Kat with a K

Review: Flawless

Flawless by Sara Shepard
Genre: YA
Pages: 330
Rating: 7.2

This second book in the Pretty Little Liars series was, somewhat surprisingly, actually better than the first. I mean, they're still not great, but this was good enough to keep me reading and make me want book three. The characters get more complex, and therefore more interesting and sympathetic, in this volume. The secrets get more interesting, and the book starts to work more like a mystery, which is a good thing in this case. In the first book, everyone was vaguely referring to secrets all the time, but the reader didn't really have much to go on. Here, Shepard starts to give out enough clues that the reader can actually start guessing things and trying to figure out what's going on, and that makes for a much more satisfying reading experience. Perhaps most importantly, it became clear in this book that real stuff is going on and the stakes are high. People's lives are in danger. People die. Major crimes are committed. It's not all about swim team and expensive handbags after all.

I'm still skeptical that the "A" plot is enough to carry as many books as there are (up to what, nine or ten now?), but I'm willing to give Shepard the benefit of the doubt for the moment, and to see where she takes us. I hope the "A" stuff is resolved and other plot strands - and maybe characters - are brought in. It's not like teenagers - or their parents - have any shortage of secrets, after all.