Flawless, by Sara Shepard, is the second novel in the Pretty Little Liars series. I first fell in love with her writings when I got hold of the first book Pretty Little Liars. (Read Review Here).
I fell in love with the group of teen girls in the first book. In the second book, Flawless, all 4 of my favorite bad girls are back. Aria, Hanna, Emily, and Spencer. Each with their own dirty set of secrets.
As we learned in the last book Pretty Little Liars, Allison’s body had been found. Yep, Allison is dead, long dead. The girls had been receiving text messages and emails from someone named ‘A. A seemed to know all of their dirty secrets, and she was going to tell! With Allison not being alive to be the mystery ‘A’, the girls are sent into a shock-wave, as they know someone else besides Allison knows their secrets…but who?
We also learned the big secret that wasn’t discussed in Pretty Little Liars. It turned out that the big secret was that Allison was responsible for Jenna’s (a dorky girl in the neighborhood) going blind. Turns out though, that Toby Jenna’s step brother, also knew that it was Allison, who lit the firecracker which caused Jenna to go blind. He saw her do it!
Allison though has dirt on Toby, and if Toby wants Allison to keep her mouth shut, he better take the blame for Jenna’s accident. Toby goes along with it, and you are left clueless as to what Toby’s secret is.
Anyhow, it turns out Spencer was there when Allison was caught by Toby. So now she knows that Toby knows that they are responsible for Jenna’s accident.
Allison though makes Spencer promise never to tell. When Spencer shows worry that Toby may tell, Alison tells her Toby’s secret.
Anyhow, with that aside, A, the secret stalker who knows all of the girls secrets is back, and Spencer believes ‘A’ is Toby…. and now that Toby is back in town, she feels she has to warn the others. You see, Spencer technically never told the other girls that she knew that Toby had known about their involvement with The Jenna Thing. Spencer also believes that Toby killed Allison. I mean why wouldn’t he? She knew his dirty secret, and he knew that she hurt Jenna. He also promised pay back.
Anyhow, the story goes on, Hanna was recently dumped by her boyfriend who swore virginity till marriage. Too bad Hannah tried getting into his panties a little too early. Now her ex has eyes for someone else…wonder who that could be?
Even though Hanna may appear to be prettier, no matter how thin she gets, or how much money she spends on designer duds, her dad still looks down on her. Now Hanna is battling the bulge; once again.
Hanna seems to be the only girl in the book with a lack of a dirty secret. So the girl barfs up her lunch… I don’t get what is so deadly about that, but ‘A’ still taunts her with it.
Emily still is struggling with the fact that she may be gay.
Spencer has once again has taken the lover of her sister, while she battles with whether or not she should tell the girls about Toby, and his secret, and why she feels he is Allison’s killer.
Last but not least; Aria. She is pretty much caught up in some ridiculous mix about her father being a cheater. She worries about what it could do to her family if that secret got out. On top of the fact that she was doing her teacher.
Somehow ‘A’ manages to know all of their old secrets, and all of their new dirty secrets. ‘A’ taunts them every now and then throughout the novel with text messages and emails. Her threats have gotten a little deeper, as ‘A’ now demands things from them.
The genuinity of ‘A” is starting to become more and more unrealistic. This one person couldn’t possibly know all of this dirt without physically attaching a damn hidden microphone to each and every one of the girls. I liked Pretty Little Liars, but Flawless sort of kept bending things way, way out of proportion, and making it seem a little unrealistic. With that said though… the anticipation is still there, and it is still exciting.
In the end, Toby’s secret is revealed, and it is a secret way worse then I had imagined it would be. Turned out Toby wasn’t too kind to Jenna either. I won’t spill the secret, that’s for you to find out, if you are interested in reading this novel.
I will say this though, Toby’s secret is gruesome, and at the end of Flawless another body is found, and ‘A’ still continues to harass the girls. Who dies? Who is A?
You won’t find out who ‘A’ is in the novel, but you will find out who’s body turns up in the end.
Flawless answered a few questions from the fist novel that I had been wondering about…but in reality, Flawless also seemed too much like the last novel. I mean don’t get me wrong, the story was still really good… but it sort of dragged on, and was a bit like the first novel in the series.
I really hope this ‘who done it?’mystery is at least half solved in the next novel‘Perfect. I really don’t think I could bare 3 more books of ‘A’, and a group of girls who cannot figure out who ‘A’ is (no matter how much I enjoy reading about each girl).
I enjoyed Flawless, but I still wished it wasn’t so familiar with the last book. I don’t know how much longer the author could stretch this ‘A’ thing out, and a dead body at the end to wrap it up, without fans getting bored.
Flawless was a fast paced read, even though the novel was long.
I will continue to read the series till ‘A’ identity is brought out into the open.
Recommended:
Yes.
Teens and young adults would enjoy The Pretty Little Liars series best. I’m 25 and enjoy the juicy novels so far, so I recommend it to adults as well.
