Review: Vesper

Title: Vesper
Author: Jeff Sampson
Publisher: Harper Teen
Pages: 304
Series: Deviants #1
Rating: 4/5
From the back cover:
Emily Webb is a geek -- and happy that way. She's never been the kind of girl who sneaks out for parties. And she definitely doesn't start fights or flirt with other girls' boyfriends. Until one night Emily finds herself doing exactly that... the same night a classmate -- also named Emily -- is found mysteriously murdered.

The thing is, Emily doesn't know why she's doing this. Every night, she gets wilder, until it's not just her personality that changes; she's also becoming strong, fast, and utterly fearless. Has she been bewitched by the soul of the other, murdered Emily? Or is Emily Webb becoming something else entirely -- something not human?

---------------

Vesper surprised me, and it confused me. It bothered me in places. It made me laugh out loud, and it made me shudder. It definitely was not what I was expecting, but I enjoyed it.

Our story begins with shy, geeky Emily Webb dressed in an outfit she would never wear and attempting to climb out of her bedroom window. A few minutes later, she snaps back to reality, horrified by what she has almost done. Then she gets a phone call: Emily Cooke, a girl from her school, has been shot and killed. Her body was found barefoot, pajama-clad, three miles from her home.

Emily Webb is affected in a way she can't explain by the death of the other Emily, and even as she grieves the loss of a classmate she barely knew, she is changing. Each night, she is hit with a crippling pain, and then she changes into someone different - still Emily, but an Emily who is bold and brazen and maybe even a little slutty. And then she changes even more, into something that may not even be human. Mixed in with the story are transcripts of a conversation Emily has with someone called "F. Savage" describing her adventures.

At first, based on the transcripts, I was expecting a straight-up science fiction novel, but that wasn't what I got. It's a mystery - a murder mystery and a who-am-I mystery all wrapped into one. The plot was excellent. I just kept turning pages, eager to find out what was going on and what would happen next. I hope it doesn't take too long for the sequel, because I want it (a problem, since this one isn't even out until next week).

The only problem I had was Megan. I'm not sure why Emily and Megan were actually friends; it definitely wasn't the kind of friendship I'd want to have. I just didn't like her at all, and I wished we had gotten to know a little more about who she was.

Despite that, Vesper was an intriguing story that kept me reading and left me wanting more. I recommend it, especially if you like a nice dark blend of fantasy, science fiction, and murder mysteries...

Vesper comes out one week from today (on January 25, 2011), so be looking for it soon! :)

Vesper counts towards the Debut Author Challenge and my Missing Letters challenge.


Links:
Jeff Sampson's website

Review: Raised by Wolves

Title: Raised by Wolves
Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Publisher: Egmont USA
Pages: 418
Series: Raised by Wolves #1
Rating: 5/5
Description from Goodreads:
Adopted by the Alpha of a werewolf pack after a rogue wolf brutally killed her parents right before her eyes, fifteen-year-old Bryn knows only pack life, and the rigid social hierarchy that controls it. That doesn't mean that she's averse to breaking a rule or two.

But when her curiosity gets the better of her and she discovers Chase, a new teen locked in a cage in her guardian's basement, and witnesses him turn into a wolf before her eyes, the horrific memories of her parents' murders return. Bryn becomes obsessed with getting her questions answered, and Chase is the only one who can provide the information she needs.

But in her drive to find the truth, will Bryn push too far beyond the constraints of the pack, forcing her to leave behind her friends, her family, and the identity that she's shaped?

**********

Werewolves are becoming more and more commonplace in YA, but Raised by Wolves is anything but commonplace. I would have loved to devour it in one sitting (sadly, school foiled that plan). It takes the typical werewolf mythology, puts a new and creative spin on it, and then uses that to tell an incredible story. It wasn't a story about werewolves so much as it was a story told through werewolves. Yes, the main characters are part of a pack of werewolves and that completely drives the plot of the novel, but it wasn't about werewolf-ism. It was about identity and growing up and, to a degree, girl power. I feel like I didn't explain that very well, but I mean it as the highest compliment.

The premise is straightforward and complex at the same time. Bryn is a human girl raised in a pack of werewolves; she belongs with them, almost to them, and they are her family. But when she discovers a caged boy who was not born a werewolf but Changed, everything she thought she knew changes, because she is connected to Chase in a way that should not be possible. The plot is one of the many things I adored about this book - it wasn't predictable, it kept moving all the time, it was gripping and engaging, and it kept me reading almost compulsively. Plus, there was just enough tension so that the romantic element was sort of vaguely present, but it was all about the plot. It's so nice to encounter a paranormal novel that isn't a drippy love story.

