Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.72 AVERAGE
3.72 AVERAGE
Finally!!!! I'm happy it's over and the last few books wrapped everything up in a pretty little package.
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book was so good. A great ending to the series. I genuinely did not know what was going to happen. The thing i like about Sara Shepard is that she knows how to write a good YA mystery. The plot of this series could have felt ridiculous and drawn out by this point (16 books) but she really knows how to keep it interesting.
Well, that was an anticlimatic climax and so problematic. I honestly thought the previous climaxes were all better and tenser than the actual finale. :\
I had to know how it ended. Don’t judge me.
It’s nice to finally be done with this series. I know I still have the prequel to read, but ignore that. The prequel is probably around three hundred pages long. I can read that in an afternoon. I’m basically done.
Overall, I think that things were wrapped up pretty well. I can’t think of any loose ends, and, in my opinion, everything was wrapped up satisfactorily. It’s entirely possible that I’m forgetting random plot points from earlier books, and that they haven’t been wrapped up, but, at the very least, the major things have been wrapped up. I would have preferred if there had been more of a sense of closure to the end of the series. Ali is seemingly planning her escape from prison, so it seems like the series could be continued if the author wished to do so. It seems like the author has other projects now, and it’s been four years since this book came out, so I feel like that probably won’t be the case. Earlier books in this series had endings that felt similar and kept going, so we’ll see. After it was revealed that Mona was “A” in an earlier book, it seemed like everything was wrapped up, only to keep going. Then in another book, Alison set fire to her family’s vacation house with all of the main characters stuck inside it, it seems like she didn’t make it, and everything seems like it’s been adequately wrapped up, but oh look, she’s not dead. The ending in this final book has the same feel as those, so it doesn’t offer the closure I would have liked to have. To be fair, I don’t know what other way it could have been ended, and I think that this is probably the best that could have been done to finish the series, but I still feel like it’s lacking closure. Probably, the only way it could have complete closure would be if Alison had died, which I don’t think would have gone with the plot that well. Plenty of characters have died, but most of the ones who had been there from the beginning are still there, so I almost think it would be weird to kill Alison. I don’t think there’s any way this series could be wrapped up in a way I’m totally happy with, so I’m not even entirely upset about it. This is just how it is, and, even though I wish there had been something more to the end, I honestly have no idea what more you could add.
For the entire series, anytime the main characters smelled vanilla they would assume that Alison had been there which is incredibly faulty logic. Vanilla is not a distinct enough scent to be specific to one person. I wear vanilla perfume, so my bedroom, the denim jackets I wear all the time, my pets, and pretty much everything else I frequently come in contact with smells like vanilla. Maybe I could be “A”. That’s the letter my name starts with, so maybe this is a sign of what I could become? Or maybe it’s a sign that vanilla is a very common scent of soap and perfume, and not indicative of one specific person. If Alison had had a very distinct perfume (maybe even one she made herself so it was the perfect blend of weird scents or something), that would be more believable. That’s the only way I can see that making sense. But, any other way, it’s just faulty logic.
There’s a very small part of the book that talks about the crush Emily had on Alison when they were ten. The crush, in and of itself, obviously isn’t weird, but the way the author talks about how a ten year old thinks about another ten year old is creepy. The book says that Emily wanted to touch Alison, and smell her clothes. This is the exact quote: “She didn’t just want to be Alison DiLaurentis, the girl everyone adored. She wanted to be with her. Touch her. Braid her hair. Smell her clothes when she stepped out of them at bedtime. Drink her up.” That’s not how ten year olds think. Ten year olds don’t want to romantically touch each other, or smell each others clothes. That’s not even vaguely close to what ten year olds think or feel. This next statement is in no way trying to attack the author, but I think it’s creepy to write about children in this way. I don’t care what the circumstances are. I don’t care what context there is. It’s creepy. It will always be creepy. There are no exceptions. There is literally no way anyone could make those lines seem normal to me. It seems like it’s almost sexualizing children in a weird, disturbing way, and I really don’t like it. This isn’t how children think. This isn’t how children act. It’s just uncomfortable.
Even though I haven’t read the prequel yet, I feel comfortable giving my final opinions on the series now. If, after reading the prequel, any of my opinions have changed, I’ll update them in that review. However, I don’t think that will be the case.
I didn’t love this series, and I don’t think I would recommend it to someone, but I wouldn’t discourage someone from reading it. These books are entertaining. Entertaining in the same way that a Lifetime movie or TLC is. There are much better things you could be doing with your time, but, if you want something entertaining that you don’t have to think about, this is good for that.
Over the series, character development seemed haphazard; either happening too quickly or not happening at all. The characters seemed slightly different by the end of the series, but not as much as you would expect from what they’ve been through.
