Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard

Library Book, E-Book
Pub. Date: October 2009
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

(Pretty Little Liars Series #1)

Everyone has something to hide—especially high school juniors spencer, aria, emily, and hanna.

Spencer covets her sister’s boyfriend. Aria’s fantasizing about her English teacher. Emily’s crushing on the new girl at school. Hanna uses some ugly tricks to stay beautiful.

But they’ve all kept an even bigger secret since their friend Alison vanished.

How do I know? Because I know everything about the bad girls they were, the naughty girls they are, and all the dirty secrets they’ve kept. And guess what? I’m telling.

Alison, Spencer, Aria, Emily and Hanna were the IT girls at Rosewood Day School. They all had secrets, Alison seemed to know all their secrets while they didn’t know hers or each others. Then Alison disappeared and the rest of the girls drifted apart. Three years later they all start to receive messages, text and e-mails from “A”. Is it Alison, back to torment them? And if so, how does she know about their current secrets? Aria having an affair with her new AP English teacher, Emily likes kissing girls better then boys, Spencer steals her sister’s boyfriend and Hanna is battling bulimia (she is obsessed with being perfect). But if it’s not Alison, who is it?

This is classic Y.A. fiction revolving around privileged teen-age girls. Petty rivalries and jealousies, pressure to excel (from parents), to fit in (from peers). Plus the added angst of having a secret that could destroy their lives and someone who knows the secret and threatens to tell. The four girls have no idea who knows and who they can trust, they don’t even trust each other.

This is a typical Y.A. book, easy to read and follow, the plot was predictable at times but the storyline is good enough to carry you through to the end. I can’t wait for book #2.