A question for the people that read the books

To answer your first question: Ehhh, yes and no. IMO the books don't get good until WAY late in the series. 1-8 are meh at best and laughable at worst. It's only 9-16 where they amp up the stakes and get actually suspenseful and worth reading. And the girls in the books are just...horrible horrible people for a huge chunk of the series. And so are their parents. So if you ask me, the show did okay by separating itself from the novels. They just went WAY too far the opposite direction. And my favorite twist from the books just flat out wouldn't work for the show, so that's a bummer.

To answer your second one, yeah, I'd say read them. They wrap up MUCH better than any of stories the show has done and you don't get lost in a sea of meaningless characters. Nor are there plotlines that are just ignored. But it's DEFINITELY a different story so prepare yourself for that if you choose to read them.

The world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters.

They are COMPLETELY different. Characters that are alive now in the show died way early on in the series. In the beginning it's a little similar but after the first couple books it's wayyyy different. Personally I love both. Can't ever get enough of the show, so it's great to have a different story with the same characters to read about. Worth it if you ask me!

I agree with every single thing you said about the show, those are my exact thoughts on how it went. the main problem seems to be that all these seemingly logical pieces to the puzzle were never thought out. Marlene created ideas like the 'nat club' and other subplots without thinking of how they would tie in.

for instance, did you know that Marlene didn't even decide Mona would be -A until sometime in season 2? so that means all the stuff they had written before then had to just tie in.

and even though we saw redcoat in the season 2 finale, and more of her in season 3, she claims to not have thought about her being CeCe until about episode 4 of season 3. so most of what had already been established had to be FORCED into this new plot, or just dropped entirely, and with a lot of the plots they didnt have anything to tie them in well.

the onslaught of new supporting characters were nauseating. since they introduced CeCe immediately after writing her it was clear they didnt want it to be TOO obvious she was -A by being the only new character. so they made it an effort to throw in as many new characters as possible in order to keep people guessing. the problem with this is that the new characters weren't well built.

season 1 and 2 characters were all designed in relation to the plot, not to the mystery. they were cohesive to the girls lives and what was going on and had purposes. after CeCe they were just trying to get as many characters out there, and teaching us too much about them would have simply made them less likely to be -A, so its just a bunch of people walking in, acting suspicious then leaving.


as for the books, they arent my style. they are a lot more ismplistic and shallow. the girls are much less connected to one another and their subplots are a lot less connected to -A, even less so than later seasons on the show. it reads more like a summary of desperate housewives (Which it was modeled after). i have trouble taking any of the arcs seriously even though the characters do finish the arcs unlike in the show.

the parents are by far the worst. you can excuse the girls sounding dumb but the writer seems to just struggle writing 3 dimensional people imo. the parents act more like highschool girls than the girls do. but i only read the first 8.


*when life gives you lemons*
Sara: are you a sour lemon?