it becomes clear that all of the Liars don't face the truth, including Gat. When Gran dies, Cady's mom and two sisters start to fight over the estate causing stress among the family.

The broken and choppy prose reflects Cady's frail state of mind. Two years ago something happened to her on the island where Cady had an accident but she has amnesia and all she knows is that she was found washed ashore in her underwear. She wonders if she was raped or attacked, but no one will talk about it. The aftermath of the accident has left her with debilitating migraines and she is on heavy medication that clouds her thinking. On a trip to Europe with her father she explains, "I lay prone on the bathroom floors of several museums, feeling the cold tile underneath my cheek as my brain liquefied and seeped out my ear, bubbling. Migraines left my blood spreading across unfamiliar hotel sheets, dripping on the floors, oozing into carpets, soaking through leftover croissants, and Italian lace cookies."

Blood is used to describe Cady's feelings and migraines. In this story, blood symbolizes pain, sacrifice, death, and guilt, to name a few. It foreshadows the novel's end and adds to the surreal, tense narration. Cady has wanted to go back to Windemere but her mother won't let her go until two years after her accident. She is together again with the Liars, but things are different. Their conversations turn from superficial to underlying causes of unhappiness in the family. Plus, Cady is not the only one sick, so is Mirren and the aunts show new characteristics they did not have before the accident. One aunt cleans compulsively and the other suffers from insomnia. This family, with all its privileges, suffers like all families do even though they have so much money they "don't have to think about it." Family members refuse to talk about things in the open and emotions must be hidden behind a false smile and "square chin" in the air.

While the ending is more horrific than I expected, I was able to predict what happened but not the how. Because the author shows the reader immediately that the narrator is unreliable, I looked more closely for the twist. The fun with this writing technique is the big surprise hidden in the plot. While I guessed it in the first third of the book, the author does a great job making it even more complex than what I had figured out.

As far as characters, Cady is not admirable; however, she is compelling. Even though she is self-centered and shallow, she does want to improve and become a better person. She starts to see less importance in materialism, although she does recognize that she and her mother rely on Granddad's money. She thinks Gat brings out the good qualities in her and is one reason she loves him. She does grow and learn to face the truth, but I would not call it a story of redemption. Her character arc is more of a look at post-traumatic-stress syndrome and trying to learn to live with an awful truth.

Cady makes up fairy tale stories during the plot that become a parable of sorts reflecting the Sinclair oligarchy. All the power is vested in Granddad. He is the King and since his Queen or wife has died he has become manipulative of his children. He uses the power of his wealth over his three children who then put pressure on their children to be obsequious to Granddad. When Granddad's wife dies, the three children or direct descendants of Granddad start to fight over material possessions. The fairy tale Cady makes up reveals the lie they are living that their happily-ever-after is more of broken-ever-after-but-now-united. The ending does give hope. All of the relatives are forever changed from Cady's accident. At 225 pages the author does a terrific job making every word count and using the language itself to mimic the protagonist's fragile state of mind. An unforgettable page turner that is hard to put down.

5 Smileys

Nest by Esther Ehrlich

*spoiler alert*

Eleven-year-old Naomi "Chirp" Oreinstein lives in Cape Cod with her sister and father when they discover that her mother has a serious disease. Unable to cope with the loss of a career, her mother develops severe depression and is hospitalized. Set in the 1972, treatment involves electricity and it is apparent that the doctors don't know much about depression. As she deals with the family changes she makes friends with her neighbor and classmate, Joey, who also has issues at home with an angry father and mean brothers.

This book tackles the difficult topic of depression and suicide with a subplot that involves physical abuse. The author succeeds in some parts presenting the issues and fails in others. There's a social stigma with mental illness and while the author captures the pain, grief, and denial, she doesn't show how it is a disease of the brain that causes death if treatment is unsuccessful or untreated. I wanted some of the myths exposed through classmates or medical professionals. There are so many misconceptions about suicide and rather than mention them they are omitted. Instead the family hides the fact and doesn't really talk about it. Even when Chirp is with her friend, Joey, she doesn't talk about her mother's actions. The result is no enlightenment on mental illness as a disease. No adult has any insightful talk that helps her deal with this topic. No counselor. Nothing. The family would want answers considering the mother was getting treatment. Why did this happen? I really wished a medical person was inserted in the text to give knowledge on the disease. As is, people just see a child's grief and anger. Even an Author's Note that talks about SAVE foundation or other facts would have been good.

Miss Gallagher is a teacher that shames kids and has no classroom management. She's a pathetic teacher that uses her authority to abuse kids. Being an educator, I hate this stereotyped teacher. They exist but are the minority. And it is a stereotype that has become cliched. There are so many different personalities and I like when the complexity of humans is captured creating 3-dimensional characters. This teacher ends up being flat. Then there is Joey. He is abused by his father and no one talks about it, even though Chirp's father is a psychiatrist and required by law to report it to authorities. Wouldn't he see a red flag with Joey when picking the kids up? Chirp is portrayed as flighty and clueless, but as a sixth grader wouldn't she see the marks on Joey's face from getting hit?