I also loved Bryn's voice. She's funny and sarcastic and not afraid to stand up for herself, but she also has moments of dark reflection on the tragedies in her past. I especially loved the flashbacks to her childhood and the communication with the wolves - sentence structure and the use of "Mommy" instead of "Mom" can do wonders. Here again, I don't think I'm explaining very well. What I'm trying to say is, Jennifer Lynn Barnes can write. Wow.

The only thing I would change is that I wanted to see more of Devon and I wanted Chase to be more developed. For someone who is apparently Bryn's best friend, Devon got astonishingly little page time - which is unfortunate, because who doesn't love a clever, show-tunes-singing, werewolf best friend? He's a great character, hopefully we get more of him in book two. And Chase...I want to know more about him.

I'm going to stop talking now before I spoil something by accident. Instead, I will leave you with this: Raised by Wolves is one of the best ones out there. I highly recommend it.

Links:
Jennifer Lynn Barnes' website

Review: Killer

Title: Killer
Author: Sara Shepard
Publisher: Harper Teen
Pages: 321
Series: Pretty Little Liars #6
Rating: 4 stars
**WARNING: Contains spoilers from books 1-5.**


I'm not even going to bother posting the jacket cover description because it is so ridiculous and not related to the plot of the novel. It includes the line "Spencer is stealing - from her family." She's not. The other lines about what the characters are up to are equally irrelevant, and the rest of it is just background (Ali's dead, the girls are being stalked. We've known this since book one).

That said, these books just keep getting more and more mysterious. And I love the cover for this one. The purple is great. I think it's my favorite cover in the series, at least so far, and I've seen the other two, so I'm pretty sure this one is my favorite.

Anyway, though, the story. It is so difficult to define a specific plot for any one of these novels - they're like one big extended plot, which is probably why each one makes me want the next one ASAP. Hanna still annoys the heck out of me and Aria is still my favorite; the whole story with Spencer in this one seems kind of out of character but totally understandable, and I feel so much sympathy for Emily, especially with the whole Isaac thing set up in the previous book. Hanna excepted, I love the characters, and I love the way Sara Shepard develops mysteries.

The major thing that's going on in Killer is that the girls are tracking down who killed Ali. I won't say who (spoilers are horrid), but at the end of this one, it seems like they pretty much know who did it...I can't wait to find out where it goes in the next one.

So overall, great plot, good characters, and I've already put Heartless on hold at the library!

Links: 
Pretty Little Liars website

Review: Unbelievable

Title: Unbelievable
Author: Sara Shepard
Publisher: Harper Teen
Pages: 335
Series: Pretty Little Liars #4
Rating: 4 stars
**WARNING: Spoilers for Books 1-3**
From the book jacket: 
Behind Rosewood's grand facades, where the air smells like apples and Chanel No. 5 and infinity pools sparkle in landscaped backyards, nothing is as it seems. It was here, back in seventh grade, that five best friends shared everything - Seven jeans, MAC makeup, and their deepest, darkest secrets. For Aria, Spencer, Hanna, and Emily, it was a dream come true...until Alison, the most beautiful of them all, suddenly vanished.

Now someone named A has turned their charmed lives into a living nightmare. Emily has been shipped off to her hyper-conservative cousins in Iowa. Aria is stuck living with her dad and his home-wrecker girlfriend. And Spencer fears she had something to do with Alison's murder. But Hanna's fate is far worse than all of that - she's clinging to life in the hospital, because she knew too much.

With A's threats turning dangerous and Ali's killer still on the loose, the girls must uncover the truth - about A, about Ali, and about what happened to Hanna - before they become A's next victims. But as they unravel Rosewood's mysteries and secrets, will it bring an end to the horror...or is this just the beginning?

---------------

I was really excited to start this one after the end of Perfect - I wanted to know what had happened to Hanna. At first I was a little disappointed: it felt like it took ages for the plot to get moving, because it was split between four different points of view and so there were little cliffhangers all the time and it was just very spread out. BUT! It did get moving, and the mystery of A comes to a big climax in Unbelievable.

Sara Shepard really does do a great job with the mystery. I did figure out the big secret she was throwing at us a few pages before it was officially revealed, but for most of the novel I genuinely had no idea who the culprit was. She managed to resolve a lot of issues (which is good) and still leave enough there to make me want Wicked ASAP.

