3.88 AVERAGE

dark mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Enjoyable but doesn't have much substance.

So finally, all sixteen books make sense. All you really need to read is the first two books and this one. I don't regret reading all the books but I wouldn't do it again.
01/19/2020 definitely not 5 stars lol. I didn’t believe it sometimes like it just didn’t work
- Ali and Courtney are twins
- Ali starts manipulating Courtney and gets her sent away
- Courtney comes back and makes people believe she’s Ali and Ali gets sent away
- New Ali is still the same bitch as old Ali
- she meets Nick who her sister supposedly met at summer camp and starts dating him (not Ian)
- Old Ali talks about a boyfriend named Tripp
- New Ali and Nick break up after he sees Ian kiss her
- Her family talks about bringing Old Ali home and freaks New Ali out
- Old Ali pretends to be New Ali to her friends (scene from the fourth book)
- fast forward to the end of year sleepover: Ali goes outside and Spencer follows
- Spencer pushes her twice and then leaves
- Ian never shows up even though Ali and him agreed to meet
- Old and new Ali see their mother with Mr Hastings
- Old Ali drags new Ali and shoves her in the hole
- New Ali dies and Old Ali and a ~secret accomplice~ whose voice New Ali ~recognizes~ covers her up with dirt
- Old Ali tries to be Ali again but her parents don’t believe her and they send her away again while concrete is being poured on New Ali
- Old Ali promises revenge on the four girls that helped her sister escape

EDIT 02/11/20 Libby stats: picked up 17 times and read for 4 hours and 20 minutes
mysterious sad medium-paced
dark lighthearted mysterious fast-paced
Loveable characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Sara Shepard managed to intricately place all of the flashbacks from the other Pretty Little Liars books into this one-- which made it such a fun read, especially reading from Ali's point of view. Her story leads all the way up to that fateful end-of-summer sleepover.

I was glad the author decided to write this book, because it's so much easier seeing the truth in chronological order like this. And with A being revealed in the other books, reading this one made it all so clear. One of the best PLL books!

A great prequel as far as prequels go :)

Glad I picked up the series again... even if briefly!
adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I liked this one, it was interesting to get inside the mind of "Alison" leading up to her death. I do wish that the pace was a bit faster though or something I felt like there were some bits that dragged. Maybe it was just that they were trying to cram so much into the one book.
I am still left with a few unanswered questions though, so ideally I would like one more novel all about when "Courtney" escaped the Preserve and tortured the girls. Just because I want to know more about her mindset. But alas, after 18 books we are officially finished with the PLL series. It's been a journey but I'm proud of myself for making it to the end.

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majse21's profile picture

majse21's review

3.75
dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This book i liked a lot more than the first four books.

The story was more interesting and it puts the comments from the first 4 book into perspective. It was a very interesting book to read. 

It was fun to read it all from a different point of view and I felt a little sorrier for "Ali" (Courtney) but not for real Ali. :)
dark mysterious fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This was good. I really liked the books and reading from Alison’s/Courtney’s perspective. It was a great way to read about what happened the night “Alison” disappeared. In the other books, the girls sometimes make some stupid decision, but thankfully, that did not happen in this book. Alison/Courtney is a bully, but I did not find any of her actions extremely dumb. 
One negative thing to me about this book was that it felt like, the author wrote it so she could add some new characters and details to the story, that were not mentioned in the previous 8 books, so she could continue the series and write 8 more books. It did not bother me too much, but it seemed odd to meet some new characters that have never been mentioned before or hinted to even though this book is a prologue. 
Overall, I still highly enjoyed the book and it was a great companion novel.

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