‘We Were Liars’ Summary and Book Spoilers: What Happens?

Warning: This story has spoilers for E. Lockhart’s book “We Were Liars.”

Imagine if you couldn’t remember your family’s biggest secret. In E. Lockhart’s young adult novel “We Were Liars,” protagonist Cadence is faced with this exact reality.

More than 10 years after the psychological thriller was published in 2014, “We Were Liars” is making its way to the small screen as a limited series, dropping June 18 on Prime Video.

Though the series will mirror the book in many ways, Lockhart tells TODAY.com that the series has some changes.

“The TV show has to open up the book. There are deeper stories for Cadence’s friends, for her love interest and also for the moms,” Lockhart tells TODAY.com.

Lockhart says showrunners Julie Plec and Carina Adly Mackenzie hold onto “the feeling of the novel” while also broadening it by creating two timelines. The series flips between a “magical summer where Cadence and Gat fall in love and she’s in a place of innocence,” according to Lockhart, and then her reality after she has a terrible accident.

“That later timeline, everything is from Cadence’s perspective. You can only see what she can see. But back in the memory section, it’s a broader scope,” Lockhart says.

That’s how the book compares to the show — but if you’re after book spoilers, keep reading for a refresher on all the heart-wrenching moments from the novel before diving into the show.

What is ‘We Were Liars’ About?

The Sinclairs are what one might call rich rich. And every summer, three generations of Sinclairs come together on Beechwood Island, a fictional private island off the coast of Massachusetts.

There’s Grandad, who’s widowed; his three daughters, Penny, Carrie and Bess, who are all separated from their husbands; and the seven kids between them. One of those children is Cadence.

Cadence, along with Mirren and Johnny, her two older cousins, and Gat, the son of her aunt’s boyfriend, make up what the family calls the Liars.

In the beginning of the novel, we find out that Cadence and Gat fell in love when she was 14, despite Grandad’s dislike of Gat and Gat’s father due to their South Asian heritage.

But the following summer, there was a tragic accident of some sort. While Cadence can’t remember what happened that summer, she has migraines to show for what must have been a terrible ordeal that left her with a severe head injury.

The summer after her accident, Cadence’s father decides to take her on a trip to Europe, where she writes to the Liars repeatedly, but receives no reply. Frustrated with her inability to remember what happened two summers ago and even more frustrated with her cousins for ignoring her emails, Cadence insists on spending “summer 17” on the island. Reluctantly, her parents agree to let her spend the first month of summer on Beechwood Island with the rest of her family, but it’s clear that a lot has changed since she’s last been on the compound.

For one, the old Victorian house where Grandad and Granny used to live has been entirely rebuilt. Additionally, her first interactions with her aunts and cousins are awkward.

The only thing that is seemingly normal about this summer is that her relationships with the Liars feel like no time has passed. And the bunch agree that this summer, they’ll distance themselves from the rest of the family and just stick together. Over the course of her time on the island, Cadence’s begins to remember what happened two summers ago — and it’s more horrible than anyone could have imagined.

What Happens at the End of ‘We Were Liars’?

As memories come back to Cadence in bits and pieces, no one is willing to help her stitch together the full picture. Whenever she asks anyone about what happened on the island two years ago, including the Liars, she gets nothing but empty half answers.

But suddenly, it all starts coming back.

The same summer as the accident, Cadence recalls Grandad and his three daughters arguing about the family home in Boston. Also, one of her aunts was very unhappy about the condition of her home on the island.

Toward the end of the novel, the memories begin to rush in for Cadence. There had been an ugly family spat over Grandad’s inheritance, with his three daughters all vying for the best portion. With tensions high, Grandad and the aunts all leave the island to cool off, and the Liars decide to take matters into their own hands,

Fed up with their parents’ and Grandad’s fighting, the Liars, while intoxicated, set fire to the home thinking that if no one could inherit it, then they’d ease the family’s financial tensions.

But something went terribly wrong — and Cadence was partially responsible. As the other Liars poured gasoline all over the house, Cadence threw a lit match on the floor while they were still inside. The entire ground floor of the home caught fire before the other three Liars and the two family dogs could escape, making Cadence the lone survivor of the accident.

Finally, Cadence remembers in her own time what occurred two summers ago. Back then, her doctors advised her parents to let her remember the incident on her own, because when anyone reminded her of it, she would spiral into emotional turmoil, which no doubt contributed to her migraines.

As for her interactions with the Liars all summer? Cadence had been seeing them as ghosts because her subconscious wasn’t yet ready to let them go.

In the end, at one of the homes on the island, affectionately named Cuddletown, Cadence says her final goodbye to the Liars, whose spirits she finally lays to rest.