The author does a great job creating a loving family unit which is why I really thought the father would discuss with Chirp the death of the mom. He does with the older sister and Chirp is portrayed as being in denial, but I would have thought he'd force the issue as he forces them to have family meetings. Chirp's love of birds and tie-ins with dancing are unique and add depth to her character. The plot is somewhat slow at the start but goes out with a bang.

3 Smileys

Sure Signs of Crazy by Karen Harrington

The more I write reviews the more I realize how much my biases come into play. I like a story with a fast pace. This story is not fast-paced. I like a story with lots of dialogue. This story has more interior monologue. I like a story that is funny. This story is dramatic and sad. I like the fantasy genre the most and the horror genre the least. You get the idea. The difficulty of writing a book and then having a review based solely on biases must be irritating for authors. I find it hard recognizing when my likes and dislikes are interfering with an analysis. It reminds me of when I was learning to be a reporter at 19. The professor said that it is really impossible to be objective. I was not a very good reporter. I'm probably not a very good reviewer. But at least I like writing book reviews better than being a reporter. It's enough to drive a person crazy. "Crazy" is a trouble word in the home of twelve-year-old Sarah Nelson. Crazy is a mom that tries to drown her kids and succeeds with one but not the other. Crazy is trying to learn to live with it.

This book has quite the premise. Sarah is worried about being crazy like her mom. When Sarah's mom killed her brother and tried to kill her, it was the only case of filicide in Texas and got so much publicity that Sarah and her dad move all the time to sustain some anonymity. They are recognized and ostracized wherever they live. Sarah's mom was found insane and put in a mental institution. Sarah worries that something might be wrong with her like her mom. While her dad deals with the tragedy by drinking too much, Sarah, for the first time, gets to stay home with her dad for the summer rather than go to her grandparents home in another city.

Her babysitter has a boyfriend and passes the watching of Sarah onto her brother, Finn. Sarah develops a crush on Finn and learns he has his own painful past. When another parent kills her children in the city, the press start to pester Sarah's family. Even after 10 years the family can't move on. She also wonders about her mother and she wants to get to know her. When the English teacher suggests keeping a journal and writing to a favorite fiction character, Sarah writes letters to Atticus Finch in "To Kill a Mockingbird." She talks about problems with her dad and longing to know her mother.

The character's arc begins with Sarah worrying about her mother going crazy, but changes later to wanting to get to know her mother. The result is a fractured plot. I preferred the beginning message of Sarah worrying that she'll have signs of mental illness. I worry I will get alzheimer's like my mom. Others worry about inherited diseases such as depression, strokes, heart attacks. Fear can be so crippling in people's lives that it is a universal theme that speaks to the adult as well as the child. The switch to wanting to meet her mother bored me in comparison. I kept waiting for the doctor to give a scientific reason for the mom's psychosis or some statistics on mother's killing children. When our family had a loved one die from suicide, our family couldn't get enough information on what makes the brain go haywire.

The romantic subplot is going to appeal more to girls than boys. Sarah trying to find a mother substitute in her babysitter to discuss her body changing is not going to interest boys either. The other subplot of Sarah's dad as an alcoholic as a result of their mom was more interesting. After 10 years Sarah and her father seem to be in a perpetual groundhog's day where they must relive the event until they can transcend it. He is depressed and unable to deal with the tragedy. He also seems to still love his wife. He was charged in the death of his children for neglect and I kept waiting for that issue to be addressed more in-depth with Sarah. The neighbor whose husband dies and Finn's past water down Sarah's story. It seemed that the author was trying to do too much.

Sarah loves words and writes the definitions of them throughout the story. I remember the first time I came across this in a middle grade novel and thought it so clever. While it is a good way to help readers toward fluency, it has become almost cliche. I have seen it in way too many realistic stories and it no longer enthralls me.

When readers come to a story with their own experiences and backgrounds, they make unique connections that help them deal with issues in their own life. Sarah's letter writing shows this and was a highlight for me in this story. Sarah is so lonely. She's isolated at school because of her past. She's teased so much she talks to a plant rather than people. Sometimes I feel so isolated living overseas. One thing multilingual students do is switch to another language when a monolingual adult is walking behind them in the hallway. They will do it to other monolingual or new students too if they want to exclude them. I feel the most isolated then. I'm sure the students do too. A foreigner on foreign soil that is illiterate. Move over Sarah. I'd like to talk to your plant.The story ends on hope with the family moving on, but leaves too many loose ends.

3 Smileys