The issues are changing, too, which is good. The characters are still their same old selves (for the record, Hanna is still my least favorite, but I love the other three) and they're still dealing with their issues, but it's changing. Their secrets are out, so they're facing a whole new set of hurdles. Plus, the mystery of "the Rosewood Stalker" is escalating and they're dealing with that. There was still more preppy-popular-fashion-stuff than I liked because I don't relate to that well, but the story and characters are well-created, so I can overlook the other stuff. I think Unbelievable may have been my favorite book in the series to date.

Also, a random side note: these books are really hard to review once you get past the first one, because the plot is so wrapped up in the mystery that it's difficult to find something to say that's not some kind of spoiler, and I hate spoilers. But I shall keep trying, because I'm really enjoying these books. :)

Links: 
Pretty Little Liars website

Review: Perfect

Title: Perfect

Author: Sara Shepard

Publisher: Harper Teen

Pages: 308

Series: Pretty Little Liars #3

Rating: 4 stars

**Warning: Contains spoilers for books 1-2**

From the book jacket: 

In a town where gossip thrives like the ivy that clings to its mansions, where mysteries lie behind manicured hedges and skeletons hide in every walk-in closet, four perfect-looking girls aren't nearly as perfect as they seem.

Spencer, Aria, Emily, Hanna, and their best friend Alison were once the girls at Rosewood Day School. They clicked through the halls in their Miu Miu flats, tanned in their matching Pucci bikinis, and laughed behind their freshly manicured fingernails. They were the girls everyone loved but secretly hated - especially Alison.

So when Alison mysteriously vanished, Spencer, Aria, Emily, and Hanna's grief was tinged with...relief. And when Alison's body was later discovered in her own backyard, the girls were forced to unearth some ugly memories of their old friend, too. Could there have been more to Alison's death than anyone realizes?

Now someone named A, someone who seems to know everything, is pointing the finger at one of them for Alison's murder. As their secrets get darker and their scandals turn deadly, A is poised to ruin their perfect little lives forever.

----------

My thoughts about this one in terms of character development and general drama are pretty much the same as they were for the first two. The characters are relatable (although less so in this one, I felt like) and the drama is a little overdone but still definitely engaging. What made Perfect different from Pretty Little Liars and Flawless was the plot.

While "A" is still definitely present, this book is a lot less about the girls freaking out about being stalked and a lot more about finding out a) who killed Ali, b) who the stalker actually is, and c) putting their lives back together as A messes around with everything that matters to them. Hanna has always been the hardest-to-relate-to character for me, and in Perfect I started to really connect with her. As always, some of what goes on is way over the top, but it worked here.

Shepard's tackling a lot of issues - not only murder and stalking, but bulimia, homosexuality, divorce, family problems, cheating (in more ways than one), and being afraid of yourself. She manages to pretty much pull it off, though. I don't want to inadvertently spoil something (this one's got so much mystery that spoilers really suck), but I will say this: the ending of this one definitely makes me want number four ASAP, because I want to know what happens next. The plot of Perfect is probably the most engaging yet, at least in the second half, and I want to know what comes next!

Links:

Pretty Little Liars website

Review: Flawless

Title: Flawless
Author: Sara Shepard
Publisher: Harper Teen
Pages: 330
Series: Pretty Little Liars #2
Rating: 4 stars
**Warning: Contains spoilers for Book 1 (none for this one, though)**
From the book jacket: 
In the exclusive town of Rosewood, Pennsylvania, where the sweetest smiles hide the darkest secrets, four pretty little liars - Spencer, Aria, Emily, and Hanna - have been very bad girls...

Spencer stole her sister's boyfriend. Aria is brokenhearted over her English teacher. Emily likes her new friend Maya...as much more than a friend. And Hanna's obsession with looking flawless is literally making her sick. But the most horrible secret of all is something so scandalous it could destroy their perfect little lives.

And someone named "A" is threatening to do just that.

At first they thought A was Alison, their friend who vanished three years ago...but then Alison turned up dead. So could A be Melissa, Spencer's ultracompetitive sister? Or Maya, who wants Emily all to herself? What about Toby, the mysterious guy who left town right after Alison went missing?

One thing's for certain: A's got the dirt to bury them all alive, and with every crumpled note, wicked IM, and vindictive text message A sends, the girls get a little closer to losing it all.

