Pretty Little Liars (novel)

Pretty Little Liars is a series of young adult novels by Sara Shepard. The series follows the lives of four girls — Spencer, Hanna, Aria, and Emily — whose clique falls apart after the disappearance of their leader, Alison. Three years later, they begin receiving text messages from someone using the name "A" who threatens to expose their secrets — including long-hidden ones they thought only Alison knew.

The series in chronological order:

 * Pretty Little Liars
 * Flawless
 * Perfect
 * Unbelievable
 * Wicked
 * Killer
 * Heartless
 * Wanted
 * Twisted

A television series premiered on ABC in the summer of 2010, all series exclusive tropes go here.

Tropes
"Hanna: "My way of staying sane is to eat a ton of cheese-based snacks and then throw them up.""
 * Accidental Murder: In Twisted
 * Aloof Big Sister: Melissa to Spencer, and Jason as well.
 * Always Identical Twins:
 * Always Someone Better: Spencer feels she is constantly under her older sister Melissa's shadow. Darren believes that Hanna felt this way concerning Alison.
 * Alpha Bitch: Alison before she died. After, Hanna sort of replaces her.
 * Anyone Can Die: Anyone who is important to the plot of one or more books will probably die in the next. By the end of Wanted, the dead people include
 * Asshole Victim: Alison wasn't exactly the nicest person around.
 * Based on a True Story: The author claims at the series is loosely based off her experiences on "...Philadelphia’s Main Line."
 * The Beautiful Elite: Pretty much everyone in Rosewood. At worst they would be Hollywood Homely.
 * Big Eater: Hanna, played for drama.


