Every summer, the “Liars” (aka the wealthy Sinclair cousins, Cadence, Mireen, Johnny, plus Johnny’s Indian BFF named Gat) would hang out on a private island together.
Their Granddad passed his blood and inheritance to his three lovely daughters (and no sons). Cadence’s dad loved her mom, but eventually he felt like he had enough with pretending to like his in-laws and be a part of the “perfect” family, so he left for another woman. Cadence graphically describes her feelings when he left as him pulling out a handgun and shooting her in the heart.
Throughout the book, we are mainly wondering two things:
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Caddy keeps mentioning how she now has constant migraines due to an accident that happened on the island two summers ago. What happened in this accident?
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Caddy has feelings for Gat, even though he is the only person of color who she pays attention to (as she’s never even learned the names of the two colored servants who’ve worked on the island summer after summer), and she knows nothing of his life back home other than the fact that he has a girlfriend (Racquel). After all, it’s revealed that Mireen has made up a fantasy of losing her virginity to an imaginary boyfriend back home so that she can pretend to be whoever she wants to be on the island for a bit, so who’s to say that Gat is who he says he is? Is Gat’s summer fling with Caddy something that will last, or will he stick with Racquel?
In the end, we find out the answers…
Two summers ago, Caddy started a house fire. She was able to escape, but everyone else who was inside burned to death (including Mireen, Johnny, Gat, and several golden retrievers). Caddy was taken to a hospital and recovered, other than having a mysterious condition of constant migraines that doctors can’t seem to treat. Every day, she asks her mom about what happened, and her mom tells her, but the next day Caddy forgets again. The doctors believe that she’s unconsciously blocking out the horrendous memories and that her migraines are due to her grief. The doctors urge her mother to stop retelling the story of the incident until Caddy remembers on her own and is thus ready to cope with the truth.
The following summer, Caddy goes on a trip to Europe with her father instead. She writes letters to Mireen and Johnny, but they don’t respond (because they’re dead).
The summer after that, Caddy’s allowed to go back to the island in hopes that this will help her find closure and finally move on. She eventually learns that Mireen, Gat, and Johnny are now ghosts, and it’s uncertain what their future would have been like if they lived. She says goodbye to them and finally finds closure.