Trigger warning: Eating disorders(only at the beginning of the series), some drug abuse, some drinking and LGBT themes.
I gave all the books 5/5 Lily Pads except for "Pretty Little Secrets" which I gave 4/5 Lily Pads
I really recommend this series to everyone. I think it's one of those series that everyone needs to read, especially if you're a teenager. These books can be pretty dark for YA, but the books all include a lot of themes that are really important to read about. This series includes a lot of family and friend relationships. I think kids and teens can learn a lot of lessons from these books. I started reading these books as a 20 year old and I still learned lessons from reading them.
Hey everyone, I'm back with a review. It's been a month since I last posted. Today I have a full series review for the "Pretty Little Liars" series by Sara Shepard. I just finished reading "Ali's Pretty Little Lies" last night so I'm officially done with this series. My feelings are bittersweet. I loved this series, it's one of my favorite series now and I'm sad that it's over. I'm also happy it's over though because 18 books is a lot of books for a series. This is probably the biggest series I've ever read. This is going to be spoiler-free so if you haven't read the series yet, you can still read this. Let's get on to my review!
The Plot (From Wikipedia)
The series follows the lives of four teenage girls nicknamed the Pretty little Liars or simply the Liars, whose clique falls apart after the disappearance of their Queen bee
leader, "Alison DiLaurentis". One year after her disappearance, the
girls begin receiving threatening messages from an anonymous character
named "A," who threatens to expose their secrets, including long-hidden
ones they thought only Alison knew. Shortly after the messages begin,
Alison's body is discovered buried in her yard. The books progress with
the four girls trying to figure out the identity of "A" and facing many
dangerous obstacles and twists as they do so.
Spencer Hastings: Spencer is a headstrong, intelligent, overachieving girl who comes from the wealthy Hastings family.
Hanna Marin: Hanna is the
bubbly, strong, and fierce "it-girl" of the group following Alison's
disappearance. She suffers from an eating disorder, about which she
received taunts from Alison.Aria Montgomery: Aria is a quirky and artsy girl who, at the beginning of the books, is trying to find herself.
Emily Fields: Emily is considered the jock of the group, being a physical, loyal girl who struggles with her sexuality.
Alison DiLaurentis: Alison is the former "Queen Bee" of her clique, consisting of: Spencer, Hanna, Aria and Emily. She had supposedly been killed at the beginning of the series.
My Opinion
First of all, I want to think my booktube friend "Rachel" from "Thelittlereadinglamb" for getting me to read this series. At first I had no interest in reading the series, and I had no interest in watching the tv show. But then last January, Rachel started a read-along for the whole series. I actually found the first book for free on kindle so I thought I'd give it a try. I ended up really enjoying the book so I decided to continue the read-along by reading one book a month. I just finished the last book the other night and I'm so glad I gave this series a try. This series was just so amazing! I loved it so much!
The Writing
I really like her writing style. I'm not picky about author's writing styles and I don't really pay attention to the writing. I like to focus more on the characters. Her writing is very simple and easy to read. I flew through the books in about two days. She's really great with pacing and I love all the plot twists she puts in the books. Overall, Sara is a great writer and I can't wait to read more books from her.
The Plot
I thought the plot for this series was very unique. It gave me a "Gossip Girl" vibe which is funny because this series was created by the same company that created "Gossip Girl". I love the mystery aspect, these books kept me guessing and thinking. This series actually got me into reading thrillers. I thought the whole thing with "A" was really creepy but very cool at the same time. I never read a book about a stalker before so it was very different but awesome to me. I would call this series a "Murder Mystery" too because a lot of characters die throughout the series. Overall, I loved the plot and I never read anything like it before.
The Characters
This series has a lot of characters. I can't name them all because there's too many. I'm just going to talk about the main characters. When I read the first two books, I didn't really like the girls. As I got farther into the series I ended up really liking them. They all have their flaws, they did things they shouldn't have. I like Spencer, Aria, Hanna and Emily because I can relate to all of them in a way.
I can relate to Spencer because her family is all about high expectations. I'm not saying my family is exactly like that. Spencer and her sister Melissa used to be rivals. Their parents would give all their attention to Melissa and only care about her and I found that so relatable. In my family I always got the least attention and I felt that I wasn't as good as my sisters and they were perfect and I wasn't. I just found that part of her relatable. As for Emily, I can relate to her because she was known as the "good girl". She was the perfect daughter and the perfect teenager. She never did bad things and she was so sweet and nice. Throughout the books she starts to do things that her parents wouldn't approve of. I can relate to her because I'm considered a "good girl". I don't do bad things and I try to be a good person. I think I found Emily the most relatable actually.
I can relate to Hanna because I used to be really insecure about myself and my body in High School. Hanna used to be chubby and geeky and that was me in school. I was always chubby and curvy and I still am, but I'm comfortable with my body now. I totally understand why Hanna was like that. And lastly I found Aria relatable because she's very artsy. I would consider myself an artistic person because I'm a musician and I love to write and dance too. So overall, I loved the girls because they were very likable and relatable. I felt so bad for them because they go through so much in the books at a young age. I really wanted them to have a happy ending. I loved the girls and I'm sad that the series is over.
So overall I really loved the "Pretty Little Liars" series. I'm so glad I gave this series a try. These books were way out of my comfort zone and they got me into reading darker books now. If your wondering if it's worth reading this very long series, it is so worth it! I loved all 18 books! This series was just so incredible and amazing. I highly recommend this series to everyone, please give it a try. If you love the show I still recommend reading the books even though it's completely different. I've seen the show, I'm actually on the second season and I love the show so far! So yeah that was my spoiler-free review for the entire PLL series. Thanks so much for reading! These books are definitely worth buying and yeah that's my review. Thanks again and I will have a review up soon for the "Remnant Chronicles". Stay tuned for that and thanks so much for all the love and support, bye! :)
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