Book: Twisted by Sara Shepard

Pages: 305; Hardcover; Published by Harper Teen

Twisted is book 9 in the Pretty Little Liars series.  The girls take a vacation to Jamaica to take their minds off of everything that happened to them.  While there, they come across a girl they believe is Ali, who might have survived the fire.  They are attacked by “Ali” and Aria shoves her off the rooftop in an attempt to save Hanna. 

Months later, they are no longer friends.  Aria is having trouble dealing with the Kahn’s new exchange student, Klaudia.  Klaudia wants Noel for herself, and it causes a rift between Noel and Aria.  Aria pushes Klaudia off a ski-lift in a fit of anger, and Klaudia ends up being injured.  Emily meets a girl named Chloe, and reveals that she was pregnant with Isaac’s child, whom she had given up for adoption over the summer.  She’s now worried about getting a college scholarship, which is her only option for college.  Chloe’s dad offers to help, since he has strings at the University of North Carolina.  However, he makes a few sexual advances toward her, which ruins her friendship with Chloe.

Hanna gets offered a modeling job by a photographer named Patrick; he sees her at a commercial her dad is doing since he’s running for Congress.  However, he was just trying to have sex with Hanna, and he goes on to blackmail her with some photos he had taken of her.  She steals money from her dads campaign and frames one of her dad’s campaign workers. 

Spencer’s mom gets engaged to a man named Nicholas Pennythistle, while Spencer has feelings for his son Zach.  He confesses that he’s gay, and Spencer promises to keep his secret.  Mr. Pennythistle accuses Zach of sleeping with Spencer and beats up Zach, which causes Spencer to accidentally reveal Zach’s secret.  It’s hinted that Spencer ruined a girl’s life in order to get into Princeton.

This book was just okay.  It really reminded me of the 5th book in the series- just tacked on because the series is really popular.  I mean, how many times can you bring back A, who’s holding something over the girls?  As much as I like the series, it’s starting to get a little tired now.  She’s really starting to recycle the plot every 4 books or so, and I’m pretty sure this book and the next one (Ruthless) were written because of how well the t.v. show is doing.

I did have pretty low expectations, and I’m starting to detect a pattern with the series.  It seems like there’s a new A, who threatens to reveal new secrets every 4 books.  If Shepard wants to do a book about their lives after everything, fine.  But is recycling the same storyline every few books really that worth it? 

It’s definitely never-ending, and while the next book probably won’t be good, I still feel the need to read it and figure out who A is. 

It gets a 2 out of 5.  It was painfully predictable, and the series doesn’t really need to be continued.