Comment

Jun 24, 2015amnahas rated this title 1.5 out of 5 stars
My initial thought on Pretty Little Liars was that it had an extremely unique premise, especially for a YA book. Unfortunately, it truly fell flat for me. The characters were unreal beyond belief. Throughout the entire book, I was wondering if it was all a big joke--if this was actually a satire on young society today, but the overall arc of the book was serious, so confusion abounded. The rampant dishonesty, thievery, petulant temper tantrums, pretentiousness etc. were flaws for all the characters. However, instead of adding depth to their personalities, these flaws completely overrode them. The pacing of the book was great though. I was surprised that for a book with such limited action, it didn't completely lose my interest. Naturally, there was a lot of near-repetition, but it comes with the territory of writing from the perspectives of four characters. Additionally, the increasing complexities of the lies being told and secrets being held was nice. At first read, you are introduced to the secrets of all the characters in about the first ~50 pages or so of the book, but then the secrets get more complex as the girls go about their daily lives. The choices in secrets could have been more scandalous or impactful, but ultimately, it worked out. So, this book had superficial, one-dimensional characters, a decent plot, and an extremely promising idea. That doesn't justify 1.5 stars. What really brought this book down for me was the focus on sex. I get it, sex is scandalous, it's an easy way to create massive conflicts, but overusing it is not an answer. Not to dissuade anyone, however, it isn't wantonly overused or described, but I personally just find it a cheap out for creating conflict. Looking at it from a different point of view, it could even make the book more entertaining for many people.