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Former best friends Emily, Aria, Hanna, and Spencer continue to live in fear as they struggle to keep hidden even more secrets and someone new begins stalking them via their cell phones.Tags
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In picture-perfect Rosewood, Pennsylvania, ash-blond highlights gleam in the winter sun and frozen lakes sparkle like Swarovski crystals. But pictures often lie—and so do Rosewood's four prettiest girls.Hanna, Aria, Spencer, and Emily have been lying ever since they became friends with beautiful Alison DiLaurentis. Ali made them do terrible things—things they had to keep secret for years. And even though Ali was killed at the end of seventh grade, their bad-girl ways didn't die with her. Hanna's on a mission to corrupt Rosewood's youth, starting with a very attractive sophomore. Aria's snooping into her boyfriend's past. Spencer's stealing—from her family. And pure little Emily's abstaining from abstinence.The girls should be show more careful, though. They thought they were safe when Ali's killer was arrested and A's true identity was finally revealed. But now there's a new A in town turning up the heat. And this time Rosewood is going to burn. show less
Knowing how many of these books there are; I was worried going into this one, the sixth, that the tension wouldn't be as great as it had been in earlier novels. And it's not.
I get the feeling Sara Shepard is now trying to drag out what was originally a good idea and it's just becoming more and more implausible.
At the start; it was believable. Four girls, haunted by messages from their dead best friend with no idea what was going on. But now, it's all about a massive conspiracy. Ali is alive and Wilden, the cop, is a bad guy; who I suspected from page one of this novel. If he was meant to come off as anything other than a creep in this book, I didn't get it.
More annoyingly, the parents get worse. Aria's afraid to tell her mother that show more her boyfriend is a pervy creepy because she thinks her mother will be mad at her. A normal mother, which Ella is shown to be, would most definitely NOT pick a new man over her own child, let alone a creepy one who tries to hit on Aria.
Spencer's parents, more specifically her mother, are hideous to her. Laughing when something goes wrong for her; enjoying her pain. Like a mean sister, not a parent.
Hanna's father doesn't believe a word she says yet takes everything his step-daughter says as Gospel. I don't believe that. Especially since it's pointed out many times in each book that Hanna and her father once had a very close relationship.
Emily's parents seem to be the only normal ones, but they aren't in book 6 very much, and we still have 3 more to go.
Now I'm starting to worry the story is going to try and advance on itself, become bigger and bigger than it was originally going to be and thus creating an utterly unrealistic story that started out with so much promise. A, or whoever it is sending the messages, is now everywhere. Telling Spencer she's adopted, setting her up to meet her fake-real mother in NY and buy a fake apartment, thus losing all her money. So A has to have some sort of business going on. No longer is it a mean girl dishing out the dirt on her former friends; which was the appeal of the books in the first place. Now it's turning into something else, and I for one do not like it. show less
I get the feeling Sara Shepard is now trying to drag out what was originally a good idea and it's just becoming more and more implausible.
At the start; it was believable. Four girls, haunted by messages from their dead best friend with no idea what was going on. But now, it's all about a massive conspiracy. Ali is alive and Wilden, the cop, is a bad guy; who I suspected from page one of this novel. If he was meant to come off as anything other than a creep in this book, I didn't get it.
More annoyingly, the parents get worse. Aria's afraid to tell her mother that show more her boyfriend is a pervy creepy because she thinks her mother will be mad at her. A normal mother, which Ella is shown to be, would most definitely NOT pick a new man over her own child, let alone a creepy one who tries to hit on Aria.
Spencer's parents, more specifically her mother, are hideous to her. Laughing when something goes wrong for her; enjoying her pain. Like a mean sister, not a parent.
Hanna's father doesn't believe a word she says yet takes everything his step-daughter says as Gospel. I don't believe that. Especially since it's pointed out many times in each book that Hanna and her father once had a very close relationship.
Emily's parents seem to be the only normal ones, but they aren't in book 6 very much, and we still have 3 more to go.
