Post by Charlynn on Jan 5, 2012 22:34:24 GMT -5
Killer: A Pretty Little Liars Novel by Sara Shepard
Sometimes, when reading a Pretty Little Liars novel, I find myself marveling at the girls' lives, disbelieving them. While I, too, hail from Pennsylvania, my hometown is the antithesis of the fictional Rosewood – fictional being the all-important word there, because there are moments when I question whether such places could really exist. But they do. Shop for real estate in the towns which dot the real Main Line outside of Philadelphia; check out the King of Prussia mall which the series' King James mall is based upon. Hollis could easily be Bryn Mawr. It's just that Aria, Spencer, Emily, and Hanna's lives are so far removed from what I consider normal... and I'm not just talking about the secrets and lies; the entire setting verges on the fantastic for someone who, at best, was raised in a middle class family environment. Rather, it's the opulence, the sense of entitlement, the galas, and the absolute disregard for the rules that the rest of society follows, but these are all stereotypes found in any affluent society depicted in film and television or in books. Whether fair or not, stereotypes exist for a reason, and I think it's this shock and awe towards places like Rosewood which draw readers (in this case) into the Liars' world. While it can seem foreign, even alien, it's also appealing... even if we recognize that, despite the girls' every advantage, their lives aren't perfect either. At the root of their unhappiness – and ours – are the same, basic problems: communication and trust.
Killer picks up directly where the previous novel in the series left off with the girls convinced that they've found Ian's dead body... only the body has disappeared and they're eventually labeled as the girls who cried wolf in order to claim more of the spotlight. Things just continue to spiral out of control as the book progresses. While Aria finds herself yet another older man – this time, Alison's brother, Jason, Spencer's searching for her birth mother and getting scammed... or so it seems... in the process. Meanwhile, Emily finds out that her new boyfriend's mother hates her after she sleeps with him, and Hanna continues her popularity games with her step-sister Kate, all the while, though, the four girls continue to get texts and clues from A. Despite being burned in the past for failing to talk to one another, they continue to keep secrets, using A's words to further their own agendas rather than banding together, actually communicating, and solving the mysteries destroying their lives. Yes, some of this is motivated by their selfishness, but, mainly, it's inspired by their lack of trust in each other and their insistence upon giving their trust to the wrong people.
But there's the beauty of Shepard's books: readers don't know who to trust either. Everyone has an agenda. Basically, it boils down to two things. One, the girls know that they're not A; they can't say the same about anyone else. And, two, for whatever their personal reasons, they all have the same goals as far as A and Ali's murderer are concerned: they want them caught, stopped, and punished. For these reasons and these reasons alone – whether its lonely or not, Aria, Spencer, Emily, and Hanna need to shelve their reservations, put aside their personal lives, and truly start to work together to figure out what's really going on, because, as of now, A's winning. A always wins, and, until the Liars start to communicate and trust each other, A will continue to have free reign to do whatever A wants.
Four out of Five Stars
Sometimes, when reading a Pretty Little Liars novel, I find myself marveling at the girls' lives, disbelieving them. While I, too, hail from Pennsylvania, my hometown is the antithesis of the fictional Rosewood – fictional being the all-important word there, because there are moments when I question whether such places could really exist. But they do. Shop for real estate in the towns which dot the real Main Line outside of Philadelphia; check out the King of Prussia mall which the series' King James mall is based upon. Hollis could easily be Bryn Mawr. It's just that Aria, Spencer, Emily, and Hanna's lives are so far removed from what I consider normal... and I'm not just talking about the secrets and lies; the entire setting verges on the fantastic for someone who, at best, was raised in a middle class family environment. Rather, it's the opulence, the sense of entitlement, the galas, and the absolute disregard for the rules that the rest of society follows, but these are all stereotypes found in any affluent society depicted in film and television or in books. Whether fair or not, stereotypes exist for a reason, and I think it's this shock and awe towards places like Rosewood which draw readers (in this case) into the Liars' world. While it can seem foreign, even alien, it's also appealing... even if we recognize that, despite the girls' every advantage, their lives aren't perfect either. At the root of their unhappiness – and ours – are the same, basic problems: communication and trust.
Killer picks up directly where the previous novel in the series left off with the girls convinced that they've found Ian's dead body... only the body has disappeared and they're eventually labeled as the girls who cried wolf in order to claim more of the spotlight. Things just continue to spiral out of control as the book progresses. While Aria finds herself yet another older man – this time, Alison's brother, Jason, Spencer's searching for her birth mother and getting scammed... or so it seems... in the process. Meanwhile, Emily finds out that her new boyfriend's mother hates her after she sleeps with him, and Hanna continues her popularity games with her step-sister Kate, all the while, though, the four girls continue to get texts and clues from A. Despite being burned in the past for failing to talk to one another, they continue to keep secrets, using A's words to further their own agendas rather than banding together, actually communicating, and solving the mysteries destroying their lives. Yes, some of this is motivated by their selfishness, but, mainly, it's inspired by their lack of trust in each other and their insistence upon giving their trust to the wrong people.
But there's the beauty of Shepard's books: readers don't know who to trust either. Everyone has an agenda. Basically, it boils down to two things. One, the girls know that they're not A; they can't say the same about anyone else. And, two, for whatever their personal reasons, they all have the same goals as far as A and Ali's murderer are concerned: they want them caught, stopped, and punished. For these reasons and these reasons alone – whether its lonely or not, Aria, Spencer, Emily, and Hanna need to shelve their reservations, put aside their personal lives, and truly start to work together to figure out what's really going on, because, as of now, A's winning. A always wins, and, until the Liars start to communicate and trust each other, A will continue to have free reign to do whatever A wants.
Four out of Five Stars