Spoiler alert! Major spoilers ahead for the We Were Liars book and TV series streaming with an Amazon Prime Video subscription. Do not read ahead if you don’t want to know the story’s big twist.
We Were Liars has remained a popular choice for YA readers since E. Lockhart published it in 2014, and now we’re getting to see the Sinclairs’ story come to life in the book-to-screen adaptation. Whether you read the book first or skipped straight to the series, both audiences seem to have one thing in common —- nobody is prepared for We Were Liars’ twist ending, and those who are learning for the first time what happened to Cadence in Summer 16 are having some pretty extreme reactions.
Turn back now if you want to avoid spoilers, because it’s about to get real. We Were Liars centers around 17-year-old Cadence (Emily Alyn Lind), who returns to her family’s island a year after suffering a head injury and enlists the help of her cousins Mirren (Esther McGregor) and Johnny (Joseph Zada) and friend Gat (Shubham Maheshwari) to help her remember. All eight episodes were released to the 2025 TV schedule at once, and it seems that some who hit play for a fun summer binge didn’t realize what was about to happen:
The teen mystery takes a dark turn as Cadence comes to remember in the final episode that the Liars (the quartet's collective nickname) had set fire to their grandfather’s house, but she was the only one who made it out alive. If not a horror movie, as the TikToker above said, it was definitely horrifying, and over on X, people were having the same reaction:
- The ending of We Were Liars got me all fcked up. bawled my eyes out, I was not ready.. that’s why they never visited or called.. they couldn’t 😭 – AylinLims
- No one told me that THAT was the plot twist of We Were Liars WTF?!?!? – not_a_fan_of_Yo
- I can’t get over this ending it left me sobbing, sad and it broke me😭 i went in to this show so blind. one of the saddest fcking storylines making go through all the stages of grief ffs – kaii_jae127
- Next time I decide to watch a show that is based off of a book, I'm going to need to read the book first to know what I'm getting myself into, because We Were Liars completely wrecked me 😭 – DianaMariel12
I’m sorry to say, my friend, but I can tell you from experience that reading the book first wouldn’t have made it a whole lot easier.
While it can surely be debated whether the E. Lockhart novel was better or the show, both were really good at keeping that twist a secret until the end. Even though I knew what was coming this time around, I admit the ending hit pretty hard, especially these moments:
I am kind of mad at this TikToker for saying, “4 of them died, but only 3 stopped breathing.” Why are you trying to make me cry in the middle of a workday?
Over on another TikTok post, victims of the Prime Video series were trauma bonding over comments like:
- The way I ugly cried. It destroyed me. DESTROYED 😭 – L Pearce
- I thought it was a cute little mysterious summer show I was wrong 😔🔫 – Madison b
- Yep. Just finished it. And I’m a wreck…. – SunflowrMelly
- THE WAY MY MOUTH DROPPED AND I INSTANTLY STARTED CRYING – Stmxo
- “What’s your favorite horror movie?” – piper!
There’s no denying the We Were Liars TV series was intense. Even having read the book first, I was distraught seeing it play out on my TV, and I completely understand the anguish people are feeling over what happened to the Liars.
If you haven't yet experienced We Were Liars for yourself or you want to watch the mystery unfold one more time, all eight episodes of the adaptation can be streamed now on Prime Video.
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