----------

Normally, I get kind of annoyed by books that are super-girly and full of brand-name-loving rich kids, but Pretty Little Liars is an exception to that. The references to everything that makes Hanna (and, at one time, Ali) so popular and all the brand names are the hardest parts to get through, but there's a complex plot that more than makes up for it.

At the end of book one (yes, I warned you there'd be spoilers for that one), Alison turns up dead. Since she's dead, she obviously can't be the one sending Hanna, Spencer, Aria, and Emily all sorts of mysterious and threatening text messages and emails - so who is? And then, of course, there's Toby. Toby knows the girls' darkest secret: he knows about "The Jenna Thing," an incident they've kept secret for four years that could very well come back to haunt them. He's been at a reform school in Maine since then, but now he's back, and he's showing up everywhere.

On top of that, there are all the other events from the girls' lives. Aria's issues with her family - and her English teacher; Spencer's problems with her sister and her boyfriend; Emily dealing with her sexuality; Hanna's daddy issues. There are so many different things going on in this book. As far as the characters go, Aria's probably my favorite and the one I find the most relatable, but they're all very engaging and real.

My two major complaints about Flawless were that the drama seemed kind of overdone in places and that (some of) the characters are so focused on brand names and popularity. That said, the drama, the plot, and the characters do make you want to keep reading and find out more about who these people are, what their secrets could be, and who's behind it all. I will definitely be looking for book three as soon as I can!

Links: 
Pretty Little Liars website

Review: The Body Finder

Title: The Body Finder
Author: Kimberly Derting
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 327
Series: The Body Finder #1
Rating: 5 stars
Description from Goodreads:
Violet Ambrose is grappling with two major issues: Jay Heaton and her morbid secret ability. While the sixteen-year-old is confused by her new feelings for her best friend since childhood, she is more disturbed by her “power” to sense dead bodies—or at least those that have been murdered. Since she was a little girl, she has felt the echoes the dead leave behind in the world . . . and the imprints that attach to their killers.


Violet has never considered her strange talent to be a gift; it mostly just led her to find dead birds her cat had tired of playing with. But now that a serial killer has begun terrorizing her small town, and the echoes of the local girls he’s claimed haunt her daily, she realizes she might be the only person who can stop him.


Despite his fierce protectiveness over her, Jay reluctantly agrees to help Violet on her quest to find the murderer—and Violet is unnerved to find herself hoping that Jay’s intentions are much more than friendly. But even as she’s falling intensely in love, Violet is getting closer and closer to discovering a killer . . . and becoming his prey herself.


I fell in love with this book from the first chapter. I couldn't tell you what about it made me love it, but once I started reading, I just couldn't put it down. At the very beginning, I was concerned that it might not live up to my expectations (which were very high, from all of the positive reviews I've read), because I felt like it was doing more telling and less showing...but then...it was just amazing.


Violet is such a relatable character. She's got a few friends but she's not super-popular, she has a hard time coming up with clever comebacks, she's trying to hide a crush on her best friend, she's scared but she's trying to do something about it. She has her flaws, but they're just a part of her - she could be real. And Jay. Oh my goodness, Jay. He has definitely earned a place in the top few Crush-worthy Fictional Guys. I wish the side characters had been developed more (I need more Chelsea and Claire, please!) but I think their role in the story worked.


The set-up, basically, is that Violet gets these sensory stimulations when she's around a murder victim or a murderer. Mostly that means that her cat smells weird after he kills a bird and she can always find the bird, but then she finds a dead girl her age in a lake at a party. Soon other girls start disappearing, there's a serial killer on the loose, and Violet may be the only one who can find and identify him. I had worried that the premise of "I see dead things" might be too cliche, but it totally wasn't. The mystery is really well done and I just could not put the book down until I knew what had happened. It was fantastic. I also really liked that it occasionally flashed to the killer's point of view, telling us just enough to keep us sufficiently horrified by the crimes but not enough to ruin the mystery.


And the ending. No spoilers, I promise, but if you read it you'll know what I mean: the ending was very well done. It works as a stand-alone, I think, but I'm sooo glad there's going to be a sequel, because I need more Violet and Jay. And Chelsea. And Claire. And so on and so forth...you get the picture.


Anyway, long story short, definitely read this one, you guys. It was awesome.


Links:
Kimberly Derting's website

Review: Kiss in the Dark

Title: Kiss in the Dark
Author: Lauren Henderson
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Pages: 247
Series: Scarlett Wakefield #3
Rating: 4 stars
From the book jacket:
With Dan McAndrew's murder finally behind her, Scarlett has high hopes for a fresh start at Wakefield Hall Collegiate, the elite English boarding school her grandmother runs. Unfortunately, those hopes are dashed when her nemesis, the infamous Plum Saybourne, is transferred to the school. Plum wastes no time turning Scarlett's impressionable classmates against her.

