Pretty Little Liars

Pretty Little Liars was such a wild, addictive ride! I picked it up expecting some high school drama and a little mystery, but Sara Shepard completely pulled me in with her mix of secrets, lies, and cliffhangers that had me saying “just one more chapter” until I realized I’d blown through the whole book.

Right from the beginning, I was hooked by the setup: four girls bound together by secrets, haunted by the disappearance of their friend Alison, and suddenly tormented by someone who seems to know everything. It’s juicy, it’s dramatic, and it’s the kind of guilty-pleasure read that makes you want to grab popcorn and dive in.

The characters were messy in the best way. Aria, Spencer, Hanna, and Emily all felt distinct, and I show more liked how the book gave each of them their own storylines while weaving them together with Alison’s shadow looming over everything. They’re not always likable (in fact, half the time I wanted to yell at them), but that’s part of what made it fun—it felt like peeking behind the curtain into the lives of people who are trying so hard to look perfect while everything is falling apart underneath.

Shepard did a great job building the mystery too. The “A” notes were chilling, and I loved how each reveal made me question who could possibly be behind them. The tension ramped up steadily, and by the end, I was completely hooked and already reaching for the next book. It had that soap-opera-meets-thriller vibe that makes it so compulsively readable.

That said, the reason I’m giving it 4 stars instead of 5 is that some parts felt a little repetitive, and the writing leaned heavily into drama without always digging deep into the emotions behind it. At times, I wanted more nuance—especially with certain relationships and conflicts. Still, it’s hard to be too critical when I tore through the pages as quickly as I did.

Overall, Pretty Little Liars was exactly the binge-worthy, twisty teen drama I was craving. It’s dramatic, addictive, and just the right mix of shocking and fun. If you love messy characters, juicy secrets, and a mystery that keeps you guessing, this is the perfect start to a series. Four solid stars, and I can already tell I’ll be devouring the sequels. show less

I read this book because I've seen it come up a lot and it seemed like it would be a cool series. I want to watch the tv show and the premise is kind of intriguing. I also wanted some good YA because I haven't read any in a while and these are always at my local library. I loved Lisi Harrison's The Clique and thought this might be similar and cool.

Was it? Eh. Its all right. This book kind of dragged. It focuses on a handful of teenage girls, alternating chapters, and while each is in a slihtly different scenario, none of the girls really stood out to me very well. They have similar secrets and issues and it just shows how cookie cutter girls of this age can be, that or a lack of variety in the author's character painting palette. I show more didn't even know each character by name, but by their secret. I remember all the names, but not necessarily who they match up with every time I read or change chapters. I'm like which girl is this? Oh, the eating disorder one, right. They each began to get ridiculous nicknames as I read so I'd keep better track. From Klept-ho (credit to White Chicks) to Sissues......thats how much these gurls meant to me. Not very much.

Yes, they're in a weird and intriguing situation, but they're just a handful of brats at the end of the day. Its so sad to see that us young girls are portrayed like this, but it makes me wonder also if girls like these 5 actually exist. Strange thing to ponder. Each was relatable somewhat, but then their actions just make some of them dislikable. I liked the way it was shown that they each feel voiceless or overlooked, but I feel like this whole story could have been better executed.

I enjoyed it and I will continue the series (through my public library, not purchase), but I hope it improves because this one just dragged on and made me want to just be done. This was too little for just one book. It felt super expository and I was just waiting to see how it would end so I can move on to the next. I really hope the show is better because I do like the concept and would like to see excellent execution of the story. Fingers crossed that the characters become more dimensional and somewhat likable as the story progresses. There are too many plot points that are left vague that the story greatly hinges on to be a fully satisfactory novel. I hope dragging things out isn't a part of the author's writing style. I really hope the series does improve as it goes on. I want more out of this story than I'm getting, but props for an intriguing concept. I did have a little fun, but I pry won't be rereading this one. This one goes into my book cemetery (one and done---referring to # of times a book demands to be read)...I've read book one, I'm done with it for good.

Really had higher expectations for this one. show less

It wouldn’t be fair for me to rate this book. I’m not only not the correct target demographic — clearly tweens and teens — but I fall into the reviled substrata of the novel: earnest smart girl. I don’t know how much I would have liked the book at 15, much less at 55. If you hated — just hated — high school, chances are that mean girls like these were the reason why.

