What’s to like: How perceptive and patient teens can actually be with the problems in their lives, especially those inflicted by parents
The third book in the Liars series by E. Lockhart is here, and I must say this style of writing is really growing on me. The story is told from the perspective of Matilda Klein, a game design enthusiast and daughter of Isadora Klein — a mother who has done the bare minimum and never told Matilda who her father was. Isadora has spent years shifting their lives around whichever man chooses to love them at the time.
While they were living with Saar — a small-time actor and Isadora’s last ex — she falls in love with a man who wants to take her away to Mexico. Matilda refuses to uproot her life again, choosing the stability of Saar’s home, her friends, and her high school boyfriend Luca. Isadora leaves anyway, leaving Matilda behind.
After finishing high school, Matilda receives a mysterious letter from Kingsley Cello, an infamous painter known for his dark, scandal-shadowed works influenced by neoclassicism. He abandoned Isadora after using her as the muse for one of his most famous paintings, Persephone Escapes the Underworld, profiting from it while never mentioning her role in it. The letter asks Matilda to come to Hidden Beach, spend time with him, and accept a painting as a gift. Though Isadora is reluctant, Matilda — with Saar’s support — decides to meet the man who claims to be her father, hoping to understand him and, in turn, understand herself.
On arriving in Hidden Beach, she falls sick and befriends Holland, who insists she has seen Matilda somewhere before. While trying to locate Kingsley’s address, she meets an 18-year-old rude taxi driver who charges her extra to reach the strange property. At the driveway bearing Kingsley’s name, she is greeted by an adorable dog, Puddleglum, and a ten-year-old boy, Meer — her stepbrother.
Meer’s mother, June, seems sketchy and claims to live without rules, though she calls them "suggestions." She spends her days weaving, baking, dyeing clothes, and brewing herbal tinctures, rejects Western medicine, and dislikes strangers intruding into her home. Also living at Hidden Beach are Brock, a child actor recovering from drug addiction, and Tatum — the taxi driver Matilda met earlier — who lost his parents in a car accident and now helps keep the household running. Kingsley, however, is nowhere to be seen. Everyone claims he is a "free spirit" who returns when he wishes, though he casually messages Matilda saying he is in Italy for an art deal.
While waiting for him, Matilda begins to notice strange patterns. Meer is lively and thrilled to have a sister, worships his father, yet has no friends beyond Brock and Tatum and feels unsure of his purpose. Brock radiates sunshine energy but seems tied to Hidden Beach in an unsettling way. Tatum tries to be the responsible adult — doing chores, managing the castle-like home, dealing with his grief, and keeping the peace by preventing Matilda from bringing chaos — all while quietly falling in love with her. June is absent most of the day and appears only at night, enforcing her "suggestions" and keeping everyone isolated. And despite Kingsley’s paintings selling for millions, there is no money in the house.
As the story unravels — revealing shocking truths about why each person is tied to Hidden Beach, Kingsley’s disappearance, and the secrets everyone is hiding — everything slowly begins to make sense. The characters’ idiosyncrasies can drive you crazy, but do get through the book with patience. Like the previous Liars books, this one explores dysfunctional families while forming a clever puzzle piece connecting it to the other novels and the Sinclair family. It can be read as a standalone, though it contains spoilers for earlier books.
Lockhart’s portrayal of twisted fairytales, the influence of paintings within the narrative, the intrusion of life framed as a game, and the half-prose, half-poetry writing style give the book an eerie atmosphere that lingers long after the final page. I loved it — and I hope anyone reading it feels the same.
Favorite line: "I think you can decide to be obligated to someone. You can decide they are worth the commitment and the devotion. And when that’s what you’ve decided, you step up for them."
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