Pretty Little Liars - Sara Shepard

Title: Pretty Little Liars
Author: Sara Shepard
Publisher: HarperTeen, 2007 (Paperback)
Length: 286 pages
Genre:Young Adult; Realistic Fiction
Started: September 22, 2010
Finished: September 24, 2010

Summary:
From the back of the book:
Everyone has something to hide—especially high school juniors Spencer, Aria, Emily, and Hanna.

Spencer covets her sister's boyfriend. Aria's fantasizing about her English teacher. Emily's crushing on the new girl at school. Hanna uses some ugly tricks to stay beautiful.

But they've all kept an even bigger secret since their friend Alison vanished.

How do I know? Because I know everything about the bad girls they were, the naughty girls they are, and all the dirty secrets they've kept. And guess what? I'm telling.

Review:
Whoo boy. All I can say is, where the hell are these people living where their daughters do completely horrible things when they're in grade 6?! What messed up place produces insanely cruel 11-year-old girls? The book starts off right before the group of girls begin grade 8 and most of the novel takes place as they're starting grade 11, but apparently all their horrible stuff started in grade 6. Also, what kind of parents name their daughter "Spencer", seriously people....

Thank god the girls portrayed in this book are NOT like your average kids....I teach a lot of different types of kids, and these girls are far from the average...which is good cause they scare me more than some adults I know ^^;

Though what is described in this book is not your typical high school experience with your girlfriends, I could not put this book down. It's so bad for my brain and I know I'm losing vital brain cells reading it, but I'm a sucker for really juicy secrets and scandal, which this book is full of.

This was a page turner purely for slow reveal of all the girls' secrets and what they're hiding. Since there's 8 books in this series and they're insanely popular, I can see how people could get sucked into these books and be begging for more. It's vapid and disgusts me in some ways, but it's darn addictive.

Recommendation:
If you're in the mood for something quick and dirty (get your mind out of the gutter....though there is sexual content, so not for younger than high school age kids), this is for you.

Thoughts on the cover:
Love the Barbie doll images on these covers. It works as a nice metaphor for how the girls are controlled by the messages they receive from the mysterious "A", plus they look nice against the solid colour backgrounds.