Now I'm starting to worry the story is going to try and advance on itself, become bigger and bigger than it was originally going to be and thus creating an utterly unrealistic story that started out with so much promise. A, or whoever it is sending the messages, is now everywhere. Telling Spencer she's adopted, setting her up to meet her fake-real mother in NY and buy a fake apartment, thus losing all her money. So A has to have some sort of business going on. No longer is it a mean girl dishing out the dirt on her former friends; which was the appeal of the books in the first place. Now it's turning into something else, and I for one do not like it. show less
Well, I still think that the publishing house should not have pushed Shepard into a 7-book deal. The plot seems very obviously dragged out, and the story has suffered because of it.
However, the book DID end on a note that convinced me to read the last installment of the series once it comes out. I wasn't so sure, reading it, because the formula of the series really started to wear on me in this one. But the end made up for it, just a little.
However, the book DID end on a note that convinced me to read the last installment of the series once it comes out. I wasn't so sure, reading it, because the formula of the series really started to wear on me in this one. But the end made up for it, just a little.
This was, by far, the most emotional Pretty Little Liars book yet. Infact one part made me cry. Killer is about the four girls, Hanna, Spencer, Emily, and Aria, trying to figure out how the hell Ian's dead body disappeared. They saw it in the woods and ran to get Wilden the cop assigned to keep guard on a party. But when they got back, there was no body. the police searched for days and couldn't find anything. Now, it's up to the girls to figure out what happened. Did Ian play a trick on them to distract the cops so he could get out of town? That would be the logical explanation to his disappearance and the sketchy IMs Spencer has been recieving. but, the girls are too hung up in their own problems to figure out what went wrong. Hanna's show more battling with her step sister over Mike Montgomery, Aria's brother, and causing more drama than there needs to be. Aria's dating Jason Dilaurentis, and then finds out that he was a patient in a mental hospital and may be connected to Ali's murder. Emily's being shunned out of her boyfriends house after being caught in his bedroom by his mother, and now that his mom hates her she doesn't know what to do. And, of course Spencer and her so called "mommy" just met after being spereated for over 17 years. BUt it really her mom or did "A" set up an other on of their conniving, sick little games?
Spencer's story is just so sad, it made me cry. She just found out she was adopted and now she finally reconnected with her biological mother! She is everything she dreamed she would be, and she got so excited that someone actually loves her that she buys a house right down the street from her. But, she then finds out that her "mom's" address was fake and that the realtor that she bough tthe house from doesn't exist, so she checks into her bank account only to find out that her balance is 0$. Did her mom cheat her out of her money, or was this just a big misunderstanding??
At the end of the book, there is a huge twist! it is so big and completely changes the mood of the book. I'm not even going to give you a hint on what it is because i was completely in awe when i read the very last sentence. This was the major reason why i gave this book a 4.5/5 stars. it was absolutely exhilarating, and every page captivated me. I am so excited to go into school tomorrow and check out the next book in the series, Heartless, to see what happens.
Once again Sarah Shepard amazes me with her talent in writing and ability to create a massive amount of tension in just one sentence, which you will see when you read this wonderful book! show less
Spencer's story is just so sad, it made me cry. She just found out she was adopted and now she finally reconnected with her biological mother! She is everything she dreamed she would be, and she got so excited that someone actually loves her that she buys a house right down the street from her. But, she then finds out that her "mom's" address was fake and that the realtor that she bough tthe house from doesn't exist, so she checks into her bank account only to find out that her balance is 0$. Did her mom cheat her out of her money, or was this just a big misunderstanding??
At the end of the book, there is a huge twist! it is so big and completely changes the mood of the book. I'm not even going to give you a hint on what it is because i was completely in awe when i read the very last sentence. This was the major reason why i gave this book a 4.5/5 stars. it was absolutely exhilarating, and every page captivated me. I am so excited to go into school tomorrow and check out the next book in the series, Heartless, to see what happens.
