by Sara Shepard
Part of Pretty Little Liars, book 4
First published 2008
Hanna lies unconscious in a hospital bed, her body broken after learning too much about Ali's murder. Her three friends scatter across their own personal disasters. Emily finds herself exiled to Iowa, forced to live with conservative relatives who want to change everything about her. Aria watches helplessly as her boyfriend sits in jail because of choices she made. Spencer wrestles with the terrifying possibility that she played a role in Ali's death. The four girls have spent months trying to bury their secrets, but their carefully constructed lies are crumbling. Someone knows what they did, and that person won't stop until the truth destroys them all. As Hanna clings to life, her friends must decide how far they'll go to protect each other and whether their friendship can survive the weight of their shared guilt.
Genres: mystery, contemporary, thriller, young-adult
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Iowa
Period: 21st-century
335 pages · Hardcover · HarperCollins
Content warnings: anxiety, depression, mental-illness