*I have never seen the tv show so these reviews won’t be influenced or confused by the television events.

Sara Shepard’s debut series of the sleepy little town of Rosewood, Pennsylvania sparks one of the twistiest teen intrigues of the early 200s. You see, Rosewood is a town full of secrets harbored by the prettiest most popular girls you could ever meet.

The debut does its job in capturing interest in the premise. Following a close five-some of girls gathered up by their gorgeous yet ruthless leader, Alison DiLaurentis. If you’re thinking of any Mean Girls tropes, Alison fits it. She charms you with her smile but can also cut you down to the core with a single snide comment. That’s what makes the girls long to be in her presence, her inner circle and fear pissing her off.

And brings about a bunch of conflicting feelings when she’s murdered.

Years later, the girls no longer talk, their friendship faded without their golden girl. They’re occupied with their own lives and their own secrets.

First off, Spencer is the total type A overachiever that you are more irritated by then jealous of. She’s the one who has to be on top no matter what, and that is exemplified by her obsession with beating her older sister, Melissa’s, academic records in a misguided attempt to get her parents’ love and be someone independent of her sister’s large shadow. Part of that obsession veers to coveting her sister’s boyfriend which he recipocates. It’s clear that her desire to beat her sister in everything is clouding anything else in her life and I was eager to see where it takes her. It’s just a breakdown waiting to happen.

Hanna has taken over the popular girl void left by Alison. She, with her fellow outcast, Mona have reinvented themselves from chubby, shy misfits to girls with everything. Best clothes, best bods, best hair, best everything. But no one knows that Hanna gets some of her killer outfits from shoplifting since her mom is a lot poorer than everyone knows. And she got that killer bod from purging. She also has some sadness stemming from her father seeming to replace her with his new perfect family which she, predictably, believes it’s because she’s not pretty enough. It’s an okay thread but interesting enough to see where she goes from here.

Aria moved soon after Alison’s murder to Iceland as well as other European cities so now she has a more bohemian, free spirited outlook on life. She wishes she wasn’t moving back to boring Rosewood, USA with the rude, uneducated Americans. She really thinks she’s all that now, all artsy eccentricities. The only interesting man she meets is a one night stand, Ezra, from the bar which she can converse about all sorts of literature. There’s a pretty good reason for that. Turns out he’s her English teacher! But that’s not stopping them as Aria is swept up by love leaving me thoroughly creeped out by the prominant age gap.

Finally, Emily, American athlete and swim team captain is the girl next door who meets the girl next door. Literally, she meets her new neighbor, Maya (moving into the DiLaurentis’ old house) bearing a gift basket. Soon she’s starts questioning everything about her sexuality as the two share several clandestine kisses. Well she’s not questioning everything. She used to have a major crush on Alison, who held it over her head any chance she could. Alison may be gone but Emily’s fears of being outed and her family’s reaction are not. Scratch that last part Alison may not actually be gone.

As everyone knows by now since this series is pretty well-known, mysterious text messages signed off by A are sent to the girls threatening to reveal all their secrets, bringing them to band up again to find out who’s sending them. Who could know them so well? The only one who could is Alison but she’s dead, right?

Shepard does an excellent job in creating a creepy, paranoid atmosphere combining the insecurities of the teens with the fear of being caught yet also the feelings of entrapment that they need to do these things, and keep these secrets without telling anyone else about them. So mystery-generation A+.

Shepard also depicts relationships well. Not just the heat of new romance but the close friendships between the girls in the Alison flashbacks showing the complexities of popular girl inner circle dynamics.

Now while she hits their insecurities very well, they also don’t feel like teenagers with the drinking, interests in literature and namedropping fashion brands but that’s par for course for series like these. But that might bother other readers.

So a solid debut and will be coming soon with #2, Flawless.