Pretty Little Liars #2: Flawless Tv Tie-In Edition [Paperback]

Author: Sara Shepard
Publisher: Harper Collins
Pages: 352
Source: Personal Copy
Category: Young Adult
Rating: 5/5

Synopsis:

Alison DiLaurentis has everything, she was the leader of her pack and she was the 'it' girl. When her body goes missing, her friends grieve and continue on with their lives. They distance themselves from each other, and move on. However, Ali is no longer missing, her body has been discovered. When the new tenants move into the DiLaurentis' former home and begin renovations Ali's body is discovered under concrete.
'Flawless' picks up right where 'Pretty Little Liars' ends, the evening of the funeral. Aria, Spencer, Hanna, and Emily are disturbed that Ali was always near them. Since Ali is dead, the girls wonder who possible can 'A' be? The text messages, and letters continue, to their horror some of their secrets are revealed, and the threats are becoming more vicious. 'A' is threatening the girls to reveal their deepest, darkest secret, 'A' knows about 'The Jenna Thing' and the girls are unnerved. While the girls may have grown apart, 'A' is bringing them back together. The police has re-opened the case, now a murder investigation, and the girls have been warned that they will be questioned once again. To make matters worst Toby Cavanaugh, Jenna's step-brother has come back to town. Spencer, Aria, Emily and Hanna's worlds are falling apart.
Aria is trying to get over her biggest crush, their connection was undeniable but he's her AP English teacher. Aria has other issues to worry about, she realizes that the problem she thought vanished, may still be a problem. Her father is not very discreet, and someone else discovers the secret. Spencer was secretly dating her sister's boyfriend, her parents are disgusted by her actions, and Melissa hates her. Her home is very quiet, because everyone refuses to talk to her. Although, she ears straight A's and is on every committee, she will never be able to step out of her sister's shadow. Emily is trying to hid her feelings for her friend, she can't be a lesbian, her parents would never accept her. Her swim coach offers her a proposition she could never turn down. Hanna is desperately trying to hold together the world she created after Ali disappeared. As things seem to spiral out of control, her father walks back into her life. He's spent years away and Hanna is not sure that she should do. 'A' knows all their dirty little secrets, and the girls are walking on egg shells. Who can they trust? Can they trust each other? Can they trust themselves?

Overall Impression:

'Flawless' is every bit of suspenseful, mysterious, and captivating as 'Pretty Little Liars.' It's a great book, and I love Sara Shepard' style. Her ability to create these amazing secondary characters is remarkable. Each character is memorable, enjoyable, and realistic. I even love the titles, the titles of each chapter foreshadow the upcoming predicament of each character. The narrator is completely unreliable. Another death occurs, and I didn't see that coming either. Honestly, this series is addicting. Yes, I said addiction...I can't put these books down. I'm quite surprised that I love this series as much as I do.

I admit that I love chick lit and I also love a wickedly riveting series, such as the Pretty Little Liars Series.

Dramatis Personae

Alison "Ali" DeLaurentis: a bright, popular girl who led a clique of other rich, indulged girls. The others are more like satellites than actual friends as they know Ali is a powerful ally to have. They drop designer names every chance they get. They live in Rosewood, a suburb of Philadelphia on the Main Line. Ali, known for insidious cruelty has plenty of secrets. So do the other girls, all of whom have good reason to want Ali to do a permanent disappearing act.

Aria, an attractive, athletic brunette who was glad to escape Rosewood for Iceland. She has a yak-fur bag to which she is inordinately attached. Her father accepts a teaching position there and for 3 years, Aria and her younger brother by 2 years Mike, learn Icelandic and absorb Icelandic culture. Unlike Mike, Aria wants to remain in Iceland. She has a painful non-Ali related secret - she caught her father cheating with another woman. Once back in town, she picks up an older man in a bar and once school starts, discovers that her Ezra is her English teacher! She knows how to play to get an A! She also stalks her father's new yoga teaching girlfriend and let's just say that she is not interested in taking a yoga class.

Spencer, the grind who sputters at the drop of a designer hat. She earns As and other academic plaudits for real. She has long been eclipsed by her favored older sister, Melissa and when she steals Melissa's boyfriend for the second time, her cold-hearted family ostracizes her. To make a bad thing even worse, they even cancel her credit cards without telling her and stop inviting her to meals. Melissa, a pompous Drama Queen has long reveled in her Favored Daughter status and you just want to kick her in the shins.

