The Lies Continue ...

Family of Liars, the prequel to E. Lockhart’s best-selling novel We Were Liars, continues to follow the Sinclair family, diving farther back into their sordid past of secrets and lies, addiction, and even murder. Though lacking the impact of the first, the sequel continues to explore the sordid, dark secrets and lies of the Sinclairs and the long term repercussions thereof.

            This novel, set a generation before the events of We Were Liars, focuses on Carrie Sinclair, oldest daughter of the fabled Sinclair family, as she tells the tale of one fateful summer at Beechwood Island, the wealthy family’s private playground. In what is likely an effort to entice readers gobsmacked by the surprise, Sixth Senseesque ending of the first, Carrie is telling this tale to the ghost of her dead son, a tale that includes visits from her deceased little sister, Rosemary.  

            In 1985, Carrie and her sisters, Penny and Bess, spend the summer on their island with their parents, Tipper and Harris, along with extended family and guests for a seemingly endless array of annual traditions, celebrations, parties, and rituals, in essence, an endless party to numb the grief over the loss of Rosemary and gloss over the general unhappiness of all their lives. The summer for Carrie is not quite the same as it is every year; it appears to be a transformative one, as she develops a pill addiction, starts seeing a young man named Pfeff, and is visited by the ghost of her younger sister, Rosemary against the backdrop of trying to understand a mysterious picture she finds in her mother’s dresser.

            Similar to the first book, the prose is syrupy, oozing with a hazy nostalgia, reflecting Carrie’s altered state of mind thanks to her growing Halcion addiction, but also likely due to the fact that she’s telling the story looking back as an adult. Unlike the first novel, which was a mystery of sorts that unraveled gradually, pulling you along to its surprise twist ending, this book is a bit more of a slog.  Though Lockhart attempts to tie the book into the surprising supernatural elements of the first book – Carrie, as a teen, is visited by the ghost of her little sister, while, as an adult, she tells the story to the ghost of her son – it lacks the wallop and finesse of the first. Most of the book is dedicated to the various get-togethers they hold on the island, seen and portrayed through the hazy, bored lens of a rich girl living a rich life, a full but boring existence of barbecues, ice creams, fireworks, and lemonade, before it gets to this novel's version of a twist which – yep, there is one, and while not impactful as the first, is still a pretty big surprise.

            Lockhart’s hazy prose paints a picture of a rich family living a rich life, all of which is veneer plastered over the secrets and discontent they all seem to be suffering from. Though the family has everything, they seem to have little of the things that matter most, which are themes Lockhart touched on in the first book. Fans of the first should enjoy this book and will likely want to read the third.