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Johnny is the first grandson, and only three weeks younger than Cadence. He is the oldest child of Carrie, and the bigger brother of Will. Like Gat, he also lives in New York with his mother, brother and Ed, whos his mothers boyfriend. Johnny is the prankster or trickster of the bunch, as he never takes anything seriously and jokes around all the time. Despite this, he has some core values that he fights for. This makes him a well rounded and likeable character.

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Cadence is nearly 18 years of age, and is the oldest of the grandchildren in the Sinclair family. She lives in Burlington, Vermont, with her mom, Penny Sinclair, and their three golden retrivers, Bosh, Grendel and Poppy. Her father left the year she turned 15, and we get to know why later in the book. She must have been devastated by him leaving, as she describes the event like this: "Then he pulled out a handgun and shot me in the chest. [...] Blood gushed dramatically frm my open wound, then from my eyes, my ears, my mouth." (p. 5). Cadence  Spends her summers at the family island, Beechwood, together with her cousins, Mirren, Gat and Johnny who she calls her Liars.
She suffers from post traumatic headaches (PTHA) because of an accident that happened in june of summer fifteen.

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Cadence likes fudge from Edgartown and mentiones it repeatedly throughout the book.

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She/her
- Cadence's mother
- Protective of her daughter
- Materialistic
- Has strict rules

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He/him
- Married a Sinclair
- Doesn't like dogs
- Had to pretend to like the other Sinclairs
- Couldn't/Wouldn't pretend anymore, so he left his daughter and wife

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- Married to Tipper Sinclair
- Father of Penny, Carrie and Bess, who he loves incredibly much
- The grandfather of Cadence, Johnny, Mirren and Gat
- Inherited house and land, invested wisely and became rich
- Likes Crackerjacks

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- Died a few months prior to Summer fifteen
- Has a room full of fabrics and quilts she loved to craft with

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- Johnny and Wills mother

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He/him
- Johnny and Will's step dad
- Left Carrie while she was pregnant with Will
- Art dealer
- Adored the kids

Appearance:
- Tall, slim
- Dark skin, Indian heritage
- Glasses
- Dapperly clothed

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Mirren is the oldest child of Bess, sister of the twins, Bonnie and Liberty, and Taft. She is sweet, caring and loving. She loves Cady a lot, even shouting it out over seas. Sometimes she becomes rather protective of Cadence, and her bossiness comes to light, for she is a bit bossy.  She loves swimming too, and is often shown to be wearing a bikini.
During summer seventeen she becomes sick. We later learn that this is because of Cadence remembering the truth.

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Contemplation and enthusiasm, ambition and strong coffee.

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Gat is Ed's nephew, in one way making him a sort of cousin to the rest of the Liars, even though he never was and never will be a Sinclair. He is a curious person, interested in learning more about the world. Gat seems like a deep thinker who likes to dive into philosphy and discuss issues in the world. He is Cadence's love interest, and returns this love despite having a girlfriend. His girlfriend is from New York, where he lives with his mom the rest of the year.

Cadence describes his appearace more than any of the other Liars. She points out his dramatic nose and sweet mouth. His broad shoulders, black hair and brown eyes. She also mentiones his deep brown, smooth skin and the scar through his eyebrow repeatedly throughout the book. This is important, and will come back later.

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He/Him
- Johnny's brother
- Same age as Taft
- Very clearly a Sinclair

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She/her
- Neat freak

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First summer Gat was at Beechwood.

This was the first time Cadence met Gat, and we can tell they like each other from the very first moment. Even though the audience doesn't know it yet, it's the beginning of their love story.

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He/him
- Mirrens brother
- Younger than the twins, 10 years old in summer seventeen
- Worried that Cady might be a drug addict

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She/her
- Twins
- Sisters of Mirren
- 14 years old in summer seventeen
- Possibly kleptomaniacs, stealing things and snooping around

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Gat and Cadence have their first kiss during summer fifteen. What makes this special is how they seemed romantically interested in eachother the previous summer, but in the meantime Gat had gotten himself a girlfriend, Raquel. Despite this, Gat ends up kissing Cadence, and leaves the reader with a changed view of Gat and Cadence as characters. One could speculate how much blame to put on Gat, as we can see some manipulation from Cadence before the kiss.

