Let me first start out by saying I am usually a slow reader. And by slow reader I mean it usually takes me anywhere from three days to a week to finish a book (I have the attention span of a goldfish). I like to take breaks and make it last. I let it marinate in my brain for a some time before I finish it. This book, however, took me five hours to read.

I still can't exactly pinpoint what about this book kept me so intrigued the whole 228 pages. E. Lockhart has this style of writing that makes the pages just fly by. Her chapters are around two or three pages giving lots of opportunities for cliffhangers. Lockhart beautifully ended each chapter with something that made you absolutely have to continue on to the next page.

First, I'd like to talk about the plot as a whole. Lockhart nailed this. She faultlessly created this seemingly perfect and privileged white family living off of their wealthy father's fortune. The novel follows three sisters with nothing to their name except a trust fund and tireless hunger to be seen as most worthy of their crazy father's money. The sisters live together on their own private island each summer with their families and their father. Outsiders look at them as a perfect family that has it all. But from page one we see that this lifestyle is not as attractive as they make it seem.

Divorce, debt, and addiction cripple the family. The children of the family - the Liars - use this summer trip to tighten their bond and change the course of the family history. They see the bad in their families. They see the lack of love and care everyone has for one another. They see the painstaking sacrifices that they all take to put on a smile and act "normal". So many times throughout the novel, we see Cadenence, the main character, being told to act normal and to pull herself together. And she does. Even when her father leaves her and her mother she is forced to move on and put it behind her.

Throughout the novel we see how toxic this family is. Each sister puts their trust fund and their hope for inheriting their father's money before their children. They are so caught up in being perfect that they fail to see how unhappy their children are. They pay the ultimate price for this: they lose their children.

By the end of novel we find out that Johnny, Merren, and Gat died in the fire that the Liars started. The whole second half of the novel is focused around Cadenence gaining her knowledge of the summer they set their grandfather's house on fire two years ago. Readers are led to believe she is experiencing summer 17 with the Liars but in reality they were dead the whole time.

This is the part where I need some questions answered. The explanation can either go one of two ways. The first one being that the Liars that she hangs out with during summer 17 are just their ghosts. Their spirits are really there with her to help her remember what happened. This is the happier of the two explanations I can think of because it means they were truly there with her in spirit and they wanted to help her heal. She really got to spend time with them. Specifically, we see that Gat really is in love with her and wants to be with her. If we're using the ghost theory then we really see that he actually wants to be with her but he knows he can't.

The second explanation is a bit more dark. They are dead, obviously, but the visions she sees of them are exactly that. They are just visions. They are hallucinations from the medicine she is being put on. So how did that conversation with Gat when he broke her heart all over again happen? Why would she create him in her mind telling her that he took this too far and it needs to end? My best guess is that her subconscious is reinventing this idea of Gat. When Gat is saying sorry, it is really her subconscious apologizing to her for creating this hallucination so real and putting her through this.

Which theory do you prefer? I personally am attracted to both for different reasons. I love the sense of finality and peace that the ghost theory brings. But I also love the psychological standpoint of the hallucination theory. Either way, this book left me wanting more. 10/10.