Young Adult Book Reviews

Genre: Realistic Fiction

In this companion to We Were Liars, Matilda discovers the father she has never known, renowned artist Kingsley Cello, has asked to meet her after all this time and invites her to his reclusive home by the sea. Her mother has always been a bit flaky and after moving to be with yet another new love interest, Matilda actually opts to stay with the previous love interest to finish high school. Besides, Saar Adler, the most recent boyfriend, has always been more of a parent to her than either of her real parents. Saar is concerned about Matilda traveling so far to meet someone who has wanted nothing to do with her until this point. Her mother also advises against meeting Kingsley but says if he offers her a painting she should take it and sell it.

When Matilda arrives at the airport she quickly realizes that the directions she has been given are very confusing and she has trouble finding a cab willing to take her. Upon arrival she meets her half brother she has never known, Meer, who welcomes her with open arms. A former child star, Brock, and a wild card Tatum also live with Kingsley and his mom in their beachside house, which appears to be crumbling around them. Kingsley is not there to greet Matilda, however, and they all tell her that he is a free spirit and often leaves with no notice of when he will return. They lock up her electronics without her permission and declare it is a screen free home. As much as Matilda does not feel comfortable or included, she is determined to make the best of this since she has traveled so far. As she gets to know the inhabits of this house it becomes clear that there are a lot of unsaid things between the inhabitants and she starts to suspect they are not telling her the truth about where Kingsley is.

This story takes place right after the events of We Were Liars, which is located on an island across the water from where Kingsley’s house is. Everyone is pretty shaken up by what happened on the Sinclair island, but all for different reasons. In this story, everyone does appear to be lying about a lot of things and it starts to become hazy why Matilda was invited here at all if everyone was just going to lie to her about everything. The characters do become more distinguishable as the story plays out and the final resolution will help everything come together. Lockhart has a way of creating unusual settings with unique characters that readers get pulled into and want to know more about.