Reviews with content warning for Suicidal thoughts - Pretty Little Liars TV Tie-In Edition

Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

Pretty Little Liars TV Tie-In Edition by Sara Shepard

3 reviews

ameliaflint's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

Guilty pleasure. I actually love this book. But it's SO RIDICULOUS. Twelve-year-old seventh graders are not going about having sex with eighteen-year-old seniors or drinking or partying. I giggle a little every time I remember Alison was like twelve when she disappeared.

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fanboyriot's review against another edition

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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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nytephoenyx's review against another edition

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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?

Elitism
Fatphobia
Bullying
Adult/minor relationships
Infidelity
Homophobia
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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