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37 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
As satisfying as a pint of Ben & Jerry's...without the calories, October 3, 2006
The summer after seventh grade started out fine, but when Alison "Ali," one of Rosewood, Pennsylvania's most popular girls vanished, things changed. While her closest friends (Spencer, Aria, Hanna, and Emily) have all moved on, and are now juniors in high school, she was never seen again. The girls, wanting to move away from the secrets Ali took with her, broke apart, and made new friends. Putting the scandalous past behind them. Spencer began competing non-stop with her older sister, Melissa, for her parents affections, but one little slip-up, and her good girl image is shattered; Aria moved away to Iceland, but has returned, only to find that everyone she used to know (including the guy she was always crushing on) has stayed the same, stagnant, stuck in one place; Emily has tried to move on, and forget about the feelings she held for Ali, but when a new girl moves into Ali's old room, she must come to terms with the truth; and Hanna, who went from "little piggy" to Paris Hilton-wannabe, has found herself in deep water, being questioned by the police on an almost weekly basis. But now, they must confront their old secrets, and join forces once again, for someone known only as "A" is onto them. Someone who knows things about them that only Ali knew. Someone who gets off on sending them threatening messages. Now the girls are confused, since Ali was never found, how on earth could she be contacting them. She should be dead. She should be on some other plane, millions of miles from them. But maybe...she's not.
I have one guilty pleasure. No, it's not chocolate, or sweets. In fact, it has nothing to do with food. It's books about the rich. Their scandalous lives, and the constant shopping they spend most of their time doing. But no YA book has come even close to the amount of scandal found within the pages of Sara Shepard's PRETTY LITTLE LIARS. From page one I was intrigued by the secrets that these four (or should I say five?) girls shared. From blow-ups to make-ups, and everything in between. The characters found within these pages are beyond young and beautiful. There's an evil that lurks around them. An evil that is unexplainable and addicting. Each girl possesses her very own unique personality. Personalities that will draw readers in, in droves, and keep them reading long into the night. From Spencer's wandering eyes; to Aria's fondness for older men; and Hanna's thirst for attention; to Emily's constant confusion regarding her relationships; every reader will find the ability to mesh with one of these...scandalous characters. As satisfying as a pint of Ben & Jerry's...without the calories.
Erika Sorocco
Freelance Reviewer
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30 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
you won't want to put this one down!!!, May 4, 2007
Okay, I found out about this book from one of my freshmen. She brought it in one day and asked me if I could please read it, because she absolutely LOVED the book and needed someone to talk to about it....and said that her friends weren't really "into reading." I took the book home, thinking that I'd get around to it later.....maybe next week. Maybe not. I was wrong. I started reading when I got home and couldn't put the book down. You won't want to put it down either. It really IS that good.
Other reviews have basically told the story here: five friends are bound by a secret, referred to as "the Jenna thing," until one of the girls, Alison, goes missing at the end of their seventh grade year. Skip ahead to eleventh grade, when the remaining four girls begin receiving alarming text messages. It's a mystery that grabs you and won't let go.
I've seen several copies of this book (and #2 Flawless) floating around our school lately, thanks to word of mouth advertising. I'm 30something and LOVED the book...my students are 14-18 years old and also love it. Friendship, mystery, boys, all of the big topics pop up in this book. Grab a copy and get hooked!
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Who is "A"?, January 12, 2009
Imagine you are BFF with the most popular girl in school. Everyone else wants to be you. Of course you love the power you have that so many people are envious of you, but secretly you truly wonder if being her BFF is a blessing or a curse. Now imagine it's the start of the summer between seventh and eighth grade and you and your BFF are celebrating by having your annual summer sleepover. Things don't go quite as planned and the two of you end up fighting and she walks out of your house. The very next morning you hear from her mom and you just know something terrible has happened. Suddenly days turn into weeks and before you know it the summer has ended, school has started and still no word from your BFF. She just simply disappeared off the face of the earth. Although you do not wish her any harm, you have to admit, there's a part of you that's relieved that she's gone. You start to feel freer and less burdened because all the secrets she knows about you, have vanished along with her. Horrible to think, some might say, but if they knew what she knew about you, they might feel exactly the same.
This is how it is for Aria, Spencer, Hanna and Emily. Alison, Ali, disappears during their slumber party. After her disappearance, the four friends gradually drift apart until no one can even recall they were once friends. It's now three years later and the teens are about to start their junior year. Spencer is very anal, in competition with her older sister about everything (and a certain someone); Hanna is now the new "it" girl, but carries a terrible secret about her drastic makeover; Aria is back from Iceland with her family and has a crush on a new boy, unfortunately she just found out he's her new English teacher; and Emily is the all-american good girl doing what she can to please her parents, that is until she meets Maya...
All four have secrets, secrets that they want to stay buried. Secrets that only one other person knows about: Ali. During the first week of school, each start to receive texts about their secrets, threatening to expose them. Each text is simply signed "A" and naturally the girls think Ali is back. But is she? Not only does "A" haunt them with their past, "A" knows what they are hiding now. It's as though each girl is being watched.
I really enjoyed this first book of the series and devoured it in one sitting. It's fast-paced, with short chapters and you just want to keep reading to learn more about what each girl is hiding. The story goes back and forth between past and present, but it's not confusing at all. After each girl receives a text, the author will go back to the past to explain its relevancy. Actually, I thought it added to the suspense.
Although this is a young adult novel, I have reservations about preteens reading it. There are mature themes discussed in the book and if younger children read it, I suggest the parents read it as well and have a conversation about these topics.
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