This text accommodates spoilers for We Had been Liars.E. Lockhart’s We Had been Liars is the newest younger grownup literary phenomenon to obtain the book-to-screen remedy. Unpacking the scintillating mysteries of the rich Sinclair household and a darkly fateful summer season on their personal island, this new thriller sequence premiered on June 18, 2025. Giving teen drama, Succession-type household politics, and murder-mystery , We Had been Liars already has the web on hearth discussing the stunning ending (no pun supposed).
Nevertheless, as is to be anticipated, varied elements of We Had been Liars, together with its twisty ending, had been modified when the fabric was tailored to the display. Listed here are all the key variations between Lockhart’s authentic supply materials and the brand new teen sequence, which is now streaming on Prime Video.
What Occurs in ‘We Had been Liars’?
With a purpose to spotlight all of the variations between e-book and present, we first must briefly define what precisely goes down over the course of eight episodes and 320 pages of We Had been Liars. Our protagonist is 16-year-old Cadence Sinclair Eastman (Emily Alyn Lind), the eldest grandchild of and inheritor to the fortune of her grandfather, Harris Sinclair (David Morse). Cadence is considered one of many siblings and cousins throughout the vastly rich Sinclair household, a correct American dynasty. Each summer season, Cadence and her household spend time at their personal, idyllic (fictional) island referred to as Beechwood off of Martha’s Winery.
There, Cadence primarily hangs out with the opposite older cousins which can be her age — Johnny (Joseph Zada) and Mirren (Esther McGregor) — and their honorary cousin, Gat (Shubham Maheshwari), who Cadence begins an on-and-off summer season romance with on the finish of “Summer season 8” (as she labels every trip). This group refers to themselves as “The Liars,” and so they look ahead to coming to the island collectively greater than something yearly.
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Nevertheless, firstly of the sequence, we instantly study that Cadence, having washed up on the shore, is struggling extreme reminiscence loss for an unknown purpose. Cadence returns to Beechwood for “Summer season 17,” decided to search out out what she doesn’t bear in mind about final summer season on the island. Cadence’s mom makes everybody swear to let Cadence determine it out in her personal time, and over the course of the sequence, she makes an attempt to digest the reality and piece it collectively by speaking to her household and fellow Liars.
Basically, Cadence and the Liars, following eight episodes and 320 pages of familial drama, decide that it’s in everybody’s greatest curiosity to burn down the Beechwood home. Nevertheless, this goes horribly awry, and all of the Liars aside from Cadence are killed within the hearth. All season, any conversations she had with Gat, Johnny, or Mirren had been merely ghosts from her previous haunting her.
The Present Spans Much less Time
In comparison with the e-book, the timeline of Prime’s adaptation of We Had been Liars is consolidated fairly a bit. Within the e-book, the primary occasions of the story span from the loss of life of Grandma Tipper in Summer season 14 to Cadence returning in Summer season 17. The fireplace itself takes place in Summer season 15, then Cadence takes two summers to recuperate, spending time together with her father in Europe and nursing her wounds. Nevertheless, within the We Had been Liars TV sequence, your complete plot takes place over the course of Summer season 16 and 17.
Deeper and Totally different Characters
There are characters within the We Had been Liars novel which can be minimize from the present completely, equivalent to Mirren’s youthful brother Taft. Past that, all of the characters’ motivations and qualities are altered or deepened in ways in which weren’t within the authentic textual content.
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For instance, Johnny is explicitly homosexual within the present, whereas it was solely implied within the novel. Mirren’s romance with Ebon and Gat’s household is actualized in scenes, versus the e-book, the place they’re solely talked about. The Sinclair members of the family, significantly every of the matriarchs, are expanded upon as characters, offering extra context for the story’s final twist (the 2022 prequel novel Household of Liars lends a few of the juicy particulars right here).
A (Barely) Modified Ending
Whereas the character of the ending in each variations is similar, the ending of the We Had been Liars sequence differs somewhat from the e-book. The foremost distinction is that, within the e-book, the deaths that happen within the hearth (Johnny, Mirren, Gat, and the canines, which everybody brushes over, however they ought to not) are the direct results of errors made by Cadence. She used an excessive amount of gasoline, and the hearth raged quicker than anticipated, and since Cadence began the hearth on the mistaken facet of the home, it was inconceivable for the Liars to flee. The amnesia she suffers will not be solely because of her trauma, however her guilt.
Within the present, inversely, all of the Liars share some duty for the sudden severity of their hearth and the shortcoming to exit. Cadence tries to avoid wasting the canines (there we go), and every of the opposite Liars finally ends up inside the home through the inferno for their very own missions. Cadence is thrown into the water, which causes her to hit her head and wash up on the shore.
Whereas within the e-book it’s implied that her members of the family could know the hearth was her fault, they explicitly know within the present. They’ve merely agreed to let Cadence come to phrases with the reality in her personal time. Harris completely is aware of, as on the finish of the sequence, he tells Cadence that he needs to make her his fortune, on the situation that she by no means reveals the key of what occurred at Beechwood. We by no means get to search out out Cadence’s response to this proposition, implying that Prime could also be revving up for a titillating We Had been Liars Season 2.
We Had been Liars
- Launch Date
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June 18, 2025
- Community
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Prime Video
- Administrators
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Nzingha Stewart
