The Sinclairs had been the proper household — till one summer season, they weren’t.
Primarily based on E. Lockhart’s best-selling 2014 novel of the identical title, We Have been Liars started streaming on Prime Video on June 18, with a star-studded solid that features Emily Alyn Lind, Joseph Zada, Esther McGregor, Candice King, Mamie Gummer and extra.
The eight-episode collection stays remarkably true to the ebook: the eldest grandchild of the rich and prestigious Sinclair household suffers a life-changing accident on their summer season island, and when her household refuses to fill the gaps in her reminiscence attributable to a traumatic head damage, she returns to the island to unearth what occurred.
Nevertheless, the Amazon adaptation did take some inventive liberties to carry the psychological drama from the web page to the display screen.
“I feel followers of the ebook are going to be very, very completely happy, as a result of I feel we hit all of the marks and all of the beats that the ebook does, after which additionally develop the universe,” author and government producer Julie Plec informed Deadline in September 2024.
Learn on to search out out the largest variations between the We We Liars present and Lockhart’s beloved ebook.
Warning: We Have been Liars spoilers forward!
Cadence spends two years away from Beechwood within the ebook
After the accident of summer season 15, the eldest Sinclair grandchild, Cadence (Lind), doesn’t return to Beechwood Island for 2 years. She travels to Europe together with her father, Sam (Charlie Carrick), throughout summer season 16, which readers later discover out her grandfather, Sinclair household patriarch Harris (David Morse), paid for attributable to Cadence’s medical doctors’ suggestion that she not return to Beechwood for at the least a 12 months following the hearth.
Cadence almost misses summer season 17 at Beechwood, with Sam planning to take her to Australia and New Zealand. Nevertheless, upon her insistence that she reunite with the Liars — her cousins Mirren (McGregor) and Johnny (Zada), in addition to household buddy Gat (Shubham Maheshwari) — within the wake of their two-year silence, Cadence’s dad and mom hesitantly agree that she will be able to be part of her mom, center Sinclair daughter Penny (Caitlin FitzGerald), and the remainder of the Sinclairs for his or her annual New England summer season.
That is in distinction to the present, during which the accident takes place throughout summer season 16, and Cadence returns only one 12 months later for summer season 17, having by no means traveled overseas.
The ebook isn’t as detailed about Mirren and Johnny
Whereas we get the identical glimpse at Gat’s burgeoning relationship together with his New York Metropolis girlfriend Raquel, his enlightening journey to India and the numerous methods during which he identifies himself as an outsider on Beechwood, Mirren and Johnny are given way more character depth within the present.
Mirren, eldest daughter of the youngest Sinclair sister Bess (King), isn’t way more than Cadence’s previously buoyant however now in poor health cousin within the ebook. Within the present, she aspires to turn into an expert painter, and she or he offers with feeling unseen by the opposite Sinclairs and insecurity about her id. Mirren additionally has two romances within the present, one with a boy of standing and one other with the island’s younger water taxi driver, to additional spotlight Lockhart’s themes of classism.
Within the ebook, eldest Sinclair daughter Carrie’s (Gummer) eldest son Johnny is snarky and unserious, and although these traits shine by within the present, Zada’s portrayal is way more layered. Johnny has a troubling violent streak that lands him in a critical authorized dispute, which ties into the Sinclair sisters’ inheritance video games and Carrie’s relationship together with her longtime accomplice and Gat’s uncle, Ed (Rahul Kohli).
Johnny can also be bisexual within the present, whereas the ebook doesn’t contact on his romantic pursuits.
Tipper doesn’t die throughout summer season within the ebook
Tipper’s (Crewson) demise within the ebook takes place off of Beechwood Island, eight months earlier than summer season 15. Conversely, within the present, the Sinclair matriarch dies throughout summer season 16 on the island whereas sitting round a bonfire together with her three daughters.
Tipper’s demise on Beechwood provides to the dramatization of the Sinclair sisters’ unhealthy aggressive dynamic, with the viewers earlier discovering that their mother had been secretly supporting them as their numerous antics led to draining their belief funds.
Within the aftermath of her passing, the Sinclair sisters’ squabbling over Tipper’s belongings at her funeral and their unhinged battle for the Boston home in the course of the equally disturbing lemon hunt additional the work’s themes of wealth, privilege, loyalty and destruction.
Bess is a divorced mother of 4 within the ebook
Within the ebook, Bess and Brody’s marriage is over. Their household additionally consists of one other little one, their sole son, Taft, who doesn’t seem within the present.
Within the collection, Bess is unhappily married to Brody (Bruce), who spends extra time working (or, extra precisely, swindling his shoppers and draining Bess’ belief) than together with his household. After agreeing to board a late flight to the island, Brody predictably fails to point out, which ends up in Bess having a determined, impulsive affair with Salty Dan, the island’s porter.
Although Brody reveals the next morning, the injury is completed in additional methods than one: the viewers later finds out that Mirren witnessed Bess and Dan partaking within the affair, which ends up in pressure and tumult between the mom and daughter, and finally the Sinclairs at giant.
Regardless of the infidelity, Bess and Brody determine to stay married to enchantment to patriarch Harris’ purse-strings. This can be a option to arrange season 2 of the present, which is a prequel following the Sinclair sisters based mostly on Lockhart’s follow-up to We Have been Liars, titled Household of Liars.
Ed is generally absent within the ebook
Readers don’t see Ed a lot within the ebook, however he’s a continuing presence within the present. He stays on Beechwood for the summer season with Gat and the Sinclairs, spending a lot of his time vying for Harris’ unobtainable approval and working errands historically relegated to the island workers.
Viewers additionally get a go to from Gat’s mother in a single episode, whereas she’s solely briefly talked about within the ebook.
Harris invitations her to the annual lemon hunt to flaunt his notion of the household’s superiority and reveal how Gat contorts himself into a distinct individual on Beechwood to attempt to slot in — not as a result of he desires to, however as a result of he thinks he has to to win Harris’ approval to be with Cadence, very similar to Ed with Carrie.
There are solely three Sinclair sisters within the first ebook
Whereas the We Have been Liars ebook options simply three Sinclair sisters, the present mentions a fourth sister who died as a toddler.
Amidst their insipid competitors to win Harris’ favor, the three daughters lament that none of them will ever really be their father’s favourite, as that title belongs to the daughter who by no means grew up: the precise youngest Sinclair daughter, Rosemary.
Lockhart introduces Rosemary in her prequel ebook, however showrunners launched the character early to arrange the season 2 plot.
Not one of the Sinclairs admit to figuring out the hearth was arson within the ebook
Within the ebook, it’s implied that even when any of the Sinclairs knew the Liars deliberately set fireplace to Clairmont, they might by no means reveal the horrifying secret to the general public. Nevertheless, within the present, there’s a secondary twist to the shock ending.
Harris reveals to Cadence that he is aware of the home burned down in a rebellious act of teenage arson, and he tries to make use of his data to control her into falling consistent with the Sinclair public efficiency.
However when Cadence refuses to oblige Harris, the patriarch stays tight-lipped to keep up the household’s shiny repute, in true Sinclair vogue.