Hanna, the former fat girl now turned femme fatale is the weakest link in the chain. Bulimic and insecure, she has now linked forces with another social outcast. Together, they drop designer names and flaunt fashion like it's going out of style. Hanna's relationship with her divorced mother is more like business associates than family. (Hanna's mother works for a company called McManus & Tate, which sounds like a spoof of the advertising firm of McMann & Tate in "Bewitched" [1964-72]). Her father's fiancee Isabel has a daughter Kate who is Hanna's age and Hanna feels that Kate has replaced her. She does not have a good relationship with her father either and engages in illegal activities. In this installment, she gets drunk at some fancy party and steals her former date's father's car and let's just say that car spent a lot of time in the shop after Hanna got through with it. Hanna's mother has a rather unique way of settling the problem that is far more complicated than covering for Hanna when Hanna stole jewelry from high end stores. To make a bad scene even worse, Hanna's mother locks her out of the house one night after she and Hanna acted a fool at a hotel where Hanna's father invited Hanna for a weekend.

Emily discovers that love comes in the most unexpected places. She discovers her family's true colors of bigotry as she also learns some things about herself. She has to be ready to stand by her convictions, even though she places herself in danger.

The girls are ALL in danger and maybe even Jenna as well. Ali has been discovered murdered and the case has been opened once again. The girls are all on high alert as to cover each other and figure out who killed her and if this mysterious stalker called A is the one responsible.

A is a mysterious shadow figure who haunts the girls, sending them anonymous text messages and e-mails. A outlines their daily activities and gives them lists of instructions, which, if not carried out will result in death at worst, danger and exposure at best to the surviving satellites.

The girls band together after Ali sets the wheels in motion for the traumatic incident with devastating repercussions they call "the Jenna Thing." Shortly after the Jenna Thing, Ali disappears and the girls as well as the townspeople are determined to find her. A Rosewood Alum, now a police officer hounds the girls once Ali's case has been reopened. This officer takes a harder look into the case when someone the girls knew well becomes casualty.

Somebody called A knows more about Ali and her satellites than they could ever imagine. A texts and e-mails them, telling them where they've been and what they've done. A also blackmails them. The question is, who is A? One of the girls? Someone close to Jenna? A neighbor? An intrusive officer?

This is a deliciously wicked and riveting read that will keep readers bound to the last page. You really feel their pain when their own families ostracize them, as in Spencer and Hanna's case. Bigotry crops up again in this installment. Melissa and Spencer vie for the affections of one of Melissa's classmates, who is Anglo-Korean. Emily discovers that she, too could find love in an interracial relationship.

The overplayed 1983 song "Every Breath You Take" by the Police could be the soundtrack for this series.

*In the first chapter, Spencer smokes a Parliament. When that smoking scene is introduced in the previous installment, the coffin nail in question is a Marlboro. Readers will catch these things.

Four girls from privileged backgrounds are united at the funeral of Ali, a former friend who disappeared a few years ago and has now shown up dead. The girls are all off living their individual lives and playing with fire in different ways - one is stealing her sister's boyfriend, another is in love with a teacher, one's possibly gay and another's definitely bulimic - but they're brought back together when they start receiving anonymous messages from someone who is threatening to expose their deepest secrets, and rock their settled community like never before. Whoever this mysterious `A' is who's sending the notes, it's someone who is close to all four girls, knows everything about them as it happens, and is getting ready to spill the beans.

All the press blurb seems to be comparing this book to the O.C., but I think it resembles much more a junior Desperate Housewives, where Fairview has become Rosewood, and Gabby, Susan, Lynette and Bree have become Spencer, Aria, Emily and Hanna. They may be high school students, but they too have dirty laundry, and scandalous behaviour that would put their older counterparts to shame - these are the sort of girls who stop at nothing to get what they want, even if it means having to bluff their way into true-love-waits style Virginity Club meetings in order to deflower their unsuspecting boyfriends.

I knew from a few pages in that I was going to love this book because it's exactly the sort of thing I like - down to earth writing that flows with no interruptions, juicy plot lines, enough but not too many twists and turns, and some outrageous characters with shocking behavior. The author captures beautifully the spirit and atmosphere of high school life that she must have left behind a good few years ago, and the latest technology and pop culture references mean it doesn't read like anything other than present day life in the most interesting of societies - exclusive small town Pennsylvania. I think this is just as much a grown up book as a teen one, and I was a few pages in before I even realised Spencer and the group were still at high school - they can all drive, this being America, and their extracurricular activities certainly beat the ballet and babysitting I was into at their age. With that in mind I would recommend this to anyone who likes a good mystery, some suspense, some glamour, and some fabulous characters, regardless of age.