E. Lockhart’s We Fell Apart is a stand-alone novel set within the same fictional universe as her best-selling books We Were Liars (2014) and Family of Liars (2022). As Lockhart notes in the book’s preface, it is “set in the same world” (xi), and this shared setting enriches the story’s exploration of inherited trauma and destructive family secrets. The previous books established the world of the wealthy, dysfunctional Sinclair family and their private summer home, Beechwood Island, a place defined by privilege, tragedy, and carefully constructed lies. We Were Liars tells the story of a tragic incident that claims the lives of several of the Sinclair children. Although We Were Liars was published first, Family of Liars, the second book in the series, is a prequel that tells the story of a death caused by an earlier generation of Sinclairs, the parents of the young people who die in the first book. Both novels explore how the family’s wealth and privilege and their dysfunctional dynamics impact the characters’ lives and their ability to cope with trauma.

We Fell Apart reveals a lost branch of the family through the character of Kingsley Cello, who is ultimately revealed to be Kincaid Sinclair, a disowned brother. His brother is Harris Sinclair, the father of the protagonist in Family of Liars and the grandfather of the protagonist in We Were Liars. The novel explicitly links its new setting on Martha’s Vineyard to the established Sinclair lore. Characters in the van from the airport gossip about the fire on Beechwood that killed three teenagers, a central event from We Were Liars (33-34), grounding the new narrative in the established history of the family’s tragedies, and Matilda, Meer, Brock, and Tatum go together to Beechwood to explore the site of the tragedy. By situating this story within the Sinclair universe, Lockhart creates a broader tapestry of generational dysfunction, allowing readers to trace patterns of emotional neglect, secrecy, and escape across different branches and generations of the same cursed family, demonstrating how trauma reverberates through time.