A review by tashfa
Sara Shepard Collection: Pretty Little Liars, Killer, Perfect, Unbelievable, Wicked, Flawless & Heartless (Pretty Little Liars, #1-6) by Sara Shepard
3.0
(*2.75 stars)
You can also read this review on my blog.
I’m a huge fan of mystery and suspense in fiction so when my best friend recommended PLL to me, I obviously had to read it. I started reading this book expecting it to be a stirring story with lots of suspense that’ll keep me at the edge of my seat… unfortunately, this book was not exactly what I expected it to be. As far as I know, many flaws in this book have been fixed in the TV show but I have to admit that I did not love this book, even though I did sort of enjoy it. So, read on to know why I gave this book about 3 stars.
Three years ago, Alison disappeared after a slumber party, not to be seen since. Her friends at the elite Pennsylvania school mourned her, but they also breathed secret sighs of relief. Each of them guarded a secret that only Alison had known. Now they have other dirty little secrets, secrets that could sink them in their gossip-hungry world. When each of them begins receiving anonymous emails and text messages, panic sets in. Are they being betrayed by someone in their circle? Worse yet: Is Alison back?
I want to start by talking about the characters. There are characters who are annoying or morally-grey but are still quite likeable and then there were Hannah, Emily, Aria and Spencer who somehow managed to make me roll my eyes so hard at least 37 times while reading this book. I totally get it that they are teenagers and are supposed to behave like they did but I still had many issues with their characters. Firstly, I could not relate to them at all. They were unrealistically rich and I felt like this book was just an advertisement of 200+ pages for brands that are famous enough to not need ads. Secondly, they didn’t have many likeable qualities. I’m someone who’d be absolutely OK with reading a book that has a mediocre plot and ordinary writing as long as the characters are complex and well-developed—which they were not in Pretty Little Liars. Yes, I know that there are like more than 10 books in this series and the characters will probably develop as the story progresses but if I feel like the first book is not compelling enough, why would I read the rest of the series?! Honestly, I couldn’t care less about these characters and that is probably the biggest reason why this book was such a disappointment.
I did not like Shepard’s writing style; some unforgivably cringeworthy dialogues and the not-so-good pacing exasperated me a lot. I also felt that this book had some super irritating, timeworn clichés and the book would have been so much better without them.
And don’t even get me started on the romance in PLL. At times, it felt more of a romance novel with a dash of mystery instead of a mystery thriller with romantic sub-plots. Most of the love interests had like 0% personality and the relationships were somewhat problematic. Again, I almost eye-rolled to another dimension because of the romance.
No, I did not dislike everything about this book; there were a couple of things that I did like. I appreciate that there’s some diversity in PLL. The mystery was intriguing but, as I said earlier, it did not appear to be the major element of the story. It was not the OMG-I-don’t-need-sleep-I-need-answers kind of mystery but it was better than the other things in this book.
Overall, Pretty Little Liars was just… meh. And I probably wouldn’t read the rest of the books in this series. 😊
You can also read this review on my blog.
I’m a huge fan of mystery and suspense in fiction so when my best friend recommended PLL to me, I obviously had to read it. I started reading this book expecting it to be a stirring story with lots of suspense that’ll keep me at the edge of my seat… unfortunately, this book was not exactly what I expected it to be. As far as I know, many flaws in this book have been fixed in the TV show but I have to admit that I did not love this book, even though I did sort of enjoy it. So, read on to know why I gave this book about 3 stars.
Three years ago, Alison disappeared after a slumber party, not to be seen since. Her friends at the elite Pennsylvania school mourned her, but they also breathed secret sighs of relief. Each of them guarded a secret that only Alison had known. Now they have other dirty little secrets, secrets that could sink them in their gossip-hungry world. When each of them begins receiving anonymous emails and text messages, panic sets in. Are they being betrayed by someone in their circle? Worse yet: Is Alison back?
I want to start by talking about the characters. There are characters who are annoying or morally-grey but are still quite likeable and then there were Hannah, Emily, Aria and Spencer who somehow managed to make me roll my eyes so hard at least 37 times while reading this book. I totally get it that they are teenagers and are supposed to behave like they did but I still had many issues with their characters. Firstly, I could not relate to them at all. They were unrealistically rich and I felt like this book was just an advertisement of 200+ pages for brands that are famous enough to not need ads. Secondly, they didn’t have many likeable qualities. I’m someone who’d be absolutely OK with reading a book that has a mediocre plot and ordinary writing as long as the characters are complex and well-developed—which they were not in Pretty Little Liars. Yes, I know that there are like more than 10 books in this series and the characters will probably develop as the story progresses but if I feel like the first book is not compelling enough, why would I read the rest of the series?! Honestly, I couldn’t care less about these characters and that is probably the biggest reason why this book was such a disappointment.
I did not like Shepard’s writing style; some unforgivably cringeworthy dialogues and the not-so-good pacing exasperated me a lot. I also felt that this book had some super irritating, timeworn clichés and the book would have been so much better without them.
And don’t even get me started on the romance in PLL. At times, it felt more of a romance novel with a dash of mystery instead of a mystery thriller with romantic sub-plots. Most of the love interests had like 0% personality and the relationships were somewhat problematic. Again, I almost eye-rolled to another dimension because of the romance.
No, I did not dislike everything about this book; there were a couple of things that I did like. I appreciate that there’s some diversity in PLL. The mystery was intriguing but, as I said earlier, it did not appear to be the major element of the story. It was not the OMG-I-don’t-need-sleep-I-need-answers kind of mystery but it was better than the other things in this book.Overall, Pretty Little Liars was just… meh. And I probably wouldn’t read the rest of the books in this series. 😊