We Were Liars

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2014

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Part 5, Chapters 80-84Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 5: “Truth”

Part 5, Chapter 80 Summary

The truth is that Gat, Mirren, and Johnny died in the fire that Cady asked them to set in Clairmont. She feels so guilty about what happened that she has forgotten the events. Doctors have said this is part of the grieving process. Eventually, after two years away, Cady expressed a desire to return to the island: "On the island, perhaps, she would finish healing" (203).

Part 5, Chapter 81 Summary

Cady now remembers the events of the fire. Mirren and Johnny went to the third floor while Gat went to the basement with cans full of gas for lighting the fire. Cady lights the fire on the first floor, but she uses too much gas, and the fire traps her three friends, who die in the blaze.

Part 5, Chapter 82 Summary

Cady recalls her dead friends and all they hoped to achieve in life. She feels horrified that she has inflicted so much harm on everyone. She realizes that the Liars she thought were there with her this summer were in fact ghosts who came to her because they loved her.

Part 5, Chapters 83-84 Summary

Cady's mother realizes Cady has remembered the events of summer fifteen. She goes to see her ghost friends and says goodbye to them. They swim out into the ocean from little beach.

Part 5, Chapters 80-84 Analysis

The full recovery of the traumatic memory allows Cady to accept responsibility for the harm she has done others. She imagined herself in a fairy tale in which the good would triumph over the evil. In truth, people are more complex than that. She made a mistake and harmed her friends irreparably. She must take responsibility for that before she can move forward in life. She cannot leave the past unprocessed. Her full, accurate recollection of the events, painful as they were to recall, allows her finally to do that. Her ghostly friends can now swim away from her and leave her forever. She no longer needs them to help her come to terms with what she has done.