Wicked (PLL #5) by Sara Shepard | Rating: ★★★★★

I suppose I could let bygones be bygones, forgive and forget, yadda yadda. But where's the fun in that? These pretty little bitches got everything I ever wanted, and now I'm going to make sure they get exactly what they deserve.

In the small and luxurious town of Rosewood, Pennsylvania four little liars think they are safe at last. Alison’s killer is in jail and the anonymous stalker that spent the last weeks harassing them is gone. But the thing about comfort is that it never lasts for long in Rosewood and these four liars are about to get another rude awakening.

After the death of their best friend, Alison DiLaurentis, the girls went from as close as sisters to strangers. Friendships fell apart and years after their friend goes missing, life came back around to bite their asses in their designer jeans.

Spending years apart proved to be too good for each girl as they grew and then their junior year changed everything: the girls were begrudgingly brought back together with the news of Alison’s body and the appearance of a mysterious stalker named A, who seemed to know all of their dirty little secrets.

A certainly wasn’t afraid to use them against each girl. Every little step that Aria, Emily, Hanna and Spencer made, A was a few dozen ahead of them. When the taunting turned dangerous and they were constantly on the line. But you just can’t keep a bad girl down–and these four girls certainly are bad in a delectable light.

New Moon by Stephenie Meyer | Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

While I do have a certain fondness for the Twilight Saga, more out of nostalgia than actual love, New Moon is the exception to that interest. I absolutely loathed this book then, and my feelings remain unchanged: I hate New Moon far more than I do of almost any book in the world. Somehow Stephenie’s writing weakened and remains her worst to-date and soils the already weakened plot.

I’m honestly not trying to be mean about it, either. It’s just so bad.

Aside from the flaws: Twilight was romantic, adventurous and sometimes charming and funny, New Moon is a bore and downright offensively flawed. It shows us true emotional turmoil, breaking our hearts – that is true, but it’s so painfully unhealthy that it’s obvious a lot of concerns have been brought out from its original publication.

There is to say, though, that Stephenie’s still pulling our heart strings, even if it’s in pure irritation.

All that follows isn’t realistic (beyond the supernatural elements) or believable or healthy. It’s painful to read because with the amount of times the secondhand embarrassment and annoyance hit you, you find your interest and patience dwindling. I wanted to shake Edward, I wanted to shake Bella, I wanted to roll my eyes at the melodramatic tone the entire damn story took on because holy crap was it B-A-D.

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer | Rating: ★★★☆☆

This is a reworked review based loosely on one I wrote in 2008 after first reading Twilight. Very little of the original review remains as my views of the series have changed drastically over the years.

I’m not ashamed to say that when I was in high school, like a lot of people my age, I was absolutely captivated by the best selling Twilight Saga. It was everything a [then] teenage girl, who wasn’t a massive/serious reader at the time beyond Harry Potter and Gossip Girl, could long for in its genre. Twilight breathed new life into its genre and sparked a loyal fanbase as well as a new interest in reading for teenagers.

Mysterious, dark, supernatural/mythology themes and truly a whirlwind romance are what fill up the sometimes lackluster story. While it isn’t the best written piece of fiction, it’s easy to follow and in such it’s easy to see why so many people have had a so-called-Twilight-phase. There’s something oddly endearing and relatable about the characters in spite of the supernatural elements that are so prominent.

When you’re younger, it’s easier to see past what flaws a relationship has. You aren’t oblivious by any means but in some cases it does slip past you. Bella and Edward are, looking back, by no means healthy or realistic but to a teenager who is rather unaware to the world, their relationship was everything.

Gossip Girl by Cecily von Ziegesar | Rating: ★★★★★

Gossip Girl was, and always will be, one of my favorite trashy young adult book series. I love that the novels are short and easy to devour and that they sound like actual conversations with teenagers. You get a glimpse into the lives of a group of shallow rich teenagers and the so-called-glamor of it all. I love that it doesn’t take itself seriously and at times is sincerely cringe worthy. How absurd are these characters, right? I’m delirious with love for this light and fluffy read.

I’d say that it is my guilty pleasure except I don’t believe in such a thing.

Needless to say Gossip Girl is my biggest weak point in young adult literature and frankly, I can’t explain why, it’s just so fun and the easiest way to blow off some steam after a long day. I feel like I grew up with everyone’s favorite Upper East Siders and really, there’s no going back from that.

From the moment I picked it up as a preteen exploring Barnes and Noble, I knew I was hooked. Over ten years later, there’s still no going back.

As I said before, the only way to enjoy this series is to understand it isn’t supposed to be serious. It’s soapy, it’s satirical, it’s dramatic and it’s steamy. And another thing you should do, is separate it from the television series of the same name.

There’s no real outstanding plot to the series, just sprinkles of teen angst, romance and fashion set all in a world that is virtually unobtainable to many of its target audiences. It’s easy to let your imagination take over and even without the television adaption, you can see it come to life as you’re reading.