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The first explanation of Cadences accident

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The first explanation of Cadences accident

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Cadence believes she went swimming in late July of summer fifteen, late at night in her clothes. She woke up at a hospital with hypothermia, respiratory problems and head injury. This is the way she remembers the accident, and is why she believes she has PTHA. Cadence is convinced that she never truly recovered, she always feels cold, and that the accident is why Gat left her.

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The narrative point of view in this book is first person, through Cadence Sinclair. This puts the reader in a position where we only experience what Cadence chooses to share with us, and we have no idea what goes on inside the other characters minds. This affects the story in a way that makes it subjective, and biased, seeing as everything we get to know is tinted with Cadence's opinions. For instance the situation with Cadence loving Gat, while he has a girlfriend, would most have been very different if it was told by Gat or an omniscient narrator. When we are trapped in Cadence's mind it gives a very limited view of the world. E. Lockhart might have chosen this, as it could be necessary to communicate the desired message of the book. As we get further into the book, we learn that Cadence suffers some kind of trauma and selective amnesia. This makes her an unreliable narrator, and makes the reader wonder how much of the story is real.

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The tone of the book is rather gloomy, borderline creepy and has hints of fake perfection. This is shown through the contrasting destrciption of how the Sinclairs portray themselves in the eye of the public, and the sad experiences of Cadence. This gives the reader a sense of distrust or insecurity, the lies about a fake perfection that is meant to cover up a dark, hidden truth. The author might have made the tone gloomy and mysterious to foreshadow the tragic ending of the book. One could argue that having a positive and happy tone in the start of the book would be a contrast to the end, and that the sudden twist of tone could make the book interesting. This is not the case for We Were Liars though, and the tone works well in creating suspense towards the end. We know something is wrong, but not quite what.

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"Grief is an important part of moving on that needs to be embraced."
Why do I think this? The family is covering up or "erasing" people who leave the family one way or another, and it leaves them miserable. We see this through how Cadence feels sad or awkward around dinner when Gat brings up her dad or their grandma, and how nobody else brings them up in the first place. Another thing is the way her mother tells her to not be sad about her grandmother, concealing the grief and acting as if everything is fine.
Why is this in the book, how does it relate to the real world?
This could be a commentary on how society seems to move on from events quickly. Although this book was written in 2014, it is very much relevant for later years as well. Social media consumes events and disposes of them just as quickly, and this affects how we live our lives as well. Maybe the writer wants us to embrace greif as part of moving on, rather than just covering up the uncomfortable feelings,

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"Money and status can't fix all your problems"
Why do I think this?
Most of the family members seem miserable despite their wealth and high status in society. Cadence's father left the family because of the immense pressure of living like a Sinclair, that the social status of the family created more problems than what he thought was worth it. Despite the wealth that Cadence is surrounded by, she still goes through a lot of suffering. Whether that be gloomy melancholy or physical trauma to her body, it still reflects on how her high social status and rich family doesn't make her life as perfect as they try to make it seem.
Why is this a theme in the book, how does it relate to the real world?
This could be a commentary on modern capitalism, and materialism. How a modern life in the rich part of the world often revolves around materialistic values, like having the newest phone or most expensive sweater with the most famous brand. The book may be an attempt to show us how these things don't actually fix any of the "real" problems, that no matter how rich you are you can still experience a life altering accident, or that the price for a high social status is higher than one might expect.

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"You don't have to love your biological family."
Why do I think this?
Cadence seems to dislike her biological family, as she is not best friends with either of her parents or aunts, yet she loves Gat and who he is because he is so different from the Sinclairs. Perhaps she will leave the family altogether, as she seems to loathe everything the Sinclair family really is: snobby stuck up rich people pretending to be better than everyone else, when they in reality are struggling emotionally just as much as any other family.
Why is this a theme in the book, how does it relate to the real world?
This theme could be a message to adolescents who are figuring themselves out. That the struggle many teens and young adults seem to face when it comes to family is okay, and that it's okay to want to stray from the family's values if they don't align with one's own.

