What to Read If You Loved Amazon Prime’s ‘We Were Liars’
We Were Liars, a psychological suspense young-adult novel by E. Lockhart, was recently adapted into a TV series for Amazon Prime. With a murder-mystery core and a plot riddled with secrets, drama, and intrigue, it’s one of our most anticipated series of the year. For those who have watched it and can’t get enough or those anticipating it will be their next favorite binge, we’ve lined up a series of must-read books perfect for the summer. Of course, we have to start with the source material:
A private island.
A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.
A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.
A revolution. An accident. A secret.
Lies upon lies.
True love.
The truth.
The police tell her taking photos in public isn’t a crime. But Willow can’t seem to let it go, especially after she finds her own photo on the card. So Willow teams up with new volunteer Dare to figure out what happened to the girls. As their investigation heats up, so does the chemistry between them. But everyone around Willow seems to have a secret: Finding Home’s owner, her own mom, and even Dare. When Willow learns that some of the girls on the camera card have gone missing, she realizes the unknown photographer might be a serial killer. Can Willow find him before he finds her?
Now Raymond has a hostage. Nora has no leverage. Iris has a spear and Wes is building boobytraps. It will take all of their skills to make it out of the forest alive.
There are three problems: Someone is lying. Someone is keeping secrets.
And someone has to die.
Now senior year is winding down and with their lives heading in different directions, the YouTubers vow to go out with a bang. Their last episode will be filmed at the infamous Valentini “murder house,” which has been left abandoned, bloodstained, and untouched since a shocking murder/suicide in 1972. When the teens break in, they capture epic footage. But someone trips an alarm, and it’s a mad dash to get out before the police arrive—at which point they realize only three of them escaped instead of four. Jacob is still inside, slain and bleeding out. Is his attack connected to the historic murder, or is one of their crew responsible? A week of suspicions and cover-ups unfolds as Casey and her remaining friends try to stay alive long enough to solve murder mysteries past and present. If they do, their friendship may not survive. If they don’t, the house will claim more victims.
Three years ago, Talia lived happily in the ruins of the Neves, a once-grand hotel in the wilds of the Catskill Mountains, with her mother Pola and their community of like-minded women. Some came to the Neves to escape cruel men, others to hide from the law, but all found safety and connection in their haven high above civilization, cloaked by a mysterious mist that kept intruders away. But as their numbers grew, complications followed, and everything came crashing down the night electric lights pierced the forest. Uniformed men arrested Pola, calling her a murderer and a fugitive, and Talia was taken away. Now sixteen, Talia has been forced to live with family she barely knows and fit into a world scarred by misogyny, capitalism, disconnection from nature . . . everything the women of the Neves stood against. She has one goal: to return to the Neves. But as Talia awaits a signal from her mother, questions arise. Who betrayed her community, and what is she avoiding about her own role in its collapse? Is it truly magic that keeps the hotel so hidden? And what does it mean to embrace being her mother’s daughter? With the help of an unexpected ally, Talia must find her way to answers, face a mother who’s often kept her at arm’s length, and try to reach the refuge she lost—if the mist hasn’t swallowed her path home.
When Julia Buchanan enrolls at St. Anne’s at the beginning of junior year, Charlotte Ryder already knows all about her. Most people do . . . or think they do. But as Charlotte is pulled into the larger-than-life new girl’s world–a world of midnight rendezvous, dazzling parties, palatial vacation homes, and fizzy champagne cocktails–she realizes that behind Julia’s self-assured smiles and toasts to the future, she is still suffering from a tragedy. A tragedy that the Buchanan family has kept hidden . . . until now.
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