Flawless by Sara Shepard

This summer I read Flawless, in the pretty Little Liars Series, a realistic fiction book by Sara Shepard. There are five main characters, Aria, Hanna, Spencer, Emily, and Alison. All of them were great friends because of Ali, but when she went missing, and then found dead (murdered), they all drifted apart. Aria, Hanna, Spencer, and Emily shared secrets with only Ali, when she was alive, and now they all have additional secret that Ali couldn’t possibly know since she is dead. However, someone is sending all of them messages, which have to do with their past and present secrets, and signing “-A”. This causes much confusion, stress, and undercurrent fear throughout the story.
Aria, Hanna, Spencer, and Emily have their own little secrets that torment them inside; one secret of each of theirs was shared with Alison and one wasn’t. Aria’s secret that Ali knew was that her dad cheated on her mom, and Aria’s secret Ali doesn’t know is that Aria is dating her English teacher, Mr. Fitz. Ali knew that Hanna was bulimic, but she didn’t know Hanna was a shoplifter and was so extremely desperate to get her boyfriend back. Spencer told Ali she kissed her older sister’s, Melissa, boyfriend, but it’s impossible for Alison to know that Spencer is dating Melissa’s now current boyfriend, Wren, which Melissa then found out about and broke up with Wren. Emily’s secret is that she is gay, which she did express to Ali, but Emily now likes her knew friend Maya who is also gay, but it is not possible that Ali could know that. And whoever “-A” is knows everything!
In this book there are literary devices used such as, foil characters and third person point of view. The foil character is “-A” because he/she holds Aria, Hanna, Spencer, and Emily’s secrets against them. “-A” is so evil that she make the four girls seem very innocent and good kids, yet they’ve done many horrible things. And the third person point of view is important to this novel because with it the reader is be able to know everyone’s thoughts and feelings and events that happen to them, which make the conflicts much deeper.
This book contains a very powerful message also. Throughout the book Aria, Hanna, Spencer, and Emily hold many secrets and do many terrible things. And because they do all those horrifying things their lives get more and more difficult and nerve-racking. So, this book’s message is that if you do anything bad/wrong there will be consequences and that even though you may seem perfect on the outside, but on the inside you're not so perfect after all.
Flawless is a very well written novel that I would recommend anyone of my age and older to read, along with the rest of the Pretty Little Liars series. This book is intriguing and keeps you wanting to read more and more. All of the cliffhangers that Shepard uses make for an amazing story. You should definitely read this astounding story.