This book is just insane and I mean it in the case of a certain Pretty Little Liar.

Spencer is reaping the rewards and the guilt that came with submitting her sister, Melissa’s economic paper for her own. What she thinks is just a sneaky little cheat to maintain her 4.0 average ends up turning into a wild tangle of lies when she is nominated for the Golden Orchid Award. A national award whose winners end up becoming millionaires, monguls and other intellectual award winners. Spencer, for once, hopes she doesn’t win because if they find out it was her sister’s paper all along. . . It will be worse than staying in her shadow, she might get sent away.

That’s not if she is sent to the psych ward first. In a surprising move of sensibility, Mrs. Hastings arranges for her daughters to go to a therapist and there Spencer undergoes hypnosis to see if she can remember anything else from the fateful night of Ali’s murder.

Not only is there a family secret that Spencer experiences blackouts after traumatic events, her memory starts coming back and she believes in a fit of anger, she killed Ali.

But that’s not the only bit of family drama, Emily’s family is furious when A outs Emily to the entire school during a swimmeet. Maya thinks it’s cool that they can finally be out in public but Emily feels the chill of her family who threaten to send her to Tree Tops’ gay conversion program or stay in Iowa with her ultra conservative aunt/uncle/cousins who believe Cheerios repress sexual urges. Uh yeah, can’t blame her for wanting to avoid that fate.

There is some nice reflection on Emily’s part as she realizes that for all her love for Ali, even if Ali was still alive, there is a big chance Ali would never return her feelings. She wouldn’t see Emily as an equal or be as accepting as Maya is. Maya is good, she’s perfect, Emily loves her now.

But in a surprisingly heartwarming twist, Emily’s meeting with her Tree Tops mentor dissuades her fears that Tree Tops can convert her, in fact her mentor ends up reuniting with her girlfriend, giving Emily the courage to proclaim her love to Maya.

That is until . . . wait let me get to the other Liars firstl

Ara’s life is in the crapper. After her mother kicks her out for knowing her dad’s secret affair and literally-allusion-harassing Meredith, Aria goes to live with her boyfriend Sean (yep Hanna’s ex). So she’s on the outs with Hanna and while Sean is sweet and thoughtful, when he said he hadn’t read any Edgar Allen Poe, that’s when I knew it was over for them. Aria couldn’t date a non-intellectual, artsy boy for long. Sean is too goody goody, normal boy for that.
Unfortunately that draws her back to the arms of Ezra. Seriously for someone who is such a big reader, Aria should take a glance at Lolita. It’s frustrating to see Ezra bond with Aria over their parents cheating and just manipulating her with how they could be together even though he’s her freaking teacher!

For once A has the right idea in tipping off Sean who points the police to Ezra’s house. Yes, it’s sad for Aria that she has no one now but good riddence to getting rid of that creepy teacher man. Hopefully in a few years Aria will realize it is for the best.

Hanna seems the most adjusted after the events of last book, but that just means she has the most to lose with A manipulating and ruining her friendship with Mona that leads to Carrie-lite disaster for Hanna at Mona’s Sweet 17. Yes, there’s laughing, there’s a jumbotron and a cruel use of Hanna’s body issues to humiliate her.

There is some light in her life in the form of Lucas, a dork about school who Hanna can be herself around but unfortunately she’s so influenced by popular-girl mode and maintaining her rep she throws it away for Mona and the aforementioned humiliating incident.

Yet there’s light when A makes a fatal mistake.

But this is A, she hardly makes mistakes and when she does, she cleans up loose ends fast.

So A hits Hanna with the hardest blow of all. A black subaru barrelling towards her just as she was about to tell the others who A is.

Crazy right, well we are left with a few suspects here and one liars on the run so get ready for #4 that wraps up the first arc in the series.

On a little aside note I found a continuity error. In Ali’s Pretty Little Secrets, Otter is a brand new boutique that opened in the mall. And here, Mona tells Hanna they should shop at the new store called Otter at the mall. So oops. Little error there. But who could blame her even though it was a prequel, it came several years after this so there’s bound to be some snarls.