|
|
| E. Lockheart (photo: Heather Weston) |
|
E. Lockhart is the author of We Were Liars and its prequel, Family of Liars. Her other books include Genuine Fraud, Again Again, Fly on the Wall, Dramarama, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks (a National Book Award finalist and Printz Honor Book), and the Ruby Oliver Quartet. Lockhart holds a doctorate in English literature from Columbia University and lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. We Were Liars has became extremely popular on BookTok, and a TV series based on the book debuted in June 2025. The third book in the Liars series, We Fell Apart (Delacorte), is out now.
When We Were Liars came out in 2014, it received all the awards and honors. Now, it's having a whole second life. How does it feel to be a BookTok celebrity?
Basically, I feed on people's tears like an emotional vampire, and it keeps my skin looking really, really good. We Were Liars blew up on BookTok in 2020, and I think the reason was that it's a cathartic read. People were isolated and disconnected, so they were hungry to read books that offered big emotions. The response to the TV show based on the book has been the same. Lots of tears, and lots of people watching it a second time, a third, a 10th.
Was it that resurgence of excitement that led to Family of Liars, the TV series, and now We Fell Apart? Or were those already in the works?
In 2020, I published a book I felt very proud of (Again Again) and it hadn't found its audience. At all. At the same time, I had a bestseller with We Were Liars. I knew what a gift it was to have readers, especially readers who were making creative videos in response to a story of mine. I wanted to give them something back, so I wrote Family.
Did you know the background described in Family of Liars while writing We Were Liars?
I made it all up later.
In the bonus material at the end of Family of Liars, you say that the idea for the book came to you through focusing on Beechwood Island being "a place that welcomes ghosts." How did the idea for We Fell Apart come to you?
I got the idea for We Fell Apart when visiting the now-derelict summer home of a famous architect. It had towers like a castle, a circular pool, guesthouses and outhouses in massive states of disrepair, and an overgrown garden. I felt like I was walking into a novel, and I started writing that night.
We Fell Apart and Martha's Vineyard, where it takes place, has such a different vibe from Beechwood. How do you think readers will react to this expansion in the way you approach wealth, family, race, and relationships?
To me, it's the same vibe--a beachy gothic story full of love and mystery that's narrated by a passionate, difficult girl, centered on her relationship to her family and the deep friendships that form on a summer vacation, seeded through with fairy tales that offer insights into the true nature of the situation. The racial tensions that thread through We Were Liars are less of a focus, but the homophobia and misogyny that thread through Family of Liars are certainly part of We Fell Apart, too. Like the other books, it's about a patriarchal family structure that causes a lot of damage.
Matilda is unlike your previous protagonists; she's dealing with many of the same things that Cadence and Carrie did but ultimately takes very different steps. How did you develop Matilda?
Both Carrie and Cadence are insiders to a world of wealth and privilege. They come to an understanding of the way that has shaped their characters and figure out who they want to be. In contrast, Matilda has been raised by a single mom with very little money, so when she comes to the island to meet the father she's never known, she's an outsider to the life he's built, where he's the king of this strange and beautiful castle. Matilda is more like me.
What are you hoping readers take with them from We Fell Apart?
I hope the story is propulsive and highly emotional, but I don't write for my readers to have a simple takeaway. A story is sticky when it's complicated.
How do you feel about We Fell Apart?
It's my most romantic novel, and I'm proud of that.
Is there anything else you'd like to tell readers or anything you're working on that you'd like to discuss?
If you've never read anything by me, you can start with We Fell Apart. It links up with We Were Liars and Family of Liars, but it can stand alone. --Siân Gaetano, children's and YA editor, Shelf Awareness