Twisted

Twisted: A Pretty Little Liars Novel

Author: Sara Shepard
Rating: I really liked it
Recommendation: Teens

Twisted is focused on four girls’ crazy lives: Spencer, Hanna, Aria, and Emily. These seniors in high school were best friends in the past, but haven’t interacted since one spring break trip prior- to Jamaica. During that vacation, they did something unforgivable. If the secret gets out, their lives could be destroyed. Their purpose of going to Jamaica was to forget about Alison, the girl who almost killed them, but ended up getting killed in a fire. Their vacation was ruined, once they saw a familiar - Ali.

The girls try to move on and live a normal life. But things aren’t so normal, as they face many different scenarios. Hanna almost killed her dad’s Senate campaign, due to scandalous photos. Emily finds a new friend whose family is not everything as it seems. Aria’s boyfriend becomes friends with a foreign exchange student who is out to steal him away. Spencer gets cozy with her soon-to-be stepbrother, but then rats him out. Their lives go even further downhill when they start to receive text messages from “A”, threatening to expose all their secrets. What they did in Jamaica is still under wraps, but it doesn’t seem like it will be for long. Four of the girls must come together and figure a way to get out of this twisted mess.

Something unique about this book is how it provided back stories of each of the girls’ lives, and discussed how they felt during the night at Jamaica. Dealing with 4 characters’ separate lives got confusing. But getting to know backstory about their lives made me feel closer to the characters and I felt fear as the girls kept receiving the suspicious text messages from “A”. The book kept me on the edge of my seat.

I believe the book would’ve been stronger if there was more clarification to who is good and who is bad, who is innocent and who is guilty. Nevertheless, I would rate this book a 4 out of 5. It has diverse storylines that put the plot together as a whole, and it evokes a great sense of tension and suspicion.