 * Bi the Way: Emily, arguably Alison and Trista.
 * Black Best Friend: Maya, who is also a little bit more than that...
 * Blackmail: A's messages.
 * Blondes Are Evil: Mona, Alison, Melissa at some points in the books, Iris and Courtney.
 * Break the Cutie: In the books Jenna is teased constantly by Alison and her friends, abused by her stepbrother and then she is blinded by a prank gone wrong. She never holds the teasing against Aria and the others though,
 * Broken Bird: Aria
 * Brother-Sister Incest / Not Blood Siblings: Toby and Jenna.
 * But also qualifies as Questionable Consent.
 * Cassandra Truth: The girls telling Darren that a second A was tormenting them after, and, more disturbingly,
 * The Chessmaster: A is obviously this.
 * Clingy Jealous Girl: Hanna is like this in her relationship with Sean causing him to dump her.
 * Cure Your Gays: Emily's parents attempt to do this.
 * Daddy's Girl: Hanna used to be like this with her dad before he remarried. However, after he married Isabel he preferred Kate to her causing her many insecurities.
 * Dark Secret: Pretty much everyone in Rosewood has one of these...
 * Dead Person Conversation: Hanna has one with Alison while she is in the hospital. Subverted
 * Deadly Prank: The Jenna Thing is entirely based off this. The girls are convinced to play a prank on Toby involving a firework. Of course it backfires leading to Jenna's blindness and Toby taking the fall for it.
 * Disappeared Dad: Hanna's and Emily's.
 * Disney Villain Death:
 * The Dog Was the Mastermind: A's identity fits this because at first the girls suspect A is Alison but after she is discovered to be dead leading them to suspect Toby to be A.
 * The Dragon: Mona to Hanna.
 * Dropped A Bridge On Her:
 * Dysfunction Junction: All of the main characters have some kind of major issue. Spencer has to compete with her sister Melissa for everything including boyfriends and then her best friend Alison as well. Emily had a crush on her best friend Alison and was in a secret relationship with Maya because she knew how her parents would react. Hanna struggled with bulimia and her father favoring her stepsister Kate. Aria witnessed her father cheating on her mom with a student while keeping it secret from her family and she got romantically involved with her teacher.
 * False Friend:
 * Five-Man Band: Arguably --
 * The Hero: Alison
 * The Lancer: Aria
 * The Big Guy: Emily
 * The Chick: Hanna
 * Spencer qualifies for both The Lancer and The Smart Guy.
 * Formerly Fat: Hanna used to be fat before undergoing a makeover and becoming bulimic.
 * Four-Temperament Ensemble: Hanna - sanguine, Spencer - choleric, Emily - melancholic, and Aria - phlegmatic.
 * Flash Back: Every book is started with one. Also, the girls have flashbacks routinely about what they did with Ali.
 * Food Slap: Ben spills his drink on Emily after finding out she cheated on him with.
 * Foreshadowing:
 * Gambit Roulette: It is revealed in Unbelievable that
 * Girl Posse: The four girls are this to Alison before her death. Before she befriended the protagnonists, Alison had another girl posse with two girls named Riley Wolfe and Naomi Zeigler. Hanna forms one of her own later after with her stepsister Kate and Alison's two former cronies.
 * The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: Spencer and her sister Melissa.
 * He Knows Too Much: The reason gets hit by a car in Perfect.
 * Hidden Villain: A is extremely skilled at managing to avoid having their identity revealed while conducting blackmail and other methods to mess with the main characters. In the books their identity was revealed in the fourth book and eighth books. On the television series there have been no clues to A's identity as of yet.
 * Hot Teacher: Ezra
 * Hot for Student / Hot for Teacher: Aria and Ezra, though they don't find out they're student-and-teacher until the day after they meet at a bar.
 * I Ate What?: Aria is a vegetarian, upon realizing in horror on her second week in Iceland that she ate a puffin.
 * Irony: The reason that Alison's parents  was because they thought that   Tragically, it turned out that   The worst part?
 * It Gets Worse: Everything.
 * Intelligence Equals Isolation: In the books, this was the reason why Aria didn't fit in with her peers because she was much more interested in things such as philosophy and abstract art. This left her pretty much friendless until meeting Alison and the other girls.
 * Jerkass: Alison definitely crosses into this trope. The reason why she is popular is because she is attractive, smart and charismatic. Also
 * Jerkass Facade: In the books, after Hanna becomes popular she often acts like this to hide the insecurities that she still has.
 * Keeping Secrets Sucks: This is the whole premise of the book series which often involves the girls lying to keep their secrets buried. It is especially made worse by A who is out to reveal the girl's secrets and is constantly blackmailing them.
 * Les Yay: Invoked by Alison to manipulate Emily.
 * Lipstick Lesbian: Maya, Emily and Trista.
 * Luke, I Am Your Father:  Also, in a more straight example,.
 * Mama Bear: Hanna's mom is rather protective of her. Even Darren lampshades this.
 * Man Behind the Man: The girls first think A is Alison which turns out to be wrong because it is
 * Manipulative Bitch: Courtney proves to be very skilled at manipulating other people. She was good at getting her friends to tell her their secrets. Afterwards, Courtney would dangle their secrets in front of the other girls seemingly enjoying it. Not only that, Courtney had no problems with
 * Mona proves to be very skilled with this using her intelligence
 * Topping those two is none other than Alison herself.
 * A Man Is Always Eager: Inverted. Hanna is the one pressuring Sean into sleeping with her. Sean joined a virginity club and plans on waiting until he is older.
 * May-December Romance: This series has several of these.
 * Aria and Ezra
 * Spencer and Wren
 * Darren and Hanna's mom
 * Aria and Xavier
 * Aria and Jason
 * The Nicknamer: Alison frequently gave nicknames to people. They included Jenna the Jerk, Snow White, Hefty Hanna and Killer for Emily.
 * Nice Girl: Emily. In the books,
 * Nice Guy: Sean.
 * The Not Secret: The Jenna Thing turns out to be this because Courtney lied about it.
 * Obfuscating Stupidity: Mona's Valley Girl act barely hides what is an obviously sharp, observant and intelligent mind.
 * Oh Crap: Ezra's reaction to finding out that Aria is a student in his English class. Understandable given how their situation could affect his career.
 * Or Was It a Dream?: Hanna is visited by Alison while she is in the hospital in a weird surreal dream-like state leaving us unsure where it was real or not but later it's revealed that
 * Posthumous Character: Ali.
 * Product Placement: In the books, which constantly name-drop designers, brands, and stores.
 * Really Gets Around: Trista has this reputation in the books.
 * Red Herring:
 * but it turns out
 * The Reveal: A lot of them, though plenty of aversions as well.
 * Revenge: This is Mona's primary motivation
 * Rich Bitch: Hanna's mom in the books.
 * Romantic Two-Girl Friendship: Emily has this with both Courtney and Alison at different points in the books.
 * Schoolgirl Lesbians: Emily fits this trope with more than a few girls ...
 * In the books: Emily and Maya, Emily and Trista, Emily and Alison, Emily and Courtney.
 * Secret Diary: Alison wrote all of her friend's secrets in a diary before her death.
 * Secret Identity: A is the identity of the person who happens to be blackmailing the girls. In the books,
 * Secret Relationship: Aria and Ezra.
 * Seemingly Wholesome Fifties Girl: Emily's Amish cousins.
 * Stepford Suburbia: Rosewood.
 * Sticky Fingers: Hanna has a bad habit of shoplifiting from stores with her friend Mona. This is one one of the things that A blackmails her about.
 * Teacher-Student Romance: Aria and Ezra.
 * This Is for Emphasis, Bitch: A: I'm still here, bitches.
 * Trauma Induced Amnesia: Spencer has no memory of what happened the night that Alison disappeared..
 * Troubled but Cute: Toby
 * The Unfavorite: Spencer in her family and Hanna with her father and stepsister Kate.
 * Wicked Stepmother: This is subverted with Isabel because Hanna dislikes her mainly out of her jealously for her father finding a new family and preferring them to her.
 * Your Cheating Heart: Aria's father, as well as all the girls at some point.
 * Trauma Induced Amnesia: Spencer has no memory of what happened the night that Alison disappeared..
 * Troubled but Cute: Toby
 * The Unfavorite: Spencer in her family and Hanna with her father and stepsister Kate.
 * Wicked Stepmother: This is subverted with Isabel because Hanna dislikes her mainly out of her jealously for her father finding a new family and preferring them to her.
 * Your Cheating Heart: Aria's father, as well as all the girls at some point.
 * Your Cheating Heart: Aria's father, as well as all the girls at some point.