'We Fell Apart' and E. Lockhart Courtesy; Heather Weston Share on Facebook Share on X Share to Flipboard Send an Email Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Print the Article Post a Comment The We Were Liars universe continues to grow. E. Lockhart's We Were Liars book was released in 2014 and became a best-seller. But now more than a decade later, the author's YA novel about the affluent Sinclair family who spend every summer on Beechwood, a wealthy fictional island off of Martha's Vineyard, garnered new attention thanks to social media, TikTok aesthetic videos and a successful Prime Video series adaptation from Julie Plec and Carina Adly MacKenzie that stars Emily Alyn Lind, Esther McGregor, Shubham Maheshwari and Joseph Zada. Related Stories Lifestyle After 43 Years, Martha Stewart's Debut Book, 'Entertaining,' Finally Gets a Reprint Lifestyle Audible's Best Promo of the Year Returns: How to Get Three Months of Star-Narrated Audiobooks for $3 The series has been renewed for a second season and will follow E. Lockhart's 2022 prequel novel, Family of Liars as well as feature new stories about the current cast of characters, the author teases. "The prequel novel is a flashback to when the mom characters are teenagers. So you will see a whole story about that, but you will still see Cadence, you will still see Johnny, and you will still see all those sisters as adults. The showrunners are cooking up new stories for them," E. Lockhart tells The Hollywood Reporter. Though E. Lockhart says the showrunners "will come up with amazing news stories for the cast of characters from We Were Liars in season two," she didn't feel like she "had a new story to tell with those characters." However, the underlying themes and setting still proved to be a "rich world" for imagination and the foundation for another story. "I'm interested in young people who kind of create a world unto themselves that is maybe different from the world that a patriarchal structure is enforcing," E. Lockhart says. Enter We Fell Apart, the author's new book, out Nov. 4. Though not a direct sequel or prequel to We Were Liars, the novel takes place simultaneously with the original story and is set after the devastating fire of Beechwood home. The story centers on protagonist Matilda, who, after receiving a message from the father she's never met - reclusive artist Kingsley Cello - ventures to spend the summer at his seaside home, Hidden Beach. Believing she'll finally learn who her father is and more about herself, she is surprised to find Kingsley is nowhere to be found and instead meets Meer, her long-lost brother; Brock, a former child star battling demons; and Tatum, who may or may not want her to leave. But everyone is lying and there are secrets to be uncovered. "One of the themes that goes throughout these novels is this idea of escaping the castle, escaping the kingdom. What does that mean for these new characters?" E. Lockhart says. "I was interested in continuing to explore the same themes with a different father figure at the head of the family institution and to see what I would come up with with a different king." Easter eggs of We Were Liars can be found throughout with mentions of the core liars and, at one point, the characters visiting the wreckage of Beechwood Island soon after the fire that burned the estate and killed three of the four liars. E. Lockhart says, "I really love that idea of bringing my characters onto the island at a time when Cadence would never have seen it." In a conversation ahead of the release of We Fell Apart, E. Lockhart spoke with THR about expanding the Liars universe with We Fell Apart, the second season of We Were Liars and her next book adaptation Genuine Fraud starring Rain Spencer. *** We Were Liars was renewed for a second season. And the second season is set to be based on the prequel novel, correct? Yes, but also there will be new stories about our current cast. The prequel novel is a flashback to when the mom characters are teenagers. So you will see a whole story about that, but you will still see Cadence, you will still see Johnny, and you will still see all those sisters as adults, and the showrunners are cooking up new stories for them. Given the show's success, what did you make of the response to the characters and story? Well, one of the fun things was that I knew that everyone was going to video themselves sobbing their eyes out because I had seen it happen with the book. When the book got big on TikTok in 2020, that was one of the types of videos that people made over and over - snot coming out of their noses, mascara running down their faces, heaving sobs. And I guess I didn't give out a memo about that. (Laughs.) The showrunners and the actors, all those people were surprised that that's what happened. And I was like, "Oh no. We knew that was going to happen. That was a given." But people were tremendous and