Once again Sarah Shepard amazes me with her talent in writing and ability to create a massive amount of tension in just one sentence, which you will see when you read this wonderful book! show less
Based on just the title of the book I figured that the majority of the book was going to be about Emily. The nickname that her old friends used to call her 'Killer' was because of her protectiveness and loyalty to Ali.
The first chapter starts right where Wicked has left off, with the girls in the woods behind Spencer's house taking Wilden to see Ian's body. Which they had just found. Of course, in typical Rosewood fashion the 'body' is missing when they get back to the spot and Wilden doesn't believe them. I just don't understand why, when everything is going against them, two of them didn't stay to guard the body. As much as I really do like [a:Sara Shepard|93970|Sara Shepard|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1229580414p2/93970.jpg]'s show more work I'm starting to see a pattern that is making it really easy to predict some of the twists.
'A' has a way of playing each girl to make them think that one thing has happened, and then drops a bomb that makes everyone else think less of them.
The Spencer plot line of the book is a little dramatic, and is almost equally fuelled by Melissa as it is by 'A'. Although I do have to admit it really does seem like she was adopted at one point, I'm a little confused by the fact that Spencer looks like Olivia. Or possibly she is just saying that because she is so convinced that she is adopted. I think it is a little crazy that she just up and left for New York for the day to see her supposed bio-mom, but I guess that when Melissa points out that Spencer isn't one of Nana Hastings natural-born grandchildren, hinting that Spencer was adopted can make someone believe it a little bit more. In the end we find out that it was a scam and all of Spencer's collage money is gone. Can't say I feel too sorry for her as it kind of was a pretty dumb move. On a different note, I love Spencer and Andrew together. She seems much more herself with him and what we've seen of his character has been extremely caring.
Hanna drives me nuts. If I ever knew a girl as fake and annoying as her in real life I would honestly punch her out. I mean, I remember high school and how crazy people could get, and I remember that there were some girls who acted like your looks were the most important think in the world, but honestly sabotaging a seemingly good friendship with her soon-to-be-step-sister over a younger guy is crazy! On the other hand I do so how she feels like Kate is just trying to make her look bad, and maybe she is, but if it was me I would just suck it up. As for Hanna's dad, Tom, he is a complete ass of a father. Taking his soon-to-be-step-daughter's opinion and stories to be true over Hanna's 100% of the time. I would leave. Just a side note, I really wish she didn't break up with Lucas, I thought they were perfect-- even if he was a little dorky.
Aria has the strongest sense of herself out of the four girls. She knows what she wants and doesn't usually let people push her around. I think that the only real influence that A has over her is how horrible she feels about her dad's affair and that she didn't tell her mom. In all honesty she shouldn't have felt that way as it wasn't her fault and once she sees that she will be able to grow that much stronger. I really liked her relationship with Jason, and am a little annoyed that he freaked out too easily. I really wanted to like him.
Emily. She is, in my opinion the main character of this book, based upon her old nickname being the title. Emily strikes me as the girl who need validation for everything she does. Unlike Hanna, who also shows signs of needing validation, Emily can't make up her own mind. 99% of her decisions are base upon what how her friends and family (and Ali) would say about her doing it. Or what A tells her to do. I see her as such a push over and I think that A knows that too. It honestly is so sad to me that she can't do anything by herself.
Generally I just have a few things that are bugging me about the series. The first one is the damn giggling. What the hell! You would think these girls would have said something to each other and figured out that they are not crazy.
Secondly, what the hell is with the lax attitude with age differences in this town. I mean come on. Hanna's mom was dating Darren Wilden. Darren Wilden was in the same graduating class as Jason, Melissa and Ian. They graduated the same year that the girls finished grade six! That is a six year difference. Which is not too bad for Aria/Jason, Spencer/Ian, Ali/Ian. But unless Hanna's mom was younger than sixteen when she had Hanna, the age difference is at least ten years. Going with averages, she was probably 22 when Hanna was born, making her 16 years older than Wilden. The age gap between Byron and Meredith is unknown, but is probably a couple of years less as she was all ready in collage when the girls were in grade six.
