Monday, April 23, 2012

Flawless (PLL #2) by Sara Shepard - Review

Flawless by Sara Shepard
Publisher: HarperCollins
Release Date: March 15, 2007
Source: Own
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“The sweetest smiles hold the darkest secrets...”

The story of the four Pretty Little Liars continues with the second installment, Flawless. Three years after Queen Bee Alison DiLaurentis goes missing, former best friends Aria, Emily, Hanna, and Spencer each receive mysterious and intimate text messages from an anonymous "A". After learning of what happened to Ali, the four girls, who were once icy strangers, slowly come together to try and decode who A is.

There were many parts of this book that were much more enthralling than in book one, which I mention in a review is very slow-paced. I recently realized that the first whole book is described in the first episode of the show. With this realization in mind, I find it hard to understand the thoughts of those who find the books much more fast-paced. However, the tempo of this book is much more acceptable, and it contains a wider variety of occurrences.

Each girl is dealing with her own personal problem throughout the book. For example, Ali knew at least one very dear secret about each of the girls that no one else knew about. It is that one secret or secrets that A taunts each of the girls with. Spoiler: (view spoiler)[Spencer stealing her sister's boyfriends, Hanna's eating disorder, Aria's father's unfaithfulness, and Emily's uncertainty about her sexuality. (hide spoiler)] The uniqueness of each of the girls keeps the reader interested in the story and it prevents the plot from becoming too boring.

So far, there are numerous, and very important, differences between the book and the show. It's pretty funny how almost everyone in the show look the exact opposite of how they are described in the book. For example, Emily is described as having red-blonde hair, Hanna having dark auburn hair, and Spencer having ash-blonde hair. Not only are the appearances of the characters polar opposites between book and show, but the situations in the girls' lives also slightly differ. Some of these differences include: a more detailed relationship between Spencer & Wren, Aria & Sean get together, and instead of being homophobic, Emily's mother appears to be racist.

My favorite part of this book was probably Emily and Toby's bond. I thought that was extremely heart-warming, and if you read the book, you will know what I mean when I say that the ending was absolutely depressing. I did not see it coming at all, not even from reading PLL forums on IMDB. I also loved Kate and Hanna's scene, and was starting to like Kate and thought things would be different in the book, but she has to go ahead and ruin everything like always.

All in all, I recommend this book series to fans of chick lit and drama. For readers who are wary to read it because they're afraid they'll be spoiled about A: don't worry. The book series can and should almost be treated as a different story entirely from the show. There are many details in the book that were not mentioned in the show, and when you think you are expecting something, something else happens! I will say that the one negative thing about this book is that it took me forever to read because some parts were flat out boring and it did not hold my attention long enough. However, in the end, it is worth reading through the boring parts because we get to experience a different world of PLL than the show.



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