Note: We Fell Apart is a book in the We Were Liars series, but it merely occurs in the same setting. It does not need to be read before or after other books in the series. You can read my review of We Were Liars here.
Premise
Recent high school graduate Matilda Klein is lost. When her mother decides to take off to Mexico to follow yet another new lover, Matilda stays in California and lives with her mother’s ex so she can finish high school. Communication with her mom is limited and short. After graduation, Matilda’s long time boyfriend -the only person who understands her- dumps her because she’s too weird and absorbed in her video game building. She’s never known her father, but it turns out he’s a famous artist, the elusive Kingsley Cello. Right when Matilda feels she has no where to go, she gets a mysterious email from her father, inviting her to visit him at his castle on Martha’s Vineyard.
Eager to learn more about her father, Matilda embarks on an adventure to the east coast. When she arrives at his castle home, he’s not there, but she stays, hopefully awaiting his return, and befriending the people she finds in the castle. Vermeer, nickname Meer, the half brother she didn’t know she had, his mother, June, and two adopted boys, Brock, a former TV star recovering from drug addiction and Tatum, whose parents died in a tragic car accident.
What I liked
In We Fell Apart, Lockhart explores themes of family – what constitutes a family, how are members responsible to one another, and if it’s possible to leave a family. Throughout the novel, Matilda struggles with the meaning of family and how she wants to participate in one. As a young adult, she bounces between the lines of protecting and prohibiting, loving and controlling, very relevant issues for any YA novel. We Fell Apart tackles issues of illness, loss, and healing with nuance and care.
Matilda makes some keen observations about family. Of one relative she says,
“We will always have our blood tie. But blood ties are just what you make of them.”
And later,
“I’m conscious of the drops of blood that tie us all together, but that’s not enough to make a family. It takes some effort.”
Matilda sets off on her journey with a clear goal – find and know her father, and have him know her. Ultimately, she might not get what she wants, but she does get things that she needs, including a better understanding of herself and her relationship to others. The novel felt particularly relevant to me, as I read it while on a trip to Europe to learn more about my own father, who died four years ago.
Some of the characters in We Fell Apart find a bit of romance amidst the adventure, which is always fun.
What I didn’t like
The writing style of We Fell Apart focused heavily on Matilda’s interior. I would have liked more details of the setting and the other characters to ground me in the story. I had a hard time for most of the book differentiating between some of the characters, especially Tatum and Brock. I could not picture Matilda’s father’s house, described as a castle, or the layout of the property, which is a shame, since it’s an unusual setting.
The plot has mysterious elements, and some people refer to it as a mystery, but that aspect didn’t stand out to me. There is a satisfying explanation at the end.
The writing did not consistently pull me in, and I didn’t feel connected to the main characters until the end. Matilda often resorts to asking theoretical questions, which to me feels like cheating. In general, I didn’t like the writing as much I did for We Were Liars or The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks.
Recommendation
We Fell Apart is a solid YA coming of age story, with a quiet mystery and a little bit of romance, kind of like what John Green does in Turtles All the Way Down. It’s not my favorite of Lockhart’s, but it isn’t bad.
I haven’t yet read the second book in the We Were Liars series, Family of Liars. Have you? What did you think?
Note: We Were Liars TV series dropped on Prime summer 2025. I won’t watch tho. The book is always better than the show. 😉
Thanks for getting nerdy with me!
One of my friends just finished reading We Were Liars, started the show, and abruptly stopped watching it because it was SO different from the book! I’ll have to check out We Fell Apart, especially if you got the audio version 😉