Book Review: Pretty Little Liars

Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard

Summary (from Goodreads):

Everyone has something to hide—especially high school juniors Spencer, Aria, Emily, and Hanna.

Spencer covets her sister's boyfriend. Aria's fantasizing about her English teacher. Emily's crushing on the new girl at school. Hanna uses some ugly tricks to stay beautiful.

But they've all kept an even bigger secret since their friend Alison vanished.

How do I know? Because I know everything about the bad girls they were, the naughty girls they are, and all the dirty secrets they've kept. And guess what? I'm telling.

My thoughts:

I've actually had a copy of Pretty Little Liars lying around on my bookshelf for a couple years now, and just never got around to it. And like many others, once I heard it was being made into a show--now airing on ABC Family--I knew it was time to pick it up.

I'm really glad I did.

First off, the mystery is great. Who is A? Who killed Allison? What about The Jenna Thing? Why does Hanna seem to get in so much trouble with the police? Ok, that last one was a joke, but it is questionable. It seemed like she spent most of the book either down at the station or commiting a crime. Anyway, that's beside the point.

I did like the characters, however, I did question their motives often. I wasn't really sure why Spencer liked Wren so much in the first place. Or even why Aria moved so quickly with Ezra, when they hadn't even known eachother for that long. All in all, though, I felt each character had a distinct voice, and towards the end of the novel I really began to look forward to reading about all of them.

My favorite dynamic so far is the one between Emily, Aria, Spencer, and Hanna, now that Allison is dead. They've grown apart, and I'm looking forward to see how their friendship progresses along with the novels. My favorite scenes were of all of them together. Sadly, those were few and far between.

Overall, If your looking for a fun novel riddled with mystery, Pretty Little Liars is for you. Shepard has no problems leaving the reader wanting more as the novel concludes, so make sure you have a copy of the second book lying around, otherwise you'll be kicking yourself like I am right now.