Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard

8 reviews

madelinequinnee's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I’m back in my Pretty Little Liars era, so I thought it was only fair I give the books a read. I really enjoyed this! It throws you off a bit to begin with if you watched the show first and the characters look very different to how they’re described in the book, but you get used to it eventually and this is a very enjoyable read. I loved the writing, it’s very descriptive and almost poetic at times, and the duel perspectives from each of the girls makes this really interesting. Can’t wait to read the rest of the series! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Death, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Infidelity, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Grief, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

geooo's review against another edition

fast-paced

• Strong character development? No

2.5

A book that is mediocre at its best. Nothing really happens during this novel. The character work and the plot are weak and the writing is not the best. There are also problematic elements such as pedophilia, substantial age gaps, teacher - student relationships. And judging by how the show and future books go the author doesn't care about these issues and even romanticizes them. Will not continue the series. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Homophobia, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Racism, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Sexism and Murder

kit_kat006's review against another edition

funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Racism, Self harm, Stalking, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Lesbophobia

Minor: Infidelity

honben's review against another edition

emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I'm a big fan of the show (completely aware that it is mostly garbage) and I wanted to give the books a shot and I am shockingly pleased. This book contains only what happens in episode 1 of the show (just a heads up) and when I realised I was thrilled. It gives you much more insight on the characters, and there are major differences with the show but I actually feel like I will like the books better (specially in the romance department) and though the writing style is very simplistic it makes it much easier to read.
Already started the second one.
P.S.: there is depiction of mental health struggles and there are moments when even the narrator is fatphobic, I remember a specific line from one of the last chapters. I attribute this to the year it was published, but obviously, it is not nice to read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Racism, and Grief

Moderate: Body shaming, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Classism

Minor: Infidelity, Car accident, and Murder

Slut Shaming isn't on the list of trigger warnings, but there is a ton of it on this book.

laurabenitez's review against another edition

lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Eating disorder, Stalking, and Alcohol

Moderate: Homophobia, Infidelity, and Sexual assault

fanboyriot's review against another edition

lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Read For

✓ Nostalgia

✓ Secrets and Lies
✓ Small Town Vibes 

✓ High School Drama

✓ Best Friend Murdered

˗ˏˋ ★ REVIEW ★ ˎˊ˗

I love and hate this series so much.  The nostalgic vibes this book has is far too comforting to just read once.  The mystery of “Alison’s” death is dragged out but in this book things are focused on setting up the world and the gossip of a small town.  Rosewood is a place where the kids act like adults and the adults act like teenagers.

This is the book where everything—for basically everyone—goes downhill.  Relationships are broken and found—both friend wise and romantic, everything is upped in the dramatics taking simple things and making them a big deal.  In a way it’s like a lighthearted mystery; then again it could be just because it’s a nostalgic read, however, it reminds me of a cozy mystery.  It told the backstory, and how Hanna, Aria, Spencer, and Emily all went on to live their lives after their best friend’s disappearance.  But secrets only stay buried for so long and A lives for drama. 

Spice Level: n/a

Angst Level: 💧💧💧

POV: Multiple, Third Person

Release Date: 06, October 2006

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Stalking, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Cursing, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Car accident, Murder, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism

Minor: Ableism, Death, Drug use, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Religious bigotry, and Alcohol

outcrye's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Eating disorder, Infidelity, Stalking, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Cursing, Drug use, Homophobia, Self harm, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Car accident

Minor: Racism and Vomit

nytephoenyx's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Oh wow.  Okay.  Where to start with THIS book.

I guess I’ll start by extending Shepard the benefit of the doubt.  I think she was trying to write the most sensational, over-the-top, unrealistic and ridiculous teenagers ever.  I think.  I think this was on purpose and not bad writing.  Right?

The next thing I’ll do it give Emily some props.  Of all the characters in this nightmare of a novel, I think that Emily was the most… human?  Her character is the only one here who I think could have had an actual, interesting, “doesn’t make me groan aloud and roll my eyes a lot” story.  I more or less enjoyed the pieces from Emily’s POV, but she was not enough to save this book as a whole.

That aside.  Wow.  Pretty Little Liars is an absolute train wreck.

Lets make a list of some NOPEs, shall we?

1. Elitism
2. Fatphobia
3. Bullying
4. Adult/minor relationships
5. Infidelity
6. Homophobia
7. Just… really terrible parents?  And friends.  And boyfriends.  And characters in general.

I am almost 100% sure I missed something there, but those are some of the things that made me want to hurl the book across the room… only this was an audiobook and my phone is expensive.  Pretty Little Liars came out when I was in high school, near the age of these girls, and I’m so grateful I didn’t pick it up at the time because I was impressionable and already really really conscious about my weight, and the Hannah storyline was hugely problematic and probably would have been impressionable on 16 y/o me.  So many of the characters in this novel make the most dramatic, unkind, unhealthy decisions possible.  It was more disturbing than “thrilling”, I guess, with particular emphasis toward Aria/Ezra being a big fat NOPE, Emily’s boyfriend’s behavior bringing me SO MUCH rage, and of course, Hannah’s storyline.

Okay that’s the characters.  Lets talk about some other things.

The pacing on this book was slow.  It feels like it should be quick, but between the four POVs, I honestly felt like nothing was happening.  We went through each of the POVs once and each of the girls did A Thing.  Then went went through them again, and the girls did more or less the same thing again.  Then through again, seeing the discovery.  Again, reacting.  End of book.  Nothing happened, and it took forever to get there.

I have issues with the realism of everything, but again, that falls into the arena of giving Shepard the benefit of the doubt on her choices here.

The writing as well was just… sort of icky.  There’s this scene early in the book where Spencer decides to strip down to her sports bra, underwear, and knee-high field hockey socks and go into the hot tub.  And for some reason that scene bothered me an extra lot.  Like it had it’s own problematic bits, but I honestly just couldn’t get past the fact Spencer went into the hot tub with knee-high socks.  Why?  Socks are the best thing to take off at the end of the day, especially after practice.  I’m pretty sure Shepard did it just to allow Spencer to be mortified at her lack of glamour when A BOY OMG OMG OMG OMG sees her.  For whatever reason, it was this scene that stuck with me as an example of the overall drama and ridiculousness that was this book.

There was a point as I was listening to it when I realised, Oh no.  I’m going to have to read a bunch to find out who A is.  Because the underlying story was intriguing.  It was just everything else about the book that I disliked.  Then I remembered – the series was over and I could Google the answer.  Thanks Internet, you beautiful spoiler machine!  Now I know the end of this series and don’t have to read any more… and wow was it anti-climatic.  I would have been annoyed to read sixteen books and have it end there.  Goodbye and good riddance, Pretty Little Liars!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Infidelity, Pedophilia, and Racism

Moderate: Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, and Stalking

Minor: Sexual content