Hey everyone and welcome to the second stop of the Summer Blogger Promo Tour, hosted by The Book Bratz. Every Sunday, I will be featuring a blogger with a guest post. This is a fun way to discover new blogs and make new friends! Enjoy. :)

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This week I am featuring Amber and Jessica from The Book Bratz!
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(The three of us are chatting about the book We Were Liars)

We Were Liars

K: Okay, so I believe we all gave different ratings for this book. What rating did you give this book and why?
A: I gave it three stars. I found the writing strange and the romance. The ending. I want to scream
J: I believe I gave this book two stars because the ending really, really, REALLY pissed me off. I couldn't get into the book to begin with and I didn't like the narration - the main character (I forgot her name honestly because that book didn't stick with me at all because it bored me so much) was too detached. But yeah. That ending. It pissed me off beyond belief and that's why I knocked off SO many stars.
A: You also threw the book
J: Yes. I did throw the book across the room because I was supremely pissed off.
K: I believe I gave this book a 5 stars? I was just beginning book blogging at the time and my skills in evaluating a book were just starting to develop. I thought the writing gave a really dark and mysterious feel to the book. I was able to hand the main character. She just seemed so scared from this accident I gave her a bit of space and understood that she wasn't herself. As for the ending, I actually liked it. It just freaked me out because I didn't experience too many plot twists at the time.
A: My English teacher gave me plus 5 points for enduring it. I agree what you said about the story and the MC
K: Hopefully I can reread it and evaluate it more "professionally" sooner or later
A: Just the way it was executed
K: Jess throwing a book across the room...I would like to see that one day. ;)
A: I think her name is Cady. I'm more of an emotional rater
K: Cadence was her full name. I read that name as "Candace" until someone said "Cay-dence" and I was shaking my head at myself for the stupidity
J: It was so bad haha I got so angry..
K: Did you guys find the plot twist predictable and cliche?
I couldn't find any clues when I was reading it the first time that signified what had really happened.
A: Yes. I knew they were dead. I just suspected it. There were no clues. That was the problem
K: Ahhhh okay. I am horrible when it comes to predictions so the plot twist just hit me the face with no warning.  Plus I wasn't suspecting so I wasn't looking out for any clues
J: Yes and no. It wasn't predictable - which is what pissed me off so much. Nowhere throughout the entire book were there any clues. And like Amber said, that's a problem. Good books with good plot twists are supposed to catch you off guard, yes - but then you're supposed to facepalm yourself and realize there WERE subtle clues that you never picked up on. That didn't happen with this book - I fact, several times Cady mentioned going out with her friends TO THE ADULTS and nobody said a word - Lockhart didn't even have the decency to make them look mildly perplexed by her statement. I feel as if she wrote the book and didn't even know the ending herself and then just copped out and threw in a crappy plot twist with no clues or pretense.
A: Too much happened in a short amount of book
J: I agree with that. Too short of a book for all of that.
K: Out of all the characters, which one did you like the most and which one did you get annoyed with the most?
A: I liked Gat. I hated the adults. They were the typical rich adults in books and I hate that
K: When it comes to this question I never know what to say. I mean, Gat, Mirren, and Johnny weren't all real so it was hard to tell their personalities. Yet again I haven't read this book in awhile. I do however remember how much I despised her grandfather.
J: I hated every single person in that book. I actually can't think of one I even liked - Gat seemed so bland to me and I didn't dislike him as much as the others but I definitely was bored with him.
K: And I agree with you Amber, they were all the typical rich adults, her grandfather included. He was also kind of racist towards Gat which I was annoyed with.
A:  Where is the diversity? Seriously
K: Since you both didn't like the book, what kept you reading on?
A:    I was reading it for an English assignment
J: My stubborn resistance to being a quitter.
K: Ahaha, ahhh okay.
J:  I only quit a book if it's horrifying me or scarring me for life or making me literally hate reading.
We Were Liars was dangerously close to making me literally hate reading.
A:  I don't have the problem I DNFed 6 books in May
K: So what is something you would change about this book to make it somewhat likeable? The writing, making the characters less bland?
A:  Interesting characters go a long way
J: I would add more clues, although still subtle, about the ending. So the readers aren't totally caught off guard and annoyed at such a sudden plot twist.
K: That's true. Characters can definitely save a book from a horrifying plot or unclear writing.
A: If the plot is bad but the characters are good I'll keep reading
K: I agree. Plot twists are very hard things to write about because you have to look at the plot from different angles of personality. Then you also have to consider the fact that people can't predict as well as others. Your clues have to be there but not obvious so that it gives away the twist.
A:   There was virtually no hints. It was annoying
J:  Exactly. But there WERE no hints. 9 times out of 10 I read a book and the plot twist blows me away but then looking back at the story I realized subtle things were slipped in. They weren't glaringly obvious, but they were there, and that's the important part.
K: There is a map in the beginning of the book. Maps have been known to help me understand the book and I can see where places are when being referenced to. Did you like that map and how it was drawn? And did it help you see where parts of the island were? (Kind of a random questions but still related!)
A: Eh. I was in different towards it. I had my own picture in my head. The family tree did help though. All the characters were thrown in at once. It's helped me decipher who was who
J: It doesn't mean much to me. I'll glance at it every now and then if I'm super confused, but I tend not to pay maps and family trees and stuff like that any mind. My mentality is that a book shouldn't be written in such a complicated way that the reader needs to refer to a "reference sheet" of knowledge - the should be able to understand and retain it. If not, it's too "much" dense writing.
K: Oh yes! I forgot there was a family tree. That definitely helped me as well. I was able to figure out who was who and which cousin was who's aunt. The map did help me though. I remember looking back to it and seeing all the buildings.
K: How do we feel about the cover and title?
A: I didn't understand why they were "Liars"
J: I think the cover's okay. In my opinion, it doesn't relate too much to the book. As for the title, that's alright too. It didn't make much sense - they called themselves the Liars but barely did anything (that's if they even did something - I don't remember) regarding them being branded as liars. The summary of the book is what drew me in, honestly. I wish the entire book was as good as the summary.
A: She never explained why
K: In my opinion, the title doesn't really match the story too much other than the fact that it was a name the parents referred the cousins to. I thought the cover was actually pretty intriguing. I liked it's "swiped" effect to the text but it doesn't relate too much to the book, I agree.
J: Does it ever even mention anywhere in the book why they were called the liars?
K: Yeah, the vague summary We Were Liars gave attracted people to the book because it just makes it really mysterious and kind of pulls you in to get more information about the book.
A: That's why I was attracted
K: Do you remember how there were little sections of the book where there was a little story that would be a metaphor to what the author was going to write about next? What are your thoughts on those?
J: I didn't like them. That's really all I could say. They didn't intrigue me or keep me interested. I saw them as little annoyances. (And I'm never really this critical about a book. This one just seemed to strike a major nerve with me - as you could tell when I chucked it across the room after reading the end.)
K: When I first read those, I was completely confused on what they meant. I'm just not much of poetic person who can figure out metaphors. They added mystery to the book in my opinion but I was clueless on what it meant to the plot until I read what actually happened. The book could have survived without them that's for one
J: Definitely could have survived without them.
K: People who could understand metaphors and be able to figure them out, the little stories would have made sense to them. But as someone who just can't do that, they were just another section to read. I enjoyed them, but I couldn't enjoy them the way it was meant to be enjoyed.
J: I could understand metaphors fairly well. I just saw it as a distraction. I didn't want to waste time with the metaphors, I wanted to read the story.
A: I didn't like the fairy tales
A: No... We covered everything I wanted to talk about haha
J: I have one more - it's a spoiler one though so make sure you say that in the post.
J: We vaguely mentioned the ending but never specifically asked - what were your exact thoughts about it?

