The End of Pretty Little Liars (And Why I Hate The Series)

Teen drama
Feb 21, 2015
5 min read

Once upon a time, the was a little darkling who was listening to her friends talk about a TV show they were watching called "Pretty Little Liars." Interested, she learned that the show was based offa book series with the same name. Of course, she decided to read it and see for herself what the books were like.

At first, the books were wonderful. They was exciting and engaging, with plenty of drama, action, and mystery. But as the series wore on without end, the darkling realized something. This was not the series she had fallen in love with, but a monster full of insane criminals, incompetent teens, and vanishing plot lines. She sadly began to understand that she was in for a long and difficult journey of a series.

After sixteen books and roughly 5400 (give or take) pages of Pretty Little Liars, the darkling was free. She then turned to the world to ease her haunted and scarred mind of the horrors of the books.

Yeah, that's me.

I 've done it. I've finally finished the series, and now I can move on. At first, I was really into the books. I wanted to like the series, I really did. It was awful. Every book is the same. I'm sorry, but it's true. Some people get killed, the girls look for A, we have some new suspects, the girls get introuble for breaking the law, everyone thinks they're insane, and we get some teen drama fluff on the side to distract us from the fact that this was written by someone with the skills of a nine-year-old. They do a very good job distracting us, though. I feel so sorry for all the little zombie fans. Seriously. They strike me as the kind of people who have one or two insane fans hidden in their ranks. The moment you insult their series...

Naturally, one of the biggest problems are the characters. Well, their personalities and life choices. I think I'll start with Hanna. There wasn't that much about her that was super offensive until this book. I would like to stress that it is never a good idea to get married to a guy you've only been dating for about a year. Nedd I add that most of that was made up of a very shaky relationship and that both Hanna and Mike are seventeen? A hormonal teen boy who's favorite diner is the local Hooters isn't going to make a great husband. Not that it matters to Hanna.

Second, please don't get me started on Emily. The main thing with her is the way she treats her family. Every time something bad happens to her they pretty much disown her, and they care more about saving face than their daughter. And yet, every time things turn out all right, they welcome her back with open arms and expect her to go on with things like nothing ever happened. Of course, Sara Shepard tries to remedy this at the very end of the series with some crap about Emily trying to distance herself from her family for a while, but please. Emily admits there's a problem much earlier in the series. That sould have been taken care of then, not in the last two chapters.

Third, there's Aria. Oh, Aria. You know, I'm not that annoyed with you for the stuff with Ezra, because, you know I can forgive that. What I can't forgive you for is the fact that you ran off, away from your trial to Europe with Noela nd thought that you wouldn't get caught. It was very dumb of you. And, no offense, but in the show, you always have this look on your face that makes me want to punch you. I have no idea what it is.

Spencer is probably the least offensive of the girls. Oh wait, I remember something. Wren. Freaking Wren. I think it would be obvious that you shouldn't date a cheater. It doesn't matter if he didn't cheat on you personally. Just...no. No. Don't do it. It doesn't help matters that he cheated on your sister with you. That was kind of awful of both of you. Granted, Spencer is sort of part of one of the only warm fuzzy parts of the whole book - her relationship with Melissa is cute.

The girls were all idiots. It's the truth. They're always going around, attacking people for being A based purely on a hunch they have which usually isn't correct. Hanna's wedding with Mike and Aria trying to escape her trial aren't helping their cases. The four girls are annoying and prissy, and their petty behavior and girl drama is infuriating and should have made them very unlikable to all the readers.

Another big problem with the books are the plot holes. Take Emily's baby, for example. We never saw any of her pregnancy. It's just there, and then it's over and we get to hear about it when she talks about it to her friends. Pathetic. Obviouly, Shepard was trying to give us a suprise that would be shocking. It was - for about three seconds. Than I was just a bit ticked. You know who else did that? Becca. Becca Fitzpatrick. You know who else writes terrible books? Becca Fitzpatrick. The series also has all these characters who are in a book or two, and then they just vanish. Granted, it's not strictly a plot hole. Even so, you would think they would be around more. Erza just drops away after Aria catchs him with Klaudia. We never see him again, with the exception of a little magazine snippet from an article Aria reads.

All the books were bad, but Vicious in particular wasn't so great. At this point, I had to force myself to finish the series and every chapter was torture. The usually "shocking" drama and so-called "plot twists" weren't anything new, and by this point, I was so used to them that it was just boring. Part of why the book is entertaining is that none of the things that happen to the girls would ever happen in real life. Sure, some kids could go on trial for murder. But the other stuff? Happening to the same people? Forget it. The thing is, it just wasn't funny anymore.

The ending was rushed and not at all well done. Everything was wrapped up very messily, and there were so many loose ends and plot lines that never really got tied up. The ending opened the book up for more of the series, so I can't say that there was even a promise of happily ever after for our characters, which the book needed badly. Earlier on in the series, I had high hopes. Now? None. I'll give Vicious 1.7/5 stars.

Four things:

Sara Shepard has a new series called The Perfectionists. It looks like another Prett Little Liars, only with a guy A, maybe?
"But I suppose we'll let those charges rest, considering the ordel you've been through." Something tells me that no judge would say that.
When Aria is leaving for Europe, she goes through customs and gives the officer her passport. Despite the fact that Aria is on trial for murder, it's in all the papers, and there's tons of news coverage, he doesn't bat an eye. Plot holes, much?
One last thing - I just thought this would be something for Bad Books, Good Times to do.