When I was about eleven, I came across a book series in my local library. It was called Pretty Little Liars, and I became obsessed for a while. I loved it. I loved Spencer, Aria, Emily and Hanna. I loved the mystery. I loved everything.

But the series went so downhill, especially when they made a TV show, and besides that, when I recently went back and reread some of the books I discovered - shock and horror - that they weren't even that good to begin with.

So what happens is that in this pretty town called Rosewood, there are four teenage girls - Spencer, Aria, Emily and Hanna. They have their own separate social circles now and their own friends and hardly ever talk, but several years before (idk how many but since they're like 17 now and back then they were old enough to date I'll say they were 14 or 15) they were all best friends and there was another girl called Alison. All of these girls were basically "losers" and Alison was basically the queen bee of the school. But they became friends because a while before she died Alison suddenly became really weird and abandoned her old friends and was the one who brought them all together.

One night when they were on a sleepover in Alison's house, Alison went missing, and after that the girls drifted apart.

It took them something like eight books for them to find out what happened to Alison. I think her body was found in a well in her back garden or some shit.

I've only seen the first season of the TV show but I know from friends that the plot of TV show differs a bit from that of the books and that the TV show went into absolute shit too.

THE BOOKS

The explanation of what happened to Alison was just downright stupid.

So what happened was that Alison had an identical twin called Courtney that she told nobody about because Courtney was mentally ill and in an institution. Alison had a ring with an A in it, and Courtney had a ring with a C in it.
Upon one of these visits to the institution, Courtney overpowered Alison and switched clothes and rings with her, then went home with the family. Apparently that was all it fucking took to fool the family and medical professionals. Like are you serious.....

So anyway once out, Courtney knew she couldn't fool Alison's best friends (yet somehow she could fool the parents and brother) so she made friends with Aria, Emily and Spencer and Hanna, or aka, The Weird One, The Gay One, The Other One, and The Anorexic One Who Used To Be Fat. Those are their only personalities. Alison is The Bitchy And Possibly Evil One.

But anyway, what happened is that the real Alison escaped from the institution the night of the sleepover and she killed Courtney and threw her in the well. And then after that the family kept the real Alison hidden away or some shit, idk.

But I mean, the police thought that it was Alison's body. Does the author know that identical twins have different DNA?
Even the most identical of twins have little differences.

Somehow everybody was fooled, simply by the fact of the stupid rings. Because the body had the A ring everybody went, "durrrrrr she has the ring so she HAS to be Alison, I mean rings are permanently fixed to fingers there's no way you could take a ring off and put it on somebody else hahahahahaaha."

I'm not even finished. So then when the girls found out that the one they had been friends with hadn't been the real Alison, they became "friends" with the real Alison, who used and manipulated Emily's feelings for her just as Courtney had (I would feel more sorry for Emily if she had a personality)

The real Alison was shown to the world (they called her Courtney) and was all over the news and shit, and they said they had kept her hidden because maybe the maniac who had killed Alison (the real Courtney) would come after her too. Spencer found out her dad had an affair with Alison's mum and yayyayyayay Alison and Courtney are actually her half sisters.

But guess what, the real Alison turned out to be a maniac too, and tried to kill the girls, but thankfully they escaped just in time and Alison was put in prison or died or smth.

You thought that was the end of the series. Nope.

They are more books after that one, each with increasingly desperate plots. Hanna is anorexic. Aria marries this random Swedish guy who then tries to set tigers in a circus free. Emily's homophobic parents send her to live with her religious aunt and uncle, who send her back because she sneaks out with her cousins and kisses a girl Emily gets a boyfriend (presumably she's bi) and gets pregnant, then gives the baby up for adoption. The author brings A (the stalker) back out of sheer desperation.
I don't remember what happened, so I'm guessing I stopped reading before the last book.

TV SHOW

Again, I only watched the first season, but I know stuff from my friends. And the number one thing I know is that they never let A die. They were even worse than the books. There were a million and one As for no reason, and also A had this fuckin stupid army or something. I haven't kept up with it at all, and I don't even know if it's still going. None of my friends watch it anymore anyway, because the craze has mostly passed, THANK THE LORD.

But recently I saw this post about how in the TV show Alison is pregnant because she had Emily's eggs planted in her womb or some shit? And maybe Alison and Emily are a couple now?

So basically what you can take from PLL is that both the author and the TV producers are desperate af.

A will turn up at every corner no matter what. You thought you killed A?
Well you didn't, because there's a new one. There will always be a new one and it gets so old.