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3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
This book was awesome. One of the reasons I appreciate this series is that it seems that it doesn't follow the TV series, at all. This book brought us closer and closer to finding A...Or so it seems.
this book deserves 1000 stars purely because the girls finally told the police about everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!
this book was actually quite gripping and i loved it. we find out who helper a is and i was actually really shocked. i thought it was going to be another person!
the ending did feel a bit rushed, felt like i was getting whiplash from all the twists but i loved it - !!
this final story arc has been so strong i almost forgive sara shepard for books 8 to 12! i am keen to get started on the second last book tonight!
this book was actually quite gripping and i loved it. we find out who helper a is and i was actually really shocked. i thought it was going to be another person!
the ending did feel a bit rushed, felt like i was getting whiplash from all the twists but i loved it -
Spoiler
one second they're being deported to jamaica to be sentenced, then next minute they came face-to-face with A (and a wild time ensues!)this final story arc has been so strong i almost forgive sara shepard for books 8 to 12! i am keen to get started on the second last book tonight!
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Ok,this was a bit better because we finally got a real answer about some who's and how's and what the hell's. I'm afraid book 15 will just be filler before the final book but we'll see.
Ya know, for 16 books in, this really was quite good! I'm glad we finally figured out who helper a was though. Kinda sad to see Ali herself go downhill, but I gUess the rotten outside is a good metaphor for her rotting insides.
I find it kind of weird that this book starts with a quote from Jim Morrison. Even though there was one positive mention of Radiohead, I don’t think they’ve ever mentioned any other alternative band, and the characters seem like they almost go out of their way to mock anyone with an alternative style. So it seems strange that the first page would have a quote from the singer of a rock band. To me, it would make a lot more sense to have a quote from a band that the characters like. Spencer likes Radiohead. Perhaps, “This is what you get when you mess with us” from “Karma Police” would be more fitting for the story? The quote used in this book is “No one here gets out alive.” which could also fit with the events of this book, but the fact that Noel isn’t actually dead, and all of the main characters survived makes it seem almost overly dramatic. I’m probably reading way too much into this, and one quote does not matter this much, but I still find it weird. I don’t remember if the other books have quotes at the beginning because these books aren’t the most memorable thing, and I wouldn’t remember a quote unless it stood out to me for some reason. Like this one.
I don’t think I can necessarily say that I liked this book, but I think it was possibly better than the ones that came before it.
This book took a different turn than the others. Even though bad things happened in those books-people died and there were two books where the main characters came very close to dying-this one came a lot closer to the main characters dying. Also, there was the whole thing with the arrest, which added a lot more tension. I read the entirety of this book in a day, which I’ve done before for this series, and, where I would normally be getting really tired of it and wanting to put it down, I didn’t feel that with this book. They finally went to the police, and finally started getting somewhere with finding “A” and figuring out who’s helping her. I don’t want to say that this is the Pretty Little Liars book I’ve been waiting for, but it seemed a little more realistic than the others and it was more of a page turner than the previous books. If all the other books in the series had been like this, I may have actually liked them more.
It’s really a shame that you have to get fourteen books into a series before it starts to get good. Not everyone is going to read every book in the series just to see how it ends or if it gets good. In addition to that, this wasn’t a gradual change in the writing. It’s not like the author got better and better, and this is the book where it all really came together. It went from being somewhat unrealistic and repetitive to feeling like a more serious thriller.
Maybe part of what made me like this one more was that there was more stuff about Ali. Villains can be very interesting when done well, and Ali seems to be a twisted, disturbing villain, who will, hopefully, end up being developed a lot more during the last books.
My one complaint about Ali is that she’s not relatable. The best villains are the ones where you can understand why they made the decisions they did, and maybe you could see yourself doing the same things in those circumstances. Maybe some people could do that with Ali, but I can’t. She was wronged by her sister, so wanting revenge doesn’t seem unrealistic, but the lengths that she goes to to get revenge are extreme to say the least. What makes her scary is the fact that she seems to have lost her mind, but she’s still highly intelligent and able to stay one step ahead of everyone, which does make for a villain who is unsettling. The truly good villains, though, are the ones who are taken one step further and become relatable. Those villains seem so much more real to us, so they’re more disturbing. Yes, a murder who’s completely insane but highly intelligent is scary, but they lack something.
All of that said, I didn’t love the book, and it did have its flaws. There are still weird, unrealistic plot lines that have carried over from the other books, and there are still far too many mentions of clothing brands. Even though some aspects of it are more realistic than they were in other books, the characters still overreact to most things, and there’s more suspension of disbelief than I think there should be in a mystery novel.
