Flawless is the second novel in the Pretty Little Liars series by Sara Shepard.
Finished on: 8.11.2025
[Here’s my review of the first novel.]

Content Note: sexualized violence

Plot:
Alison DiLaurentis‘ body was found and buried, but Spencer Hastings, Hanna Marin, Aria Montgomery, and Emily Fields are still receiving text messages from somebody who knows all of Alison’s secrets – and theirs, threatening to expose them. Maybe A is Alison? Or maybe it is Toby Cavanaugh who is back in town and knows more about The Jenna Thing than the girls suspect – or would like.

Flawless wasn’t quite as engaging to me as the first novel but it is still a pretty good and very quick read. It also gives us the first really big departure, I think, from the TV show (or rather vice versa), so it surprised me a little bit which was nice.

The entire series comes with the potential to frustrate, and that has always been the case. Because all that would be necessary to take the power away from A would be to come clean, at least to each other, but the girls are so caught up in everything that they never really go for that option. It makes me want to shake them sometimes, to knock some sense into them. But mostly, you just have to accept that this is the way things are, otherwise you can just quick the series straight away.

Flawless, now, kind of emphasized this frustrating part a little too much. The number of times the girls think „maybe I should tell the others“ and then don’t is a little high, I have to admit. But at the same time, I could also understand why they wouldn’t, for the most part. Often it was enough just to remind myself how young they actually are – and how little support they get from the adults around them. I mean, the healthiest family here is probably Aria, and her dad is a cheat, and her mom blames Aria for not telling her earlier.

Given that I remember the TV show surprisingly well (not the plot details, but the characters), I was a little surprised by the way Toby is handled in this book – very much a departure from the TV show, I thought. I mean, I’d assumed that the TV show changed things a lot (though not really from the first book), it probably had to given its long runtime, but unless there is like a big HAHA! plot twist in the next book(s), this change was even bigger than I thought.

Anyhow, the books make for excellent palate cleansers after a hard or frustrating read, so I guess I’ll keep going, as long as they don’t frustrate me too much. And I do hope that the girls become better friends again soon.

Summarizing: entertaining.