The plot kept getting sidetracked with romance, and the romantic interests weren’t great to begin with (maybe with the exception of Maya, because she seemed to be fine). The relationships were either constantly on again off again (which, if you’re doing that for four years, seems like it’s not going to work out in the long run), or full of power imbalances. Even though Ezra was sort of addressed as being horrible, it wasn’t done as well as it could, and I’m still not happy with it.
In the end, I got entertainment out of these books, and I don’t feel like my time could have been better spent reading other things. They weren’t as bad as I expected them to be.
I’m giving this book two and a half out of five stars. I wanted to come up with a rating for the entire series, but it has its ups and downs, and I don’t think it’s possible to rate it as a whole. That doesn’t mean that it’s bad, it just means that I got really irritated with some of the books in the middle, and I don’t think they deserve anything close to the rating I would give some of the later books.
You can read more of my reviews at https://haphazardlyreading.wordpress.com/
It’s nice to finally be done with this series. I know I still have the prequel to read, but ignore that. The prequel is probably around three hundred pages long. I can read that in an afternoon. I’m basically done.
Overall, I think that things were wrapped up pretty well. I can’t think of any loose ends, and, in my opinion, everything was wrapped up satisfactorily. It’s entirely possible that I’m forgetting random plot points from earlier books, and that they haven’t been wrapped up, but, at the very least, the major things have been wrapped up. I would have preferred if there had been more of a sense of closure to the end of the series. Ali is seemingly planning her escape from prison, so it seems like the series could be continued if the author wished to do so. It seems like the author has other projects now, and it’s been four years since this book came out, so I feel like that probably won’t be the case. Earlier books in this series had endings that felt similar and kept going, so we’ll see. After it was revealed that Mona was “A” in an earlier book, it seemed like everything was wrapped up, only to keep going. Then in another book, Alison set fire to her family’s vacation house with all of the main characters stuck inside it, it seems like she didn’t make it, and everything seems like it’s been adequately wrapped up, but oh look, she’s not dead. The ending in this final book has the same feel as those, so it doesn’t offer the closure I would have liked to have. To be fair, I don’t know what other way it could have been ended, and I think that this is probably the best that could have been done to finish the series, but I still feel like it’s lacking closure. Probably, the only way it could have complete closure would be if Alison had died, which I don’t think would have gone with the plot that well. Plenty of characters have died, but most of the ones who had been there from the beginning are still there, so I almost think it would be weird to kill Alison. I don’t think there’s any way this series could be wrapped up in a way I’m totally happy with, so I’m not even entirely upset about it. This is just how it is, and, even though I wish there had been something more to the end, I honestly have no idea what more you could add.
For the entire series, anytime the main characters smelled vanilla they would assume that Alison had been there which is incredibly faulty logic. Vanilla is not a distinct enough scent to be specific to one person. I wear vanilla perfume, so my bedroom, the denim jackets I wear all the time, my pets, and pretty much everything else I frequently come in contact with smells like vanilla. Maybe I could be “A”. That’s the letter my name starts with, so maybe this is a sign of what I could become? Or maybe it’s a sign that vanilla is a very common scent of soap and perfume, and not indicative of one specific person. If Alison had had a very distinct perfume (maybe even one she made herself so it was the perfect blend of weird scents or something), that would be more believable. That’s the only way I can see that making sense. But, any other way, it’s just faulty logic.
There’s a very small part of the book that talks about the crush Emily had on Alison when they were ten. The crush, in and of itself, obviously isn’t weird, but the way the author talks about how a ten year old thinks about another ten year old is creepy. The book says that Emily wanted to touch Alison, and smell her clothes. This is the exact quote: “She didn’t just want to be Alison DiLaurentis, the girl everyone adored. She wanted to be with her. Touch her. Braid her hair. Smell her clothes when she stepped out of them at bedtime. Drink her up.” That’s not how ten year olds think. Ten year olds don’t want to romantically touch each other, or smell each others clothes. That’s not even vaguely close to what ten year olds think or feel. This next statement is in no way trying to attack the author, but I think it’s creepy to write about children in this way. I don’t care what the circumstances are. I don’t care what context there is. It’s creepy. It will always be creepy. There are no exceptions. There is literally no way anyone could make those lines seem normal to me. It seems like it’s almost sexualizing children in a weird, disturbing way, and I really don’t like it. This isn’t how children think. This isn’t how children act. It’s just uncomfortable.
Even though I haven’t read the prequel yet, I feel comfortable giving my final opinions on the series now. If, after reading the prequel, any of my opinions have changed, I’ll update them in that review. However, I don’t think that will be the case.
I didn’t love this series, and I don’t think I would recommend it to someone, but I wouldn’t discourage someone from reading it. These books are entertaining. Entertaining in the same way that a Lifetime movie or TLC is. There are much better things you could be doing with your time, but, if you want something entertaining that you don’t have to think about, this is good for that.
Over the series, character development seemed haphazard; either happening too quickly or not happening at all. The characters seemed slightly different by the end of the series, but not as much as you would expect from what they’ve been through.
