#e lockheart

The best part about this book for me was the complexity of Sinclair family and it’s problems.  I felt the portrayal of their actions was very real--I definitely know some families where money created similar power struggles. And it really didn’t seem over exaggerated or overly dramatic. And I feel like even people who don’t know families with that amount of money can relate to the Sinclairs. It felt like less of a money problem than a general familial relationships and power struggle problem--which is probably relatable to most.

And when I wasn’t reading about the Sinclair money driven power dynamics, the mystery surrounding Cady’s accident could usually keep me reading. I definitely did want to know the details of what happened, which kept me turning pages. But, while I think the pacing of the information revealed was on point, I felt like how she remembers some things was too convenient--sometimes it felt like there was no prompting at all.

And, I found Cady's relationship with the liars kind of underwhelming. I definitely cared more about the relationships between the mothers and the grandfather. I just never really felt like the Liars were that close of friends or that they even had any sort of inseparable bond. 

Cady’s relationship with was Gatt similarly lacking. Maybe because it mostly took place in the past, but I never really felt like I had watched them fall in love. In fact, I felt most of their interactions were stilted (and kind of pretentious). But, I feel like their relationship was good, if only for the tension it created when the grandfather disapproved. 

The writing itself was kind of hit or miss. Occasionally I’d read a passage where the language and parallels would just blow me away. I loved the telling of fairytales, and the importance of threes. But there were also moments that felt stilted or forced. The descriptions of the Liars felt more like telling. And often there was just a sense of detachment or emotionlessness for me.

But I think the biggest let down in this book was it’s “major twist.” I didn’t predict it beforehand, but when I read it, my reaction was just a flat “oh, ok.” I feel like part of the reason for this was that I hadn’t built enough of an attachment to the Liars in the first place. I didn’t really care what happened to them, so while it was sad in an abstract way, that was about it. And it was really hard to take the actual events of the accident seriously--because they were just so idiotic. Like I understood their motivation, and the general idea of it was realistic, but how it was done was just so dumb that it logically didn’t fit. I couldn’t believe that not one of these reasonably smart kids didn’t see the giant flaw in their plan. Plus, the hallucinations just felt a bit like a cop out. They were just to realistic, I wanted more hints that they weren’t what they seemed. The way it happened, as a complete 180, was just sort of jarring.