Book Review: Pretty Little Liars

TITLE: Pretty Little Liars
PART IN SERIES: Book 1 in the Pretty Little Liars series
AUTHOR: Sara Shepard
PUBLISHED: 2006
CATEGORY: Young adult
GENRE: series, drama, mystery, chick lit
PREMISE: four girls at Rosewood all have something in common: secrets. It turns out someone else knows these secrets and is threatening to use it against them.
MY REVIEW: If you think this sounds an awful lot like Gossip Girl, you're pretty much right. At least this is slightly more interesting then Gossip Girl though. However, it's only slightly. The problem is I don't care for any of the characters at all. I don't like any of them. I find all of them to be self-privledged whiny brats who quite frankly got themselves in the situations because they were immature and slightly stupid. So it's a little hard for me to want to continue the series but the thing is, I really want to know who A is so I may or may not pick up the next one in the library, or I'll just watch the TV Show which looks like it'll be less painful.
The writing is amatuerish at best, there's next to no plot, except for the painfully slow revelation of secrets which doesn't really count because nothing is ever solved. I found the heap of sex, drinking, and altogether immoral activity (shop-lifting, cheating) to be slightly ridiculous. I'm not naive, I know teens drink, swear, and think of sex but everyone in the town doing it which is what it seems to be in this book? That's over the top. Plus there was a lot of annoying name-dropping of pop culture references and brands. It got tiresome.
I am aware however, that I'm not the target audience and I do give Shepard credit for not being afraid of having same-sex situations in it even if I didn't care for how she handled it. For those who want something like Gossip Girl though, this series is probably great for you. As for me, I will be watching the premiere of the TV Show on ABCFamily which is on Tuesday to see if I like the show better. But I'll probably skip on the rest of the series.
WHO SHOULD READ: fans of Gossip Girl, Clique etc.
MY RATING: Two and a half out of Five handbags

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