I don't know, at this point I may only be reading this to find out what happens. I'm getting quite annoyed with the repetitiveness. show less
The first chapter starts right where Wicked has left off, with the girls in the woods behind Spencer's house taking Wilden to see Ian's body. Which they had just found. Of course, in typical Rosewood fashion the 'body' is missing when they get back to the spot and Wilden doesn't believe them. I just don't understand why, when everything is going against them, two of them didn't stay to guard the body. As much as I really do like [a:Sara Shepard|93970|Sara Shepard|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1229580414p2/93970.jpg]'s show more work I'm starting to see a pattern that is making it really easy to predict some of the twists.
'A' has a way of playing each girl to make them think that one thing has happened, and then drops a bomb that makes everyone else think less of them.
The Spencer plot line of the book is a little dramatic, and is almost equally fuelled by Melissa as it is by 'A'. Although I do have to admit it really does seem like she was adopted at one point, I'm a little confused by the fact that Spencer looks like Olivia. Or possibly she is just saying that because she is so convinced that she is adopted. I think it is a little crazy that she just up and left for New York for the day to see her supposed bio-mom, but I guess that when Melissa points out that Spencer isn't one of Nana Hastings natural-born grandchildren, hinting that Spencer was adopted can make someone believe it a little bit more. In the end we find out that it was a scam and all of Spencer's collage money is gone. Can't say I feel too sorry for her as it kind of was a pretty dumb move. On a different note, I love Spencer and Andrew together. She seems much more herself with him and what we've seen of his character has been extremely caring.
Hanna drives me nuts. If I ever knew a girl as fake and annoying as her in real life I would honestly punch her out. I mean, I remember high school and how crazy people could get, and I remember that there were some girls who acted like your looks were the most important think in the world, but honestly sabotaging a seemingly good friendship with her soon-to-be-step-sister over a younger guy is crazy! On the other hand I do so how she feels like Kate is just trying to make her look bad, and maybe she is, but if it was me I would just suck it up. As for Hanna's dad, Tom, he is a complete ass of a father. Taking his soon-to-be-step-daughter's opinion and stories to be true over Hanna's 100% of the time. I would leave. Just a side note, I really wish she didn't break up with Lucas, I thought they were perfect-- even if he was a little dorky.
Aria has the strongest sense of herself out of the four girls. She knows what she wants and doesn't usually let people push her around. I think that the only real influence that A has over her is how horrible she feels about her dad's affair and that she didn't tell her mom. In all honesty she shouldn't have felt that way as it wasn't her fault and once she sees that she will be able to grow that much stronger. I really liked her relationship with Jason, and am a little annoyed that he freaked out too easily. I really wanted to like him.
Emily. She is, in my opinion the main character of this book, based upon her old nickname being the title. Emily strikes me as the girl who need validation for everything she does. Unlike Hanna, who also shows signs of needing validation, Emily can't make up her own mind. 99% of her decisions are base upon what how her friends and family (and Ali) would say about her doing it. Or what A tells her to do. I see her as such a push over and I think that A knows that too. It honestly is so sad to me that she can't do anything by herself.
Generally I just have a few things that are bugging me about the series. The first one is the damn giggling. What the hell! You would think these girls would have said something to each other and figured out that they are not crazy.
Secondly, what the hell is with the lax attitude with age differences in this town. I mean come on. Hanna's mom was dating Darren Wilden. Darren Wilden was in the same graduating class as Jason, Melissa and Ian. They graduated the same year that the girls finished grade six! That is a six year difference. Which is not too bad for Aria/Jason, Spencer/Ian, Ali/Ian. But unless Hanna's mom was younger than sixteen when she had Hanna, the age difference is at least ten years. Going with averages, she was probably 22 when Hanna was born, making her 16 years older than Wilden. The age gap between Byron and Meredith is unknown, but is probably a couple of years less as she was all ready in collage when the girls were in grade six.
