A review by chrissymcbooknerd
Flawless, by Sara Shepard
4.0
Don't get too comfortable. It's not over until I say it is...
It's always hard to give an adequate review of the second book in a series without spoiling something from the first one, so it's probably best *not* to read this review if you haven't finished both the first and second novels. I'm sure a spoiler or two will slip out somewhere....
So, in book two we experience the trials that each girl encounters in attempting to hide her own individual secret that anonymous "A" threatens to expose. Aria has been dumped by her alluring English teacher, and "A" promises to expose her father's affair with a young college student to Aria's mother -- unless, of course, Aria steps up and tells her mother first. Emily's ex-boyfriend boasts that he will expose her new sexual explorations with neighbor Maya to the entire school, which leads Emily to seek out the attention of Toby -- a dangerous guy who knows about the Jenna thing -- and who may or may not have been the one to murder Alison! Spencer has stolen her sister Melissa's boyfriend, which has caused her family to completely shun her. Meanwhile, Spencer is the only one to know Alison's secret blackmail scheme involving the Jenna thing, which may be the one thing to implicate Toby in the whole mess. And, finally, Hannah's downward spiral of insecurity threatens to expose her secret eating disorder, especially when "A" gets herself involved when Hannah's ex-boyfriend starts paying more attention to Aria....
Sara Shepard definitely knows how to tell a fun, intriguing story that kept me reading in the late hours of the night. I was glad that we finally got more information about the whole Jenna scandal, although it wasn't quite as juicy as I had expected, honestly. And then the secret that Alison was holding over Toby which caused him to confess to a crime didn't commit -- I was disappointed in that one, for sure. It was almost *more* exciting NOT to know -- which left the possibilities open for something a little more exciting than what was ultimately revealed.
The more that the girls reveal about Alison, the more it left me wondering why they even bothered with her in the first place. She was obviously a mean girl bitch, bribing and blackmailing friends and enemies alike, bullying even her best friends -- for no other reason than the fact that she could get away with it. If this were a paranormal series, I could totally see Alison being the real "A" -- although, at this point, I'm leaning more towards a mixture of Toby (that whole statement about him being glad that Alison was dead -- yikes!) and Mona (who I keep expecting Hannah to dump at any point! Doesn't she realize that Mona just happens to show up at most of the places where the secret gossip "A" spreads is located?). As far as who killed Alison? I have no clue yet on that one...
My one big complaint about this series so far -- and don't get me wrong here, because I do think Shepard has amazing story-telling abilities -- is the constant repeating of bland emotional expressions, regardless of what the character is attempting to convey. I swear, she must have had every character *swallow* in whatever way she wanted them to be seen -- a nervous swallow, a gulp, a slow swallow, blah blah BLAH! Oh, and then their hearts beat loudly or slowly or nervously or else they just "start pounding". Please, a thesaurus! If book three contains so many variations on swallowing, I may just go nuts!
Of course, I really want to know what happens, so I'm sure I'll keep reading anyways....
It's always hard to give an adequate review of the second book in a series without spoiling something from the first one, so it's probably best *not* to read this review if you haven't finished both the first and second novels. I'm sure a spoiler or two will slip out somewhere....
So, in book two we experience the trials that each girl encounters in attempting to hide her own individual secret that anonymous "A" threatens to expose. Aria has been dumped by her alluring English teacher, and "A" promises to expose her father's affair with a young college student to Aria's mother -- unless, of course, Aria steps up and tells her mother first. Emily's ex-boyfriend boasts that he will expose her new sexual explorations with neighbor Maya to the entire school, which leads Emily to seek out the attention of Toby -- a dangerous guy who knows about the Jenna thing -- and who may or may not have been the one to murder Alison! Spencer has stolen her sister Melissa's boyfriend, which has caused her family to completely shun her. Meanwhile, Spencer is the only one to know Alison's secret blackmail scheme involving the Jenna thing, which may be the one thing to implicate Toby in the whole mess. And, finally, Hannah's downward spiral of insecurity threatens to expose her secret eating disorder, especially when "A" gets herself involved when Hannah's ex-boyfriend starts paying more attention to Aria....
Sara Shepard definitely knows how to tell a fun, intriguing story that kept me reading in the late hours of the night. I was glad that we finally got more information about the whole Jenna scandal, although it wasn't quite as juicy as I had expected, honestly. And then the secret that Alison was holding over Toby which caused him to confess to a crime didn't commit -- I was disappointed in that one, for sure. It was almost *more* exciting NOT to know -- which left the possibilities open for something a little more exciting than what was ultimately revealed.
The more that the girls reveal about Alison, the more it left me wondering why they even bothered with her in the first place. She was obviously a mean girl bitch, bribing and blackmailing friends and enemies alike, bullying even her best friends -- for no other reason than the fact that she could get away with it. If this were a paranormal series, I could totally see Alison being the real "A" -- although, at this point, I'm leaning more towards a mixture of Toby (that whole statement about him being glad that Alison was dead -- yikes!) and Mona (who I keep expecting Hannah to dump at any point! Doesn't she realize that Mona just happens to show up at most of the places where the secret gossip "A" spreads is located?). As far as who killed Alison? I have no clue yet on that one...
My one big complaint about this series so far -- and don't get me wrong here, because I do think Shepard has amazing story-telling abilities -- is the constant repeating of bland emotional expressions, regardless of what the character is attempting to convey. I swear, she must have had every character *swallow* in whatever way she wanted them to be seen -- a nervous swallow, a gulp, a slow swallow, blah blah BLAH! Oh, and then their hearts beat loudly or slowly or nervously or else they just "start pounding". Please, a thesaurus! If book three contains so many variations on swallowing, I may just go nuts!
Of course, I really want to know what happens, so I'm sure I'll keep reading anyways....