More than 10 years after the publication of We Were Liars and a few years after the prequel novel Family of Liars, E. Lockhart returns to the world with a new book set in the same universe. We Fell Apart published on November 4, 2025 from Delacorte Press. In an exclusive interview with SLJ, Lockhart talks about her favorite character in the We Were Liars universe, the gift of writing for young adults, and coming up with shocking plot twists.

What inspired you to write another novel in the same world as We Were Liars?

We Fell Apart is about a girl who gets a note from the father she’s never met, inviting her to visit him on his beachfront property on the island of Martha’s Vineyard. He turns out to be a famous, reclusive painter. She goes to visit him, and when she gets there—he’s not at home. Instead, his place is inhabited by a stepmother she didn’t know existed…and three super-cute teenage boys.

I got the idea when I visited the former summer home of this famed brutalist architect called Araldo Cossutta. The property was this incredible combination of fairy-tale castle, beach house, and modern icon. It was also in ruins. I felt like I was in a novel.

Did going through the experience of seeing We Were Liars adapted for television have any impact on your writing of We Fell Apart?

I learned a lot about TV writing from seeing many drafts of many episodes, and from writing the finale of the series. I definitely stole some TV writing tricks and applied them to fiction in We Fell Apart. It moves faster than any of my previous books.

Who is your favorite character in the We Were Liars universe? 

I’m really excited for readers to meet Meer, who is the half-brother of the narrator in We Fell Apart. He is something of an innocent, a searcher, an enthusiast—he was fun to write because he has a good sense of humor. But there’s also a lot of tragedy in Meer, and he’s hiding some dark secrets.

Will we see any more stories set in this world? What are you currently working on?

MAYBE. There will be a season 2 of the We Were Liars TV show, for sure! My next novel is in the revision stages and it’s a standalone watery gothic love story with fairy-tale elements. Terrible things happen.

You are known for delivering shocking plot twists. Do you know when you first start to write a story how it’s going to end?

I knew with all the books in the We Were Liars universe, and with Genuine Fraud. With the book I’m currently finishing, I had no idea how it would end. I still managed to write a twisty finale...I just had a period of absolute panic in the middle there.

What do you most enjoy about writing for young adults?

Teenagers will read your book four times if they like it. Eight times. Fifteen times. There are almost no adult readers who pay that kind of attention. Readers like that are an incredible gift.