I don't know, at this point I may only be reading this to find out what happens. I'm getting quite annoyed with the repetitiveness. show less
I started reading the Pretty Little Liars series earlier this year. Each book ended with a cliff hanger and I couldn’t wait to read what happened next with “A”. I enjoyed these books so much, I read them consecutively. The only problem was I had to wait a few months for Killer’s release.
Now that I finished Killer, I have to say I was worth the wait. It immediately began where Wicked concluded: the night of the Rosewood Day benefit held at Spencer’s house. Spencer discovered Ian in the woods and when she later returned with the police, Ian was gone. He simply vanished. (I don’t want to say more to prevent spoilers). While the police continue to search for Ian based on the details provided by Spencer, Aria, Hanna and Emily, show more they begin to wonder if these four girls fabricated their stories for attention.
Like the previous novels, Killer begins with a flashback. In this flashback the reader learns how the four girls became friends with Ali. Emily, Aria, Hanna and Spencer all have the idea of stealing Ali’s piece of the Time Capsule flag. This is a tradition at Rosewood Day: the principal cuts the Rosewood Day flag into pieces, the upperclassmen hides the pieces around town, while the teachers post clues to their locations. When someone finds a piece, he/she can decorate it. When all the pieces are found, the flag is sewn back together and is buried in the Time Capsule. The students who find the pieces are known to be legends in the school’s history. The twist to the game is another student can steal a piece from the original student who found it. Which is what Hanna, Emily, Aria and Spencer plan to do with Ali’s piece.
This flashback is significant to the story. The reader learns what REALLY happened to Ali’s stolen flag piece and why it’s so important to her disappearance and death. As each girl continues to receive threatening texts from “A”, they decide to investigate the events leading to Ali’s death. As they dig deeper, they stumble on a new twist that will erase everything they knew about their friendship with Ali.
What makes this story so addicting to me is how the Ms. Shepard uses the girls’ individual stories to add to the mystery behind Ali’s death and “A’s” hold on them. Each girl struggles with a secret, insecurity, problem, etc. “A” sends them text messages to manipulate them into doing what “A” wants by threatening to expose their secrets. Each girl discovers more clues about their friendship with Ali. The reader can’t help but to wonder are these legitimate clues or just part of “A’s” game? It’s so hard to tell, but that’s what keeps me reading. I WANT TO KNOW! The twists and turns are plenty in this series and just when the reader thinks he/she knows what will happen next, guess again.
Killer’s ending took me by surprise! The cliff hanger was shocking and left me speechless. Of course, I had more questions and wondered did THAT just really happen or is this just another twist? Again, I must wait to have my questions answered. Heartless, book seven, will be released in 2010. Killer is a must read for fans of the Pretty Little Liars series. show less
Now that I finished Killer, I have to say I was worth the wait. It immediately began where Wicked concluded: the night of the Rosewood Day benefit held at Spencer’s house. Spencer discovered Ian in the woods and when she later returned with the police, Ian was gone. He simply vanished. (I don’t want to say more to prevent spoilers). While the police continue to search for Ian based on the details provided by Spencer, Aria, Hanna and Emily, show more they begin to wonder if these four girls fabricated their stories for attention.
Like the previous novels, Killer begins with a flashback. In this flashback the reader learns how the four girls became friends with Ali. Emily, Aria, Hanna and Spencer all have the idea of stealing Ali’s piece of the Time Capsule flag. This is a tradition at Rosewood Day: the principal cuts the Rosewood Day flag into pieces, the upperclassmen hides the pieces around town, while the teachers post clues to their locations. When someone finds a piece, he/she can decorate it. When all the pieces are found, the flag is sewn back together and is buried in the Time Capsule. The students who find the pieces are known to be legends in the school’s history. The twist to the game is another student can steal a piece from the original student who found it. Which is what Hanna, Emily, Aria and Spencer plan to do with Ali’s piece.