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We Were Liars is a book about the Sinclair family, and the Liars: Cadence, Mirren, Gat and Johnny. They spend their summers on Beechwood Island, an island owned by their grandfather.

" We are liars
We are beautiful and privileged
We are cracked and broken
A tale of love and romance
A tale of tragedy

Which are lies?
Which are truth?
You decide"

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The book was written in 2014 by the american author Emily Jenkins, whose pen name is E. Lockhart. She has also written other books, such as Again Again, Genuine Fraud and The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

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The main setting.
This setting is described in a positive way, as this wonderful place. Cadence seems to love being here, looking forward to every summer. She was sad that summer she couldn't go, and begged her mother to let her come in summer seventeen. The island could symbolise quite a lot of things. To Cadence it could be freedom and love, because this is where she hangs out with the Liars and the rest of the family. It could also symbolise privilege and materialism.  In the book, Gat points out how absurd it is to own an island, which makes the reader think about it, because it really is weird how we claim ownership of land that shouldn't belong to anyone.

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A secondary setting of the book.
Cadence doesn't seem to like her home. She for the most part talks about her pain at home. She doesn't have her friends, the Liars, and doesn't get along with her mom very well. Her room is stripped of unnecessary materialistic things. The rest of the house, on the other hand, is full of items and expensive art that represents materialism and wealth. Cadence gives the reader an impression of this place as suffocating and painful, that she would rather be at the island with Gat, Mirren and Johnny. The house is tied to the theme of materialism and wealth, that money isn't everything in life and she still suffers when surrounded by an excess of everything.

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The purple dots look like they're of different sizes because of the green dots (the context), when in reality they're the same size.

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The importance of historical and cultural context of a book really depends on the book. The context of a book like Uncle Bob's Cabin is vastly important and explicitly engaged with,  but in a book like the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy might not be as relevant, or at least not as obviously engaged with. Sometimes the context of what time a book was written, and what state of the world was in at that time, the message can make more sense. For example, a book about isolation would make a lot more sense if it was written in 2020s, post-pandemic, rather than 2018, pre-pandemic. The context would be that of quarantine and isolation due to the Covid-19 pandemic, thus the book written in/after 2020 engages with a prominent issue of the real world. Meanwhile the book in 2018 would still engage with the topic of isolation, it wouldn't have been such a big issue back then as it is now.

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The extent of which a book can give insight to real world issues, once again, depends on what kind of book it is. A book like The Hate U Give gives insight to what life is like for a young black american, and the book really makes the reader feel what that life is like. Other books though, such The Lord Of the Rings series, being a fantasy story, doesn't immideately reflect or give insight to real world issues. What is unique about litterature and books is that you can get a first person view, unlike videos or pictures, where you have to guess what a person i feeling. In a book you get a special connection to the characters, and you can understand them a lot better and feel their emotions a lot deeper.

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We approach texts from different cultures really quite depends. We can meet them with curiousity, caution, sometimes we have expectations and prejudices that may be challenged. A person from working class in Norway could probably learn more about the life as a wealthy, white teenager in the US from reading We Were Liars. That book might be approached with a negative prejudices, as the media portrays rich americans in a negative way: stuck up, snobby, egoistic and priviliged. (Moreso than norwegian teens anyway) Meanwhile, we might approach a book like The Hate U Give with fear or sympathy. You could fear finding an uncomfortable and borderline terrifying truth about life as a young black american. You could feel sympathy for the pain, and by reading a book instead of watching a movie you could get closer to empathising too. There is a lot of stereotypes and media influence that can determine the way we approach certain books.

