Line #13 Literature/WeWereLiars


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6	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wewereliars.png]]
7
8	->''We were warm and shivering,\
9	and young and ancient,\
10	and alive.''
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12	''We Were Liars'' by E. Lockhart is a 2014 young-adult novel about [[BigScrewedUpFamily the wealthy, good-looking, all-American Sinclair family.]]
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14	Something vital and extreme happened during Cadence Sinclair's fifteenth summer on her family's private island with said family and their family-friend Gat, but she can't remember what. Whatever ''did'' happen left her with crippling migraines and intense depressive symptoms.
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16	So what the hell happened?
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18	Cadence sets out to find the answer to this question when, after a year of separation and isolation, she reunites with her family and Gat. But it's not as joyous as she expects it to be. This summer, she gets to watch her entire family fall apart over something she doesn't remember, and something they won't tell her.
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20	----
21	!!Tropes:
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23	* AerithAndBob: The four Liars: Cadence, Mirren, Gatwick, and Johnny.
24	* AnachronicOrder: The story jumps around, mainly between the present summer and Summer Fifteen.
25	%%* BigFancyHouse: Clairmont, although this could pretty much go for all the Sinclair family's huge houses.
26	%%* BigScrewedUpFamily: The Sinclairs. Big time.
27	%%* DeadAllAlong: [[spoiler:Gat, Johnny, and Mirren.]]
28	* DrivingQuestion: ''What happened at the end of Summer Fifteen?''
29	* FairytaleMotifs: Cadence makes up fairy tales that are clear allegories for the Sinclair family, casting her grandfather as king and her cousins as the children of the princesses. [[spoiler:In the chapter where she finally remembers the true events of summer fifteen, she casts herself as the wicked witch who cursed them all.]]
30	* {{Foreshadowing}}: Gat, Johnny, and Mirren are ''always'' finding excuses not to be around anyone but Cadence. Why? [[spoiler:Because they've been dead for almost a year, and are either hallucinations or ghosts.]]
31	%%* FourPhilosophyEnsemble: The Liars.
32	%%** Cadence: The Apathetic
33	%%** Gat: The Realist
34	%%** Johnny: The Cynic
35	%%** Mirren: The Optimist
36	%%* FourTemperamentEnsemble: The Liars again.
37	%%** Cadence: Melancholic
38	%%** Gat: Phlegmatic
39	%%** Johnny: Choleric
40	%%** Mirren: Sanguine
41	%%* TheKillerInMe
42	%%* LaserGuidedAmnesia
43	* LetThePastBurn: A dark variation. To the teenagers, Clairmont represented everything that was going wrong with their family. So they burned it down without [[DidntThinkThisThrough really thinking it through]], and the result was that [[spoiler:all but one of them died.]]
44	* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness: Although one couldn't truly call Cadence ''insane,'' her mental state is scrambled and awful by the present time, and she's an unreliable narrator.
45	* TraumaInducedAmnesia: Implied. What actually happened during [[spoiler:Summer Fifteen]] was so horrific and scarring that [[spoiler:Cadence]] forgot it happened.

Context Literature / WeWereLiars