This flashback is significant to the story. The reader learns what REALLY happened to Ali’s stolen flag piece and why it’s so important to her disappearance and death. As each girl continues to receive threatening texts from “A”, they decide to investigate the events leading to Ali’s death. As they dig deeper, they stumble on a new twist that will erase everything they knew about their friendship with Ali.
What makes this story so addicting to me is how the Ms. Shepard uses the girls’ individual stories to add to the mystery behind Ali’s death and “A’s” hold on them. Each girl struggles with a secret, insecurity, problem, etc. “A” sends them text messages to manipulate them into doing what “A” wants by threatening to expose their secrets. Each girl discovers more clues about their friendship with Ali. The reader can’t help but to wonder are these legitimate clues or just part of “A’s” game? It’s so hard to tell, but that’s what keeps me reading. I WANT TO KNOW! The twists and turns are plenty in this series and just when the reader thinks he/she knows what will happen next, guess again.
Killer’s ending took me by surprise! The cliff hanger was shocking and left me speechless. Of course, I had more questions and wondered did THAT just really happen or is this just another twist? Again, I must wait to have my questions answered. Heartless, book seven, will be released in 2010. Killer is a must read for fans of the Pretty Little Liars series. show less
Killer is great at developing the girls' individual storylines but I felt like the mystery of Ali and A take a back seat for most of the book, which I didn't like. Another weird thing is a plotline involving Emily and her boyfriend's mother, it seemed like it was supposed to go somewhere but didn't.
One thing I liked about this book is Hanna's relationship with a younger guy (wait til you find out who!), it was pretty cute and just made me smile. Another interesting switch that happens in this book is the police and also the media start to doubt and also suspect the girls are telling the whole truth, could they possibly have a hand in this mystery? Since they really can't get the police to help them anymore, they sort of have to take show more matters into their own hands, and there are dangerous waters ahead.
So while not my favorite of the series, it's essential to move the plot forward and also get some more into each of the girls personalities. show less
One thing I liked about this book is Hanna's relationship with a younger guy (wait til you find out who!), it was pretty cute and just made me smile. Another interesting switch that happens in this book is the police and also the media start to doubt and also suspect the girls are telling the whole truth, could they possibly have a hand in this mystery? Since they really can't get the police to help them anymore, they sort of have to take show more matters into their own hands, and there are dangerous waters ahead.
So while not my favorite of the series, it's essential to move the plot forward and also get some more into each of the girls personalities. show less
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Sara Shepard received an undergraduate degree from New York University and a MFA from Brooklyn College. The novels in her Pretty Little Liars series were inspired by her upbringing in Philadelphia's Main Line. Her other works include the Lying Game series, The Visibles (also titled All the Things We Didn't Say), and Everything We Ever Wanted. show more Pretty Little Liars and The Lying Game have been made into TV series. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Killer
- Original publication date
- 2009-06-30
- People/Characters
- Hanna Marin; Aria Montgomery; Emily Fields; Spencer Hastings; "A"; Jason DiLaurentis (show all 8); Ian Thomas; Darren Wilden
- Important places
- Rosewood, Pennsylvania, USA
- Related movies
- Pretty Little Liars (2010 | IMDb)
- Epigraph
- "Liars ought to have good memories." --Algernon Sydney
- Dedication
- To Lanie, Les, Josh, and Sara
- First words
- Ever wish you could go back in time and undo your mistakes? If only you hadn't drawn that clown face on the Bratz doll your best friend got for her eigth birthday, she wouldn't have droped you for the new girl from Boston.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)The girls turned away, drifting back to their own families, promising to call one another later. But Emily remained where she was, her heart pounding as the sedan pulled away from the curb. She watched as it cruised down the street, turned right at the light, and disappeared. Her blood chilled. It couldn't have been her, she told herself. Could it have?
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