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There are a few prominent real-world social issues in We Were Liars, one of which is the toxicity of privilege. Now, this issue is a very complex one with other underlying and interconntected issues, such as racism and social inequality. The family calls themselves democrats, which would make you think they care about social inequality and the ever growing gap between rich and poor in USA. This is an issue in real life, as stated by political scientist Robert D. Putnam in a documentary series from NRK in 2020, the gap between rich and poor in America has only been growing for the past thirty years. This statement is supported by an article from The Guardian, by Bernie Sanders from 2021, where statistics show that the top 1% of American citizens own more wealth than the bottom 92%, which is completely absurd.  Seeing as the Sinclar family has immense wealth, and don't seem do be doing anything actively about the social gap, it doesn't add up when they call themselves democrats.
The issue of privilege also ties in to white privilege and racism. There's no question about whether or not racism is an issue in the US. It's a fact, proven by the BLM protests from 2020, sparked by the murder of George Floyd, further fueled by the media bringing attention to death of Breonna Taylor. This issue can be seen in the book by the way Harris reacts to seeing Gat and Cady kissing in the attic. Gat as a character could symbolize all non-whites and inmigrants, and show the minor (and major) struggles of prejudice they face.

Sources:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/mar/29/rich-poor-gap-wealth-inequality-bernie-sanders
https://tv.nrk.no/serie/uxa-thomas-seltzers-amerika/sesong/1/episode/1/avspiller

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"If you want to live where people are not afraid of mice, you must give up living in palaces."
This quote refers to Gat (the non-white character) as the mouse, and Clairmont with Harris as the people living in palaces afraid of mice, drawing the parallell to Harris' racist behavious toward Gat.

"You choose Ed; you choose to live with him. You choose to bring Gat here every summer, when you know he's not one of us" Bess tells Carrie. This could be simply referring to the fact that Ed and Gat are not Sinclairs, but it could also be interpreted as the "us vs them" mentality of racism. Even if we ignore the racist undertones, they still are not Sinclairs, which puts them in a lower social group and illustrates the social divide between rich and poor in the US.

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Gat and Cadence have a really complicated relationship.
In the book we get a hint to their special connection at their very first meet in summer eight. Cadence starts describing her crush on him during summer fourteen, which later developed into some deep and intense love during summer fifteen. Things seemed to be going well, until we learn about his New York Girlfriend Raquel. Their relationship take a turn for the worse after this, and as if that wasn't enough Cadence also has her accident the same year.
They didn't meet during summer sixteen, due to Cadence going to Europe with her dad, and Gat never responded or reached out to her.
When summer seventeen comes, Gat is the one to reach out to Cadence. This is new, as the previous times it's been Cadence reaching out to Gat. This leaves Cadence confused and conflicted. He's been acting distant for the past two years, and she's been doing her best to get over him. She's angry with him, and yet she loves him and agrees to start over.
Gat starts going on and on about how she doesn't know him, or not all of him anyway. He keeps apologizing, without telling Cady why, which drives her crazy.

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paralyzing pain,

popping pills,

pretending to be fine.

my brain, liquid.

my skull, broken.

my body, paralyzed.

oozing.

cracking.

nauseating.

medications

or drugs?

addictive.

normality,

unachievable.

im sick.

paralyzed by pain,

popping my pills,

i pretend to be fine.

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The dragon fairytale
In this fairytale, a king sends his three daughters, one by one, to a dragon, who ends up eating them all. It ends with the question of "who killed the daughters, the king or the dragon?"  This could be a symbol of how Harris could be dooming his own daughters by spoiling them with toxic privilege.

The tiny princess and the mouse
In this fairytale, a tiny and forgotten princess falls in love with a mouse, and the couple is banished because the mouse is viewed as a filthy animal despite displaying great intelligence.
This could symbolize the love between Cadence, the firstborn grandchild who's got some disability (PTHA), and Gat, the intelligent and enthusiastic boy who happens to be of non-american ethnicity. The grandfather (king) is clearly upset when he sees Gat (the mouse) kissing his Cadence (tiny princess)

In the later fairytales the paralells become more obvious.