Scarlett has dealt with Plum's nasty schemes before, and she can handle her archenemy very nicely, thank you -- until Plum sets her sights on Scarlett's best friend, Taylor, and new boyfriend, Jase. Then Scarlett is more than willing to fight for what's rightfully hers.

Fighting doesn't solve everything, though, and things only get worse after Scarlett becomes entangled in a mysterious death on campus. A reluctant sleuth, Scarlett is compelled to investigate because she wants to protect someone close to her. She never imagines that she'll uncover secrets related to her parents' fatal accident so many years ago...

I'm so glad that I had a couple of uninterrupted hours in which to read this book, because I would not have been happy to have to put it down. Kiss in the Dark is a fun, quick read with a perfect blend of boarding school drama and murder mystery. Oh, and Britishness. It gains lots of awesome-points just for the sheer Britishness of the characters and the story.

Kiss in the Dark is the third book in a series (the first two are Kiss Me Kill Me and Kisses and Lies), but it's not really essential to have read the first two to understand and enjoy this one. I still definitely recommend reading them in order as it provides a lot of the characters' backgrounds and explains events that are referenced in this one (plus, who wouldn't enjoy two more books of Scarlett?), but at the start of this book, the major events of the first two books are firmly in the past. Scarlett thinks she's starting over now that she's solved the murder of Dan McAndrew, except now Plum Saybourne, her ultra-popular nemesis, has transferred to her school.

Within a few weeks, Plum has the other girls at Wakefield Hall practically worshiping her, and Scarlett and her best friend Taylor are left to deal with it on their own. The verbal battles and the power struggles between Scarlett and Plum are certainly entertaining to read about. Scarlett's a strong character who knows how to stand up for herself, so the conflict escalates rapidly. In addition to all of the popularity struggles, Plum's out to destroy Scarlett's relationship with the gardener's son, Jase. But it turns out Plum isn't the only one who's not pleased with that relationship: Jase's father and grandmother and Scarlett's aunt have all indicated that the two should not be together. Scarlett's already trying to solve that mystery when she and Taylor stumble onto a dead body.

I felt like the mystery was really well-done - both mysterious situations, the murder and the objections to Scarlett's relationship with Jase, are handled realistically and thoroughly. My only complaints wer that in places it felt like Scarlett was a way better detective than she should have been, so it was a tiny bit inconsistent, and it was a little more predictable than I liked. There's enough of a conclusion to make Kiss in the Dark tell a complete story all on its own, but with enough questions left unanswered that I'll definitely read book four when it comes out.

The characters are great, too; I feel like the character development in this book is a lot stronger than in the first two, which is nice. I especially love that we get to see a new side to Taylor's character, as she's probably my favorite. And I love these books' approach to strong female characters. Kiss in the Dark is a great continuation of the series, and I definitely recommend the entire series to any teenage girl looking for a fun, quick read. Especially if you like Britishness. (They kick bums instead of butts! It's awesome.)

Links:
Lauren Henderson's website

Review: All Unquiet Things

*This review was originally written before the creation of Bookworm Boulevard; it has been reformatted and reposted here for archiving purposes.

Title: All Unquiet Things
Author: Anna Jarzab
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Pages: 352
Rating: 4 stars
Description from Goodreads:
Carly: She was sweet. Smart. Self-destructive. She knew the secrets of Brighton Day School's most privileged students. Secrets that got her killed.

Neily: Dumped by Carly for a notorious bad boy, Neily didn't answer the phone call Carly made before she died. If he had, maybe he could have helped her. Now he can't get the image of her lifeless body out of his mind.

Audrey: She's the reason Carly got tangled up with Brighton's fast crowd in the first place, and now she regrets it - especially since she's convinced the police have put the wrong person in jail. Audrey thinks the murderer is someone at Brighton, and she wants Neily to help her find out who it is.

As reluctant allies Neily and Audrey dig into their shared past with Carly, her involvement with Brighton's dark goings-on comes to light. But figuring out how Carly and her killer fit into the twisted drama will force Audrey and Neily to face hard truths about themselves and the girl they couldn't save.

