Books
7 Books To Read While We Wait For More 'PLL'
The finale of Pretty Little Liars season 6B came all too quickly, and now we likely have a long wait until we pick up with Hanna, Emily, Aria, Spencer, Ali, and Mona again in PLL season 7. That means we have a lot of time to devote to wrapping our minds around A, Uber A, A.D., Emoj-A (A-moji?) and parsing just who is who in this complicated, drama-filled world. (Spoilers ahead!) But when our brains start to get all gobbled thinking about whether A.D. is Alison DiLaurentis or Sara Harvey or someone else, just who was in the creepy old man mask, who kidnapped Hanna because I don't believe it was Mary Drake and Rollins, and most importantly, when, oh when, is Wren coming back, sometimes we have to take a break and focus on a different story for a bit. I know it's hard.
Whether you miss mean girl Alison (please be playing us with this Stepford Wife shtick), want to solve crimes like the four OG Liars, are hell-bent on revenge like the various iterations of A (Mona clearly being No. 1), or can't stop hiding behind your pillow while watching the horror Halloween episodes, there is a book for you. So when you're waiting for season 7 of PLL, try some of these seven books.
1. Burn for Burn by Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian
If you watch Pretty Little Liars for Mona and her high-stakes schemes to get revenge on everyone who bullied her when she was nerdy Mona, you are going to love Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian's Burn for Burn . And thank goodness, there are also the sequels Fire with Fire and Ashes to Ashes, so they'll hold you over for longer until PLL comes back. In the series, three girls from the beautiful Jar Island bond to exact revenge on particular people who have wronged them.
2. Ink and Ashes by Valynne E. Maetani
If you're more fascinated by the DiLaurentis family secrets — (spoilers!) a secret love child with the neighbor, a daughter/niece locked in a mental institution, and an evil twin, just for starters — then you're going to be hooked on Ink and Ashes by Valynne E. Maetani. Claire Takata's dad died 10 years ago of a heart attack — or so she thought. But after she finds secret letters, she learns that he was part of a Japanese organized crime syndicate. And this is only the beginning of her trouble, because now Claire is receiving coded messages and packages (sound familiar?) leading her in a dangerous direction.
3. They All Fall Down by Roxanne St. Claire
If you circle your calendar for those horrifying Pretty Little Liars Halloween episodes, your favorite part of the finale was (spoiler!) zombie Jessica in Ali's house, or if the infamous Noel Kahn hiding under a sheet still haunts your nightmares, you'll love this horror novel that screams PLL. Roxanne St. Claire's They All Fall Down is set in Vienna High, where every year, a list is released of the 10 hottest girls in the school. To be on the list is to be popular — but then those 10 girls start dying one by one.
4. Don't You Cry by Mary Kubica
This one is a bit of a cheat because it's not coming out until May, but it will be worth the wait for PLL fans. Mary Kubica is a thriller master, and this one in particular matches some of the themes of our favorite show. Quinn wakes up one morning to realize her roommate and friend Esther is gone, her window open, and her alarm clock still blaring. If that weren't troubling enough, now Esther's phone is getting calls. But they're looking for someone under another name, and it seems, living another life. This has Charlotte and Ali written all over it. Vivian Darkbloom, much?
5. Tiny Pretty Things by Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton
In Pretty Little Liars, you didn't see the Liars do much in the way of school work — unless it was Spencer copying Melissa's paper or Aria paying a little too much attention in Mr. Fitz's class. But in Tiny Pretty Things , schoolwork is these girls' lives, because they attend an elite ballet academy. And when every student is battling for a coveted role, there isn't just A to worry about, there's everyone. There are threats written in lipstick on the mirror, secrets shared with the school, medical records leaked, and even violence perpetrated in the name of advancing your career in ballet.
6. Get Even by Gretchen McNeil
Just like Aria, Emily, Hanna, and Spencer are all different girls who bond together, in Gretchen McNeil's Get Even Bree, Olivia, Kitty, and Margot come from disparate background and unite, albeit for a different reason. While the Liars are trying to protect themselves against a hooded bully, the girls in Get Even go a step further and decide to get revenge against those bullies. Except, in a flip of roles, when one of their tormentors shows up dead, it seems someone else is looking for revenge against the girls.
7. Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
I'm fairly confident that high school Alison DiLaurentis would call Rebecca one of her favorite books. Our favorite Queen Bee mean girl would have found a lot to admire in the manipulative Mrs. Danvers and even Rebecca herself. The classic novel follows an unnamed new bride to the wealthy Maxim de Winter, whose first wife, Rebecca, died. The housekeeper Mrs. Danvers, having preferred Rebecca, taunts and tricks the new bride into reminding Maxim of his late wife. And things go even darker from there.
Image: Freeform