The three beautiful children and the witch
In this fairytale there are three beautiful children, and a witch the same age. The witch curses the children, that when they turn 16 they will play with a match and end up dying in a fire. The parents then move the children to an island, to protect them from any and all fire. Right before the childrens sixteenth birthday, the witch appears and gives them a box of matches and tells them fire is beautiful.
The three children are described with the same words Cadence uses for Mirren, Gat and Johnny, which ties them together. The witch symbolises Cadence herself, as she views herself as a "bad guy" of the liars, taking the  blame for burning down Clairmont and the dogs.
The witch in the fairytale burning the children is a kind of foreshadowing, seeing as Cadence was the only one who survived the Clairmont Fire, and she takes the blame or won't accept the truth.

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The main theme of this book is similar to the second emerging theme: "Money and status can't fix all your problems."
The theme of We Were Liars is the destructive and poisonous nature of privilege, and the greed that comes with it.
This theme shows itself throughout the book, and relates to the main event: The fire that burns down Clairmont. The Liars burnt down the house because of what it symbolised, precisely wealth and privilege. If it wasn't for the privilege of the Sinlcair family, the privilege of having their own island, their own houses on said island, and all the expensive items in said houses, the Liars wouldn't have felt the need to burn it down. They wouldn't have had the long conversation and discussion that eventually lead to the planning and execution of setting fire to the house, if it wasn't for what it represented. This shows the destructive power of privilege.
The poisonous power is shown through the deteriorating family. The aunties grow bitter, Harris grows manupilative, the twins grow cleptomanic and Cadence breaks. The aunties fight over materialistic, privileged values such as the houses, or their shares of the inheritence. Harris manipulates his daughters because of their arguing, making them defend their points of view and doing things for him. The twins aren't satisfied with all they have, and begin stealing things.
Cadence learns about the dark nature of priviege as she learns the truth about Clairmont. She sees how her family is rotting and falling apart due to their greed, wealth and priviledge. She gives away all her belongings, as a way to fight this, living more minimalistic than materialistic. The characters poisoned with privilege act in unethical ways, with their fighting and demands, only thinking of themselves because they are poisoned. At the end of the story Cadence sees the consequences of her greed-driven actions, and tries to become a better person. As previously mentioned, she gives away her belonging to charities or other people who might need them. This message of poisonous and destructive privilege and greed really sticks with the reader after finishing the book.
This theme could be in the book to illustrate issues the real world, such as the massive social divide between the rich and poor in the US, or the racism that has spawned white privilege. This is how E. Lockhart relates the book to real life.

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The traumatic accident is in reality a housefire Cadence sets together with the Liars, where she is the only one who survives. She blames herself for killing the others and the guilt is too much to handle. She spends the next two summers pretending that the others are alive, as a coping mechanism. It's not until the end of summer seventeen that she remembers. This is why she is convinced Gat left her, or that she's confused as to why Johnny and Mirren don't answer her e-mails. She doesn't want to, or can't, accept the truth and therefore believes them into existence.
After the accident the entire family falls apart. Their ultimate symbol of wealth has been demolished, and it takes a big toll on their identities. The aunties start drinking and arguing, Harris becomes grumpy and manipluative, the littles seem to be afraid of Cady. Her father leaves the family because he can't handle the toxicity anymore. Cadence has been unaware of this for years, and when she finally remembers what happened, it breaks her: "I crawl indoors and up to my bedroom on hands of cracked ice, trailing shards of my frozen body behind me"

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Cadence's abstract descriptions of the world

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Cadence's abstract descriptions of the world

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Throughout the book Cadence describes her perception of the world in abstract ways.

The pain of her dad leaving
She describes this event as him shooting her in the chest, but there is no way he really did that. This is Cadence's way of describing her abstract feelings, such as pain, in a way that the reader can understand how deeply hurt she is.

The different headaches
Multiple times in the book Cadence describes her headaches with her brain melting or oozing, as well as her skull cracking open. The ways her skull cracks changes. Once she tells the reader that she imagines someone breaking her skull open with a dull axe, repeatedly swinging the axe down, not always hitting the same spot. She says there are different people doing it, sometimes herself, other times her grandpa. Again, these are metaphors to make the reader get a deeper understaning of her pain and suffering.