The novel begins with an alliance amongst five seventh-grade students who become the mean girls clique of Rosewood Day School, located in a thinly veiled Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The leader of the pack, Allison DiLaurentis, the meanest of the girls, disappears suddenly, and the clique dissolves. But the four remaining girls — Spencer Hastings, Hanna Marin, show more Aria Montgomery and Emily Fields — continue as shallow as ever; indeed, no hermit was ever as devoted to God as these girls are to Abercrombie & Fitch. They’re self-centered to the point of narcissism with a breath-taking sense of entitlement, and haven’t a clue as to the lives of the average American. They’re virtually a parody of the progeny of the 1 percent. Occupy Wall Street couldn’t come up with cruder poster children for the evils of economic inequality.

Soon after the girls embark on their junior year, Allison’s corpse turns up, but the quartet begin receiving threatening text messages from “A.” Has Allison’s ghost returned for revenge? Emily, Hanna, Aria and Spencer — especially Emily — have terrible secrets that would ruin their lives. Is there an “A” who hates Allison and her former posse enough to reveal their secrets? Or is “A” one of the girls themselves? After all, who but the five of them knew these secrets?

To tell the truth, I just couldn’t make myself care. The premise — texts from beyond the grave, so to speak — seemed quite intriguing. With a more likeable group of girls, I know I could well have enjoyed this book. But the eponymous Pretty Little Liars had more in common with the usual cruel villains of a novel than the protagonists.

You know who you are: As my friend Emily Erkan used to say, If you like this kind of thing, this is just the kind of thing you’d like. Just count me out. show less

Oh wow. Okay. Where to start with THIS book.

I guess I’ll start by extending Shepard the benefit of the doubt. I think she was trying to write the most sensational, over-the-top, unrealistic and ridiculous teenagers ever. I think. I think this was on purpose and not bad writing. Right?

The next thing I’ll do it give Emily some props. Of all the characters in this nightmare of a novel, I think that Emily was the most… human? Her character is the only one here who I think could have had an actual, interesting, “doesn’t make me groan aloud and roll my eyes a lot” story. I more or less enjoyed the pieces from Emily’s POV, but she was not enough to save this book as a whole.

That aside. Wow. Pretty Little Liars is an absolute show more train wreck.

Lets make a list of some NOPEs, shall we?

Elitism
Fatphobia
Bullying
Adult/minor relationships
Infidelity
Homophobia
Just… really terrible parents? And friends. And boyfriends. And characters in general.
I am almost 100% sure I missed something there, but those are some of the things that made me want to hurl the book across the room… only this was an audiobook and my phone is expensive. Pretty Little Liars came out when I was in high school, near the age of these girls, and I’m so grateful I didn’t pick it up at the time because I was impressionable and already really really conscious about my weight, and the Hannah storyline was hugely problematic and probably would have been impressionable on 16 y/o me. So many of the characters in this novel make the most dramatic, unkind, unhealthy decisions possible. It was more disturbing than “thrilling”, I guess, with particular emphasis toward Aria/Ezra being a big fat NOPE, Emily’s boyfriend’s behavior bringing me SO MUCH rage, and of course, Hannah’s storyline.

Okay that’s the characters. Lets talk about some other things.

The pacing on this book was slow. It feels like it should be quick, but between the four POVs, I honestly felt like nothing was happening. We went through each of the POVs once and each of the girls did A Thing. Then went went through them again, and the girls did more or less the same thing again. Then through again, seeing the discovery. Again, reacting. End of book. Nothing happened, and it took forever to get there.

I have issues with the realism of everything, but again, that falls into the arena of giving Shepard the benefit of the doubt on her choices here.

The writing as well was just… sort of icky. There’s this scene early in the book where Spencer decides to strip down to her sports bra, underwear, and knee-high field hockey socks and go into the hot tub. And for some reason that scene bothered me an extra lot. Like it had it’s own problematic bits, but I honestly just couldn’t get past the fact Spencer went into the hot tub with knee-high socks. Why? Socks are the best thing to take off at the end of the day, especially after practice. I’m pretty sure Shepard did it just to allow Spencer to be mortified at her lack of glamour when A BOY OMG OMG OMG OMG sees her. For whatever reason, it was this scene that stuck with me as an example of the overall drama and ridiculousness that was this book.

