Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard | Review

Series: The Pretty Little Liars Series

Published: October 1st, 2006 by HarperCollins Publishers

Pages: 286

Date Finished: November 30th, 2015

Rating: 5/5 stars

Age Recommendation: 13+

Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard captured my attention from the very first breathtaking page to the last. I had previously read most of the Pretty Little Liars series a couple years ago but decided to stop out of boredom and there being too many books but there were so many things I liked about this first installment.

Pretty Little Liars is the first of many books following four teenage girls -Aria, Emily, Spencer and Hanna- after the mysterious disappearance of their friend Alison DiLaurentis.  Ali has been missing for three years and she was the only one who knew her friend's deepest, darkest secrets.

Just when the girls are starting to recover from the loss of their friend, they simultaneously start receiving creepy text messages holding within them all the secrets from the girls' pasts; things only Ali herself would have known. This book definitely keeps you gripping the edge of your seat.

As for the characters... Even though they have some tremendous secrets under wraps and make some really horrible decisions, most of the time you can see their reasoning behind those mistakes.

Aria is probably my favorite character. I just love how out-there and unique she is

There were also some things that I viewed as bonus material in this book. Even though there were 35 chapters, the chapter length ranged from about 5 pages to 12 so the reading experience really breezed along.

Another thing that helped with that was Sara's writing style. It's very simple but it flowed seamlessly and her vocabulary kept you wanting more.

If you haven't read this series yet, I highly recommend it! Now, off to read book two.

Different Stereotypes and Why I Hate Them

Hey guys! So... I'm currently reading a book that I got off NetGalley and it has me extremely frustrated. As I was reading, the author threw in two stereotypes that I didn't see necessary and they quite honestly ticked me off. That's why I decided to make this post because it got me thinking of all the times authors have thrown in useless stereotypes that not a lot of people can relate to. So here we go!


Race


The first stereotype is one of the most common ones that I've come across. In most of the novels I've read, the main characters are always white. This annoys me because I can't believe the world still sees problems with other races or views interracial/differently raced couples as a "wrong" thing. The world is much more diverse than most authors make it out to be and love is the same way.


LGBTQIA+


This brings me to my next point: LGBTQIA+ relationships in books. More often than not, most of the couples in fictitious novels are straight. Authors need to realize that not everyone in the world is straight and that some of their readers may not be able to connect with their characters. If they were more exploratory with what they wrote, that would be really awesome. Granted there are more books being published about gay and lesbian couples nowadays but there aren't many books for the less well-known sexual orientations and sexual/gender identities.


Physical Attractiveness


More often than not, the female protagonist in a book is super slim, tan, gorgeous, blond, has the perfect body and a bubbly personality. The male protagonist is a hunk with a defined six pack, sexy smile, sometimes he's a jerk or a bad boy, and he's almost always into sports. The majority of society is not like this. We come from all different walks of life; we're all different sizes and body types and most of us don't have the money to buy super expensive cars. The way these characters are built up is especially bad for younger readers because they think they have to be super fit or slim and look and act just how they think society "needs" them to be.




Those are just some of the stereotypes that come hand in hand with fictitious novels that I've read and they really annoy the crap out of me. I hope this post didn't seem too rant-y and I'll see you all next Wednesday. Happy reading!