I will admit it took me a while to get into All Unquiet Things, but after the first few chapters I was completely hooked. Long story short, it's essentially a murder mystery. A year before the story starts, Carly Ribelli is found dead with four gunshot wounds to the chest. Her uncle, the father of her cousin and best friend, Audrey, was convicted of the murder, but Audrey doesn't believe her dad is guilty. So Audrey enlists the help of Carly's ex-boyfriend, Neily - who was still in love with Carly - to help her figure out who really did it. The story is a mix of murder mystery and high school drama; the focus is on the murder mystery, but the clues are embedded in the high school drama.

The story alternates between Neily and Audrey's perspectives. It's really well-written, maybe a bit slow at times but still very engaging, and the story - oh my goodness. Some of it is a bit hard to believe, but Anna Jarzab makes it believable. And the characters are so real and well-developed and amazing. They each have their own distinctive voices, but the transitions from one narrator to the other are (mostly) very smooth. There is some language and content that might not be appropriate for younger teens, but to anyone who doesn't mind that stuff, I would absolutely recommend this book.

Links:
Anna Jarzab's website

Review: Pretty Little Liars

Title: Pretty Little Liars
Author: Sara Shepard
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 286
Series: Pretty Little Liars #1
Rating: 4 stars
Description from HarperTeen: 
Never trust a pretty girl with an ugly secret.

Gossip thrives among the Mercedes-Benzes, mega-mansions, and perfectly manicured hedges in the exclusive town of Rosewood, Pennsylvania. Behind their big Gucci sunglasses, beneath their perfectly pressed Polos, everyone has something to hide, especially high school juniors Spencer, Aria, Emily, and Hanna. Spencer covets her sister's gorgeous new boyfriend. Aria is having an affair with her English teacher. Emily is infatuated with the new girl at school. And Hanna is using some ugly tricks to stay beautiful. Deeper and darker still is a horrible secret the girls have shared since sixth grade - a secret they thought was safe forever.

Then the girls start receiving threatening messages signed by someone named "A." Could "A" be Alison, the ultra-popular girl who disappeared three years earlier? Alison was their best friend. She knew everything about them. But if Alison isn't "A," who is? And how could anyone else know so much about the bad girls they were and the bad girls they've become? Suddenly, their secrets - the big ones, the little ones, the long-buried ones - no longer seem so safe. Suddenly, nothing is safe in Rosewood.

I have to confess that when I started this book, I was not prepared to enjoy it. I liked the idea of the mystery and the girl who disappeared, but I was afraid there would be too many designer-labels and "popular" girls that I couldn't relate to. I am very pleased to say that I was wrong.

The characters in Pretty Little Liars are incredibly relatable. Aria's the English nerd who's trying to figure out who she is and wants a guy with more to him than just looks. Spencer's always had a lot of pressure on her from her parents to do well in school. Emily's the younger sister who's living in her older siblings' shadow and a little scared of disobeying her parents. Hanna, probably the hardest to relate to for me, is dealing with her step-sister being Daddy's favorite and feeling like her parents don't think she's good enough. Each of the girls have their issues that they're dealing with, and they're also dealing with the unavoidable social changes of high school - changing friend groups, changing interests, romance or the lack thereof. Plus, it's one of those books that really just says "Hey, everybody has issues. People are people, regardless of social status." These characters, obnoxious though they can be at times, are ones that you can't help feeling drawn to.

And the mystery of A and Alison's disappearance is very well done. I've already said I like the characters, but even if I didn't, I think I'd be reading the rest of the series just to figure out who A is and what happened to Alison. There's enough to it so that readers aren't just like, "oh, whatever, sideline mystery," but it doesn't tell you so much that you can figure it out halfway through. The mystery is very well crafted and I am definitely going to pick up Flawless ASAP.

And, okay, Pretty Little Liars also has a fair amount of guilty pleasure appeal. The torrid affairs, the parties, and all the deep, dark, juicy secrets - it's the kind of stuff that you know you shouldn't want to read about, but you can't help wanting more anyway.

I felt like some of it got a bit over-the-top in places; some of the drama could have been toned down a bit and still worked just as well if not better. But on the whole, I really really enjoyed Pretty Little Liars. I read it straight through; put it down for bathroom breaks and family dinner, and not much else. Definitely a fun read for just about any teenage girl.

Oh, and one more thing. The cover. I'm not a huge fan of the yellow background, but the idea of the dolls to represent the girls? Love it. If I started going on about the metaphorical significance of the dolls, we'd be here all afternoon, but I think it works really, really well. So, three cheers for Sara Shepard, and another three cheers for the cover designer.

Links:
Pretty Little Liars website