The plot kept getting sidetracked with romance, and the romantic interests weren’t great to begin with (maybe with the exception of Maya, because she seemed to be fine). The relationships were either constantly on again off again (which, if you’re doing that for four years, seems like it’s not going to work out in the long run), or full of power imbalances. Even though Ezra was sort of addressed as being horrible, it wasn’t done as well as it could, and I’m still not happy with it.
In the end, I got entertainment out of these books, and I don’t feel like my time could have been better spent reading other things. They weren’t as bad as I expected them to be.
I’m giving this book two and a half out of five stars. I wanted to come up with a rating for the entire series, but it has its ups and downs, and I don’t think it’s possible to rate it as a whole. That doesn’t mean that it’s bad, it just means that I got really irritated with some of the books in the middle, and I don’t think they deserve anything close to the rating I would give some of the later books.
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: Bullying, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Stalking
Moderate: Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma
What a ride it has been 16 fun, easy thrilling reads over the past couple of months! I loved this series, it was so easy and fun to read, and often I genuinely had no idea who it was going to be. I thought this was a great way to wrap everything up!! And I loved the endings everyone got! Over this was a really nice note to end everything on and I can't wait to read my next Sara Shepard books!
*4.5*
No importa si Sara Shepard hubiera escrito 24, 35, 41, 52, 69 o 77 libros de esta serie, yo los habría leido todos.
No puedo creer que después de casi 4 años y 17 libros he terminado esta serie. Parece algo surreal haber terminado la infame saga de Pequeñas Mentirosas y también un poco agridulce. Amo estos libros y la serie de tv es mi favorita, asi que cuando esta terminó siempre tuve el consuelo de "no hay problema, aun me quedan 6 libros más por leer" pero ahora que ya también los termine no se que hacer con mi vida.
Sara Shepard es de esas pocas autoras que tienen el valor de tomar ese paso o riesgo para darle un toque unico al libro. Hubo algo shockeante a mitad de este lo cual influyo mucho en como se iba a resolver todo, y no puedo creer lo bien armado y desarrollado que estuvo. Sara Shepard es una mente maestra y definitivamente sabe como escribir un misterio.
Que puedo decir de los personajes que no haya dicho ya. Aria, Hannah, Spencer, Alison y Emily son de mis favoritas en la vida, tanto en los libros como en la serie. Debo admitir que terminando este terminé muy sorprendido con como fue evolucionando el personaje de Emily a lo largo de los libros. Comenzó siendo alguien triste y poco interesante pero crecio mucho y estoy muy feliz por ella.
Algo que debo comentar que me di cuenta en estos últimos libros es que las liars tienen padres de MIERDA. Es demasiado interesante y chistoso como se comportan los papás en ciertas situaciones y las cosas que decian, dejandome claro que no se quien esta pero, si sus hijas o ellos.
Ya que terminé con esta serie ENORME planeo leer cada pieza de literatura, cada cosa que contenga la palabra impresa escrita por Sara Shepard, porque esta mujer me ha cautivado y no dejare de leerla nunca. NUNCA.
No importa si Sara Shepard hubiera escrito 24, 35, 41, 52, 69 o 77 libros de esta serie, yo los habría leido todos.
No puedo creer que después de casi 4 años y 17 libros he terminado esta serie. Parece algo surreal haber terminado la infame saga de Pequeñas Mentirosas y también un poco agridulce. Amo estos libros y la serie de tv es mi favorita, asi que cuando esta terminó siempre tuve el consuelo de "no hay problema, aun me quedan 6 libros más por leer" pero ahora que ya también los termine no se que hacer con mi vida.
Sara Shepard es de esas pocas autoras que tienen el valor de tomar ese paso o riesgo para darle un toque unico al libro. Hubo algo shockeante a mitad de este lo cual influyo mucho en como se iba a resolver todo, y no puedo creer lo bien armado y desarrollado que estuvo. Sara Shepard es una mente maestra y definitivamente sabe como escribir un misterio.
Que puedo decir de los personajes que no haya dicho ya. Aria, Hannah, Spencer, Alison y Emily son de mis favoritas en la vida, tanto en los libros como en la serie. Debo admitir que terminando este terminé muy sorprendido con como fue evolucionando el personaje de Emily a lo largo de los libros. Comenzó siendo alguien triste y poco interesante pero crecio mucho y estoy muy feliz por ella.
Algo que debo comentar que me di cuenta en estos últimos libros es que las liars tienen padres de MIERDA. Es demasiado interesante y chistoso como se comportan los papás en ciertas situaciones y las cosas que decian, dejandome claro que no se quien esta pero, si sus hijas o ellos.
Ya que terminé con esta serie ENORME planeo leer cada pieza de literatura, cada cosa que contenga la palabra impresa escrita por Sara Shepard, porque esta mujer me ha cautivado y no dejare de leerla nunca. NUNCA.
