My new book, Family of Liars, is full of secrets — fun, ugly, shocking, sad, you name it. If you’ve read We Were Liars, this book is a prequel to that one, set 27 years earlier (but you can read it on its own).
E Lockhart, Family of Liars
Family reveals all kinds of Sinclair family secrets you didn’t know about — and nearly everyone in the story is hiding one thing or another. Set on private, windswept Beechwood Island, the novel follows Carrie Sinclair and her younger sisters. Their lives are upended when a boatload of cute boys arrives to spend the summer.
Anyway, in honor of the new book, here are seven secrets about me that I’m ready to own up to.
I GOT FAMOUS ON TIKTOK WITHOUT BEING ON TIKTOK
You can find me on the platform now (@ELockhartBooks) but there are tons and tons of #booktok videos about We Were Liars, made by readers. Some of these readers are weeping copiously. Others are throwing the book across the room. Still others created aesthetics set to music. All these videos put the book back on the bestseller lists seven years after it was first published. I had nothing to do with it!
I HAVE CHRONIC PAIN
Like Cadence in We Were Liars, I suffer chronic pain — but while Cady has debilitating migraines and a subsequent Percocet addiction, I have pretty low-key muscle pain that doesn’t keep me down.
THE OCEAN FRIGHTENS ME
I can swim in the ocean — but being out in the middle of it, far from land, taps a deep fear in me. I exploited that fear multiple ways in Family of Liars.
I LOVE TO WRITE COMEDIES
We Were Liars was my first thriller, and my others are Family of Liars and Genuine Fraud — but a lot of my earlier books are comedies, like Again Again and The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks. I think the funny bits in the thrillers help create investment in the characters and provide a little relief from the anxiety you feel reading a page-turner.
I WAS THE LOSER OF MY COLLEGE FICTION-WRITING CLASS
My professor told me I would always be a B student and so he wasn’t bothering to read my work. I was devastated.
I LOVE BROADWAY MUSICALS
This is hardly a secret, since I wrote a book about it (Dramarama) — but people are often surprised that I’m such a musical geek. Current favorite soundtrack is Six, and I have tickets to see Beanie Feldstein in Funny Girl in NYC soon!
I GET THE BEST COMMENTS
For We Were Liars, people send me notes in this vein: “Just read WWL. Please pay for my therapy.” “Girlie I just read WWL for the 11th time and it doesn’t get any easier. What should I do?” “You broke me I am a wreck that was terrible OMG I love you.” This is the best kind of message an author could ever get and I feel very lucky.
