Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard
Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard 2006
[image error]These books were made into a television series which I did not see so I read the book without any preconceptions. A lot of characters are involved in the story and I kept a list to try to keep them straight. The story begins when five best friends are in the eighth grade and the leader of the group, Alison DiLaurentis disappears.
The story picks up three years later after the four remaining friends have drifted apart.
The POV bounced back and forth between the four main characters and notes may be necessary to keep the characters’ storylines straight.
Aria Montgomery along with Alison witnessed her professor father making out with a student. He moves the family to Iceland for two years to repair his marriage. Aria changes her image from dork to sophisticated young lady. Before school begins she meets Ezra at a bar and they hit it off. Unfortunately, Ezra is her AP English teacher.
Emily is into swimming and Ali was her best friend and knows a secret about the “Jenna Thing” which is revealed only partially in the end. She always thought she liked Ben but when Maya St. Germain moves into the old DiLaurentis’s house, her feelings for Maya confuse her and causes a scandal when Ben catches the girls kissing. Also throw in the fact Maya is black and Emily’s parents reveal they are prejudice and don’t want her to be friends with the new girl.
Spencer was Ali’s next door neighbor but not as good as Ali in sports. Spencer is never as good as her older sister, Melissa, except for distracting Melissa’s boyfriends. When Melissa brings home her fiancé Wren, he has more interest in Spencer and trouble follows. Her parents practically disown her.
Hanna was the ugly duckling in the group and “not it” along with Mona Vanderwaal. Hanna and Mona become the hot girls at school in Ali’s absence. They also enjoy shoplifting. Hanna’s boyfriend has taken a virginity pledge and the pair borrow his father’s BMW and wreck it. But Hanna’s mother has a special way of keeping Hanna out of trouble.
Throw a bunch of preppy boys who also attend the exclusive Rosewood Day School and you have plenty of subplots to sort out.
The ending of the book sets up the sequels that follow.
The characters do bad things, but you can’t help but feel sorry for them because under all the pretty exterior are girls who are hurting and want to be loved. Writers could learn from the complexity of the characters who don’t have to be pretty, perky, and perfect to be a leading lady. Add flaws. In fact the plot was pretty thin, and the story relied on the backstories that introduced the four friends and the troubles they faced to keep you turning the pages. It is soap opera at its best with trouble following every character no matter how hard they try to avoid it. There is no happily ever after ending for this book, and I can’t wait to see what trouble they fall into in the next book.
