We Were Liars: E. Lockhart’s Viral YA Thriller Becomes a Must-Watch TV Adaptation

TikTok-fueled bestseller We Were Liars becomes an Amazon Prime YA drama. E. Lockhart explores secrets, memory, and teen love in this beachy mystery series.Author and now television writer E. Lockhart set the young adult (YA) literary world ablaze with her 2014 New York Times bestseller, We Were Liars, a gripping YA thriller steeped in mystery and psychological suspense. The novel enjoyed a major resurgence in 2020 thanks to TikTok’s book-loving community, where it became a viral TikTok book recommendation—remaining on bestseller lists for nearly two years. Remarkably, this success was entirely fan-driven, without promotional input from the author or publisher.

Now, We Were Liars has been adapted into an 8-part limited series—an Amazon Prime original series—co-executive-produced by television veterans Julie Plec and Carina Adly MacKenzie, known for their work on teen dramas and supernatural thrillers.

The highly anticipated TV book adaptation brings the haunting world of We Were Liars to life, following protagonist Cadence Sinclair Eastman (Emily Alyn Lind) and her tight-knit group of friends—nicknamed “the Liars”—through their summer vacations on their family’s luxurious New England private retreat, Beachwood Island. This atmospheric young adult mystery blends themes of wealth, memory, and betrayal against a gothic beach read backdrop.

On the surface, the Sinclair family epitomizes generational wealth, good looks, and strong familial bonds. But beneath their seemingly perfect exterior lies a devastating secret. After suffering a traumatic accident, Cadence begins to piece together her fractured memories, unraveling dark truths about the Sinclair legacy and their relentless pursuit of status and power.

Starring David Morse, Mamie Gummer, Caitlin Fitzgerald, Candice King, Esther McGregor, Joseph Zada, and Shubham Maheshwari, the show presents a chilling family drama that questions the price of privilege and the lengths families go to preserve their reputations.

E. Lockhart recently sat down with Creative Screenwriting Magazine to discuss how this YA psychological drama found new life on screen.

The Impact of Visual Aesthetic and Raw Emotion
Lockhart credits much of the book’s renewed success to TikTok. “They made aesthetic videos that invited people into the world of We Were Liars,” she explains, referencing the “BookTok” community’s obsession with emotionally charged coming-of-age stories.

“They pulled pictures off Pinterest that gave the vibe of a story set on a private island off the coast of Massachusetts. Wealth, summer, love, bonfires on the beach, golden retrievers, lobster feasts—all of that.”

Videos of readers reacting emotionally, often sobbing or visibly shaken, helped solidify the book’s position as an essential YA beach read. Lockhart’s themes of nostalgia, longing, and summer romance struck a chord, particularly with younger audiences.

Exploring the Teenage Experience
“I was interested in really intense summer friendships and love between kids who are spending summers together but not the rest of their lives,” Lockhart says, tapping into a universally resonant teenage summer love story.

The novel’s central romance—between Cadence and Gat—adds emotional depth to the plot’s suspenseful core. Themes of self-mythologizing and deception elevate it beyond a typical teen romance, exploring how families manipulate truth to uphold generational myths.

“How do you go on when you have done something terrible?” Lockhart asks. This central question anchors the novel in the psychological suspense genre, blurring the line between guilt, memory, and truth.

Getting We Were Liars Made for Television
Adapting the book for television was no easy feat. Initially developed as a feature film, the project passed through multiple writers and directors before stalling. Eventually, it was picked up and reimagined as a streaming television adaptation for Prime Video.

Julie Plec and Carina Adly MacKenzie took special care to build a diverse and authentic writers’ room. This included voices with lived experiences that enriched characters like Gat (Shubham Maheshwari) and his uncle Ed (Rahul Kohli), bringing more cultural nuance than the original novel offered.

While the book is told from Cadence’s unreliable, first-person point of view, the series broadens the narrative, providing a more complex lens on each character’s motivations.

Lockhart herself penned the final episode of the limited series, crafting an emotionally charged and suspenseful conclusion to one of the most talked-about YA book adaptations in recent years.