There was a point as I was listening to it when I realised, Oh no. I’m going to have to read a bunch to find out who A is. Because the underlying story was intriguing. It was just everything else about the book that I disliked. Then I remembered – the series was over and I could Google the answer. Thanks Internet, you beautiful spoiler machine! Now I know the end of this series and don’t have to read any more… and wow was it anti-climatic. I would have been annoyed to read sixteen books and have it end there. Goodbye and good riddance, Pretty Little Liars! show less

Suffering withdrawal before the Jan. 3 return of the show, I picked up the first book in the Alloy series on which it is based. Unfortunately, the book is weak tea compared to the show. The series is slow moving—the first episode and the first book are coterminous—and Emily is a WASP. In fact, the non-blondes in the core group are Aria and Hanna, whereas the show’s decision to make Hanna a blonde nicely upped her resemblance to Alison. The writing is at best functional, and by “functional” I also include “serving a product placement function.” Instead of the ordinary descriptive adjectives, there are brand names, averaging at least one a sentence. Two typical examples that struck me as particularly unintentionally show more hilarious: “Spencer stood up in the tub, grabbed her Ralph Lauren towel, and began violently drying her hair.” “Mrs. DiLaurentis still wore the same perfume – Coco Chanel. It instantly brought back all kinds of memories: A million rides to and from the mall in Mrs. DiLaurentis’s Infiniti, sneaking into her bathroom to steal TrimSpa tablets and to experiment with her expensive La Prairie makeup, going through her enormous, walk-in closet and trying on all her sexy size-2 black Dior cocktail dresses.”

Contrast the pornographic detail about brands with the sex, which apparently nobody has: Aria gets naked with her college graduate teacher/suitor, but by mutual agreement they don’t “have sex,” which is the limit of the description, despite the nonprocreative activities in which one might expect a 17-year-old and her much older paramour to engage. The target audience, presumably, is 7th- and 8th-grade girls who are much more interested in sexiness than in sex. While the descriptions of all the stuff the characters own are in some sense as accurate a caricature as that found in American Psycho, and while it was funny to read this book while also reading Hedges' screed on the vapidity of current celebrity, success-obsessed culture, in the end I felt worse off after I’d read it. Hedges isn't wrong about everything. show less

So I *think* this may be the modern equivalent of a Sweet Valley Twins book. These girls are seventh-graders, at least at the beginning of the story. But boy have the themes changed from what I recall! Alongside the familiar petty squabbling, social bullying, and intermittent backstabbing that seem to be the hallmarks of feminine adolescence, there are: student/teacher affairs (oddly the legal implications of a high school teacher having an intimate relationship with an underage girl are never addressed), extramarital affairs (of parents, witnessed by children), murder, incest (well, if you consider stepbrother/stepsister to be incest... otherwise it's just molestation), bulimia, and lesbianism. It's soap opera all the way, in book show more form, but with disturbingly young characters. However, the hint of mystery is very well done (I seriously can NOT figure out how the author is going to explain it) and the book ends on something of a cliffhanger, which unfortunately sent me immediately in search of the next installation. I'm a little ashamed of myself, but this is book was like a potato chip -- once you have one, you're going to keep eating them regardless of how bad they are for you. show less

To be honest, I didn't think that I would like this book much, even though I read my fair share of YA fiction. But I was pleasantly surprised! The first few chapters are a slow start, and there are way too many names and characters thrown in at once, but once the book gets going, it's interesting. Each chapter deals with one of the former friends.

I thought that the secrets that each girl keeps were well done. Sure, some of them seem fairly "common" - Emily doesn't want to swim anymore and finds that she likes kissing her new friend Maya more than kissing her boyfriend Ben, Hanna struggles with an eating disorder and shoplifts, etc - but when you're sixteen, like these characters are, that's a BIG deal. Heck, I still haven't told some of show more my family members that I'm gay (which, I presume, Emily is as well), and I'm more than double the characters' ages. So who am I to say what a big secret is or isn't?

The book ends on a cliff hanger; A is just getting started, it seems. I swore up and down that I wouldn't start yet another continuing series, but, well, here I am, and I'm looking forward to reading the next book. show less