Wanted -- a review by Hope Austin

Wanted

by Sara Shepard

***

With this book, the Pretty Little Liars series has come to a close. For those of you who haven’t been following, the series focuses on former friends Hanna, Emily, Spencer, and Aria, all four of them harboring some seriously dark secrets. After Ali, their friend who knew all of their secrets, goes missing the summer before eighth grade, the girls go their separate ways. Three years later, they’re brought back together by disturbing text messages from someone only known as “A.” From then on, the girls must fight to save their reputations and possibly their lives, all while discovering some particularly nasty secrets about their families and their long lost friend, Ali.

The whole series itself seems to be made up of twists, sometimes way out of left field, and Wanted has the biggest twist (that’s far too good to spoil) of the entire series. Shepard plays around with it for the rest of the book. At the beginning of the book, the reader is flat-out told that they’re not getting a fairytale ending, and Shepard sticks to that. Shepard may not be the best writer, but she knows how to keep you on the edge of your seat, waiting to see what happens next.

This series is very entertaining. Certainly nothing to write home about, but if you’re going on a long flight or need to pass the time somehow, I’d recommend this series. If you’re the type of person who liked The Clique or Gossip Girl, but thought that they didn’t have enough suspense or murder, this series is right up your alley. But be warned: you need to have a very strong suspension of disbelief, or all the plot twists will have you banging your head against a wall.