Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

This prequel to We Were Liars (2014) takes place in 1987 as 17-year-old Carrie Sinclair faces her first summer at the family’s Massachusetts vacation property without her youngest sister, Rosemary. Ten-year-old Rosemary drowned the previous summer while swimming alone. Carrie’s parents and remaining sisters, 16-year-old Penny and 14-year-old Bess, endure the loss with characteristic Sinclair stoicism, but Carrie finds it difficult to repress her sorrow, even with the aid of codeine pills to numb her pain. When Rosemary’s ghost appears to her, she is bewildered by the specter but accepts her intermittent appearances and comfortably mundane requests. Even more unexpected are the arrivals on Beechwood Island of George, Major, and Pfeff, friends of Carrie’s cousin Yardley. The boys’ presence, a deviation from the Sinclair family’s usual routine, sets into motion an unforeseen chain of events that ultimately entangles the three oldest Sinclair sisters. Lockhart’s stark, evocative prose captures the emotions of a grieving teenage girl paralyzed by the weight of her parents’ expectations and plagued by a perpetual sense of inadequacy. The novel is framed as a story that present-day Carrie tells the ghost of her deceased son, Johnny, who asks Carrie to reveal “the absolute worst thing you ever did, back then.” Her response is a haunting confession about family allegiances; the arbitrary rules of powerful, moneyed White families; and the strength required to bear witness to terrible truths. Beautiful and devastating. (family tree, map, author’s note) (Fiction. 13-18) Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

This prequel to We Were Liars (2014) takes place in 1987 as 17-year-old Carrie Sinclair faces her first summer at the familys Massachusetts vacation property without her youngest sister, Rosemary.Ten-year-old Rosemary drowned the previous summer while swimming alone. Carries parents and remaining sisters, 16-year-old Penny and 14-year-old Bess, endure the loss with characteristic Sinclair stoicism, but Carrie finds it difficult to repress her sorrow, even with the aid of codeine pills to numb her pain. When Rosemarys ghost appears to her, she is bewildered by the specter but accepts her intermittent appearances and comfortably mundane requests. Even more unexpected are the arrivals on Beechwood Island of George, Major, and Pfeff, friends of Carries cousin Yardley. The boys presence, a deviation from the Sinclair familys usual routine, sets into motion an unforeseen chain of events that ultimately entangles the three oldest Sinclair sisters. Lockharts stark, evocative prose captures the emotions of a grieving teenage girl paralyzed by the weight of her parents expectations and plagued by a perpetual sense of inadequacy. The novel is framed as a story that present-day Carrie tells the ghost of her deceased son, Johnny, who asks Carrie to reveal the absolute worst thing you ever did, back then. Her response is a haunting confession about family allegiances; the arbitrary rules of powerful, moneyed White families; and the strength required to bear witness to terrible truths.Beautiful and devastating. (family tree, map, authors note) (Fiction. 13-18) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Horn Book
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

This formidable prequel to We Were Liars (rev. 5/14), focusing on the wealthy Sinclair family a generation before that novel's events, opens with a harsh truth, and a spoiler. Johnny, one of the cousins of the first book's protagonist, appears as a ghost to his mother, narrator Carrie, on the family's private island. With the promise to tell him "the worst thing [she] ever did" as a framing device, Carrie flashes back to reveal many of the dark secrets and lies she had helped to perpetuate over the years. In 1987 on the island, seventeen-year-old Carrie is deeply saddened about the drowning death of her youngest sister (the first ghost to appear to her); recovering from the surgery on which her father has insisted to correct her jawline; and beginning a protracted dependence on painkillers and sedatives. Carrie is swept off her feet by Pfeff, a charming, impulsive cad who betrays her in what she feels is the worst possible way. The violent consequences entail a massive cover-up that requires full utilization of the Sinclairs' good standing, privilege, and cunning. The engrossing narration, full of fairy-tale references and family mottos ("Never complain, never explain"), is neither reliable nor neatly wrapped up, but the novel is uncomfortably thought-provoking. The story (understandable on its own but richer when read after We Were Liars) asks readers to consider hard questions and is impossible to put down. (c) Copyright 2023. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.