Unbelievable by Sara Shepard
Unbelievable – A Pretty Little Liars Novel by Sara Shepard 2008
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I didn’t read the third book “Perfect” but like most soap operas you can fill in the missing information.
The story begins with Hanna hit by a car and taken to the hospital. Her friends all received texts telling them to meet her at the parking lot because she knew who –A was.
-A tells Sean about Aria seeing Ezra and Ezra loses his job. Aria has to move in with her father and Meredith, and her brother Mike hasn’t forgiven her for not telling him about Meredith.
We find out that Spencer followed Ali outside of the barn and she pushed her, but we find out later she didn’t kill her. Spencer also has won a big award from using her sister Melissa’s paper but no one seems upset about it. Melissa is actually nice but when Ian comes into Spencer’s room, creepy isn’t a bad enough word for him. They want her to win and get all the awards. This is not the Brady Bunch family where honesty was valued above all else. But Spencer proves to be more of a Brady than we thought later on. Melissa tells Spencer she doesn’t have it in her to kill, but we all know who does, huh Melissa?
Emily is sent out to Iowa to rid herself of lesbianism and goes out on the town with her cousins who then blame her for leading them all astray. She gets on a bus and returns home where all is forgiven, and they accept Maya as her girlfriend. Only she met a new girl in Iowa and is confused by who she really loves.
Hanna recovers but can’t remember what happened at the party where she had a fight with her BFF Mona. Nerdy Lucas kisses her and warns her not to trust Mona. Mona is also getting texts from –A now and they plan a welcome back party for Hanna.
Aria is taking an art class with blind Jenna who tells her that Ali and her planned the rocket accident to get rid of her brother, who was molesting her. She makes a cryptic remark about Ali having trouble with a sibling and Jason remarks he has a messed up family. There are other clues in the book that hint at a darker secret not revealed in this series. Yes, I peeked and read a book published much later about the night of Ali’s death from her viewpoint.
-A warns all the girls not to tell the police but Aria tells Wilden with Mike’s urging.
Everything comes to a climax at the party and someone dies.
If you’re going to write a series like this, Shepard is a good author to study. I would suggest a flowchart with all the interconnecting characters because a lot goes on in each book and affects the next book. Little clues like Ali’s trash on the curb when Maya moves in makes anyone a suspect for using the information in Ali’s diary against her friends. She also has characters switch from good to bad so you don’t know who to trust. And the messages are sometimes warnings, but also directions that are tests or set ups for the girls. You hate the spoiled rich girls, but they’re nice compared to some of the other characters. Shepard knows enough to keep the real -A a secret and keep the series going on and on.