I don’t think there’s really much else to say about this. Some of the things are good only because they were bad for thirteen books. The romantic relationships in this book weren’t great. Mike seems like he’s blindly following Hanna and possibly too in love with her, so there’s that, but the relationships in the other books were so much worse that these are good in comparison.
I don’t know what to rate this. If it had been earlier in the series, I probably would have given it a solid three stars. Maybe three and a half. While it wasn’t great, it wasn’t bad. It was interesting. However, this isn’t one of the first books in a series. This isn’t a case of an author just getting the hang of writing, and being able to make everything work out nicely. By the time this book was published, the author already had at least thirteen books out, so I don’t think it could be argued that she just now got the hang of writing.
Two or two and a half stars. I can’t decide which is more appropriate.
You can read more of my reviews at https://haphazardlyreading.wordpress.com/
I don’t think I can necessarily say that I liked this book, but I think it was possibly better than the ones that came before it.
This book took a different turn than the others. Even though bad things happened in those books-people died and there were two books where the main characters came very close to dying-this one came a lot closer to the main characters dying. Also, there was the whole thing with the arrest, which added a lot more tension. I read the entirety of this book in a day, which I’ve done before for this series, and, where I would normally be getting really tired of it and wanting to put it down, I didn’t feel that with this book. They finally went to the police, and finally started getting somewhere with finding “A” and figuring out who’s helping her. I don’t want to say that this is the Pretty Little Liars book I’ve been waiting for, but it seemed a little more realistic than the others and it was more of a page turner than the previous books. If all the other books in the series had been like this, I may have actually liked them more.
It’s really a shame that you have to get fourteen books into a series before it starts to get good. Not everyone is going to read every book in the series just to see how it ends or if it gets good. In addition to that, this wasn’t a gradual change in the writing. It’s not like the author got better and better, and this is the book where it all really came together. It went from being somewhat unrealistic and repetitive to feeling like a more serious thriller.
Maybe part of what made me like this one more was that there was more stuff about Ali. Villains can be very interesting when done well, and Ali seems to be a twisted, disturbing villain, who will, hopefully, end up being developed a lot more during the last books.
My one complaint about Ali is that she’s not relatable. The best villains are the ones where you can understand why they made the decisions they did, and maybe you could see yourself doing the same things in those circumstances. Maybe some people could do that with Ali, but I can’t. She was wronged by her sister, so wanting revenge doesn’t seem unrealistic, but the lengths that she goes to to get revenge are extreme to say the least. What makes her scary is the fact that she seems to have lost her mind, but she’s still highly intelligent and able to stay one step ahead of everyone, which does make for a villain who is unsettling. The truly good villains, though, are the ones who are taken one step further and become relatable. Those villains seem so much more real to us, so they’re more disturbing. Yes, a murder who’s completely insane but highly intelligent is scary, but they lack something.
All of that said, I didn’t love the book, and it did have its flaws. There are still weird, unrealistic plot lines that have carried over from the other books, and there are still far too many mentions of clothing brands. Even though some aspects of it are more realistic than they were in other books, the characters still overreact to most things, and there’s more suspension of disbelief than I think there should be in a mystery novel.
I don’t think there’s really much else to say about this. Some of the things are good only because they were bad for thirteen books. The romantic relationships in this book weren’t great. Mike seems like he’s blindly following Hanna and possibly too in love with her, so there’s that, but the relationships in the other books were so much worse that these are good in comparison.
I don’t know what to rate this. If it had been earlier in the series, I probably would have given it a solid three stars. Maybe three and a half. While it wasn’t great, it wasn’t bad. It was interesting. However, this isn’t one of the first books in a series. This isn’t a case of an author just getting the hang of writing, and being able to make everything work out nicely. By the time this book was published, the author already had at least thirteen books out, so I don’t think it could be argued that she just now got the hang of writing.
Two or two and a half stars. I can’t decide which is more appropriate.
You can read more of my reviews at https://haphazardlyreading.wordpress.com/
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Medical trauma, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder
Moderate: Sexual content, Violence
Minor: Infidelity
THIS WAS GREAT!! I loved this installation of the PLL series, I think this one might be my favourite of the series so far! I did not see the twist coming at all but it made perfect sense when it did. I love when plot twist comes out of left field, but not so far out they don't make any sense! I though this tied all the previous books together so beautifully and I was genuinely shocked... It also helped our power cut out at the most terrifying part, really rounded out the experience for me haha This one was really just excellent and I can't wait to see how the last two books wrap up this series!
This book had a lot more action than the previous few in the series which I was so thankful for because they were becoming dull. This was consistent throughout and had a good ending.
I still think she needs to finish this series asap though because it's becoming tedious. We know who A is now so I don't see the point.
I still think she needs to finish this series asap though because it's becoming tedious. We know who A is now so I don't see the point.