'Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.' -Benjamin Franklin.It's really weird to read a book that you are intimately aware of but never read. The television series Pretty Little Liars was one of my favorite shows despite my being outside of the target demographic, but I enjoyed the mystery and premise of the early seasons before things dragged on for far too long. Many people recommended the book series to me and it is finally time for me to take that plunge.
If you've watched the television series it is important to note that there were adjustments to the timeline and events from the book (as always, got to make it more interesting for tv). It's been three years since Ali disappeared from a sleepover with her four best friends. Now it is right before the start of their junior year at Rosewood Day, a prestigious prep school, and the girls that were once inseparable are like strangers to one another. Aria, Hanna, Spencer, and Emily are going about their lives, still haunted by the secrets that Ali held over their heads and embarking on adventures that they would hate for others to find out about.
'I'm still here, bitches. And I know everything. -A'Shepard did a good job isolating the four former friends throughout this book. You get a sense of each character, their complicated histories with Alison and each other, and their deepest secrets that Ali held over their heads. The girls don't really even interact with one another until the final ten pages of the book and it was charming to see the tension fall away as they took comfort in one another. We all have those friends that we drift apart from but when you reconnect it is like no time has passed, and for these girls they seem to have found home in one another. They are bound together by the past and the mysterious A that has been sending them threatening messages about the secrets no one but Alison knew.
'What if the texts were from Ali's ghost? [...] And spirits from the dead sometimes contacted the living to make amends, right? It was like their final homework assignment before graduating to heaven'Of the changes from the book that the tv show made, the most apparent was to make the cast more diverse and appeal to a wider audience. The only characters of color in the book so far are Maya (black) and Wren (half Korean) in a very affluent, stereo-typically country club preppy town. I think that was an excellent choice. I am hoping that Emily's mother's apparent racism is challenged in the text in future books.
Overall I really enjoyed Pretty Little Liars and am excited to read the next book in the series. This is a light read but enjoyable, and you can tell that the story and mystery have been plotted well. This is a young adult book that handles some sensitive topics and also captures the feelings of being in the awkward teenage years. I'd recommend this for mid/upper YA readers based on the content of the book.
Representation: two characters of color (black, half-Korean), LGBT+ (f/f)
Content/trigger warnings: bulimia, cutting (referenced), racism ("I just don't see what you have in common with people like that," unchallenged so far), sexual situations, teacher/high school student relationship, underage drinking
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