Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard review

Pretty Little Liars (Pretty Little Liars, #1)

Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard
Source: Library
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Alison DiLaurentis is the popular, gorgeous It girl. Every boy wanted her, every girl - even older - wanted to be her. So when she became friends with Spencer, Aria, Emily, and Hanna, they felt quite special. Sure, Ali could be mean at times, but they loved her anyway. They all shared their secrets with one another - its what makes best friends friends forever, Ali would say.

Then, one night at a slumber party, Ali disappeared. No one has seen or heard from her since that night. That is, until the four girls left to mourn her disappearance start getting eerie text messages, signed from A. And whoever this "A" is, they're threatening each girl with secrets only Ali knew. So... is it Alison? Is she alive, or is it her ghost? Or is it someone else entirely?

I fell in love with the show on ABC ever since it first aired. I knew that the show was based off the books, but I never wanted to read them, because I didn't want to spoil the suspense for the show. I should've much sooner.

Sara Shepard created this genius guilty pleasure of a series. There are so many twists and turns in this first book and compared to the show, I bet the book series only gets better and better.

Shepard does a wonderful job with creating these characters. They all have different personalities, even more minor characters. They all have their own problems. Shepard created characters that girls of today can relate to. There is talk about having parents that constantly expect the best and more from you, parents that are so strict in their beliefs, parents that are crazy and artistic and carefree, and a parent that is constantly working. Shepard touches upon subjects such as constantly needing to be the best, being confused about sexuality, liking someone one shouldn't, eating disorders, cutting, underage drinking, sex, and the normal pressures of being a girl in today's world. She handles each topic with ease and moves onto the next without waivering.

Shepard's writing is simple and clean. She describes stuff wonderfully. All shows and movies are different in some aspects from their book influence, so despite knowing what characters and places look like, I had a different image in my head from how Shepard described it in the book. To me, having the power to do this even though I've seen the show, shows how well Shepard can write.

Overall, I found myself loving the book as much as I love the show and am extremely glad I decided to read it. I can't wait to continue on with the other books and am already a fan of Shepard's from her book the Lying Game, this book just adding more fuel to the growing fire. I highly recommend it to anyone that's seen or not seen the show and anyone that loves books about high school, juicy secrets, and lies.