The next few parts of this discussion will contain spoilers. Please proceed with caution if you have not read the book.


J: I honestly couldn't believe they all died. Like it made me mad, and in the same token, so sad.
Like, what the heck? The author just killed off a bunch of kids. Not to mention dogs. The dogs probably upset me more. But still. I hurled the book across the room and screamed WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT
K: The way they burnt down the house was so stupid! Like I could have went into the house with my little cousins and we could have done a better job! Ahahah, the dogs! The poor dogs. :( Cady was extremely unwise about her gas placement. She was responsible for the bottom floor right? I don't understand why she didn't think that Mirren, Gat, and Johnny had to bet out BEFORE she lit the thing on fire. I can't remember but were they drunk that night?
A:  No
K: Wow. I feel so bad for Cady right now because she killed all those dogs- I mean, teenagers! ;)
J: Yeaaah see I didn't like any of the characters so their deaths were just like "FINALLY."
K: It still frustrates me to this day on why the heck she would light the bottom floor on fire, KNOWING her cousins were still in the house. Ahahaha. I know how you feel Jessica! So based on this book, will you read any other books by E? (And have you read any other of E's books?)
I haven't read anything by E other than this book but I plan on reading her other ones, which I cannot recall the titles right now.
J: No I wouldn't want to read any of her others. And I may have read one or two of her middle grades, but that was so long ago I can barely remember.
K: I may need to reread this and give it a more thought through rating.
J: Yeah, I can't see myself ever picking it up again because I already know the ending.
K: I just really need to think through it again!
J: It's definitely a book that requires a lot of thinking. It isn't a light breezy summer read at all.
K: Yeah. The plot twist just distracts you, you forget about the characters and clues about the twist.
J:  Yeah, it becomes all you focus on.
K: Agreed. I think that's why I need to reevaluate my rating. I was so distracted by the twist.
A: All in all I wasn't crazy. I will read other books by E though
K: So that will conclude our chat on We Were Liars! I hope you guys enjoy this and check out Amber and Jessica's blog. Thank you Jessica and Amber for being here today.
A: Thank you for chatting with us!
J: Yeah, thank you for having us, Kaitlin! :-)

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