Review of The Amateurs by Sara Shepard
This Review of The Amateurs by Sara Shepard will give you the scoop on this book on my list of 2010s YA books like Pretty Little Liars.
The Amateurs by Sara Shepard
Published on November 1, 2016 by Disney-Hyperion. Thanks to the publisher for the advance review copy. I read this book in 2016.
Why The Amateurs is on my list of Books Like Pretty Little Liars
- Missing person
- A character that reminded me of “A”
- Older than YA characters
In addition, this book has a True Crime angle, with the characters trying to solve a missing persons case off a True Crime message board.
Review of The Amateurs by Sara Shepard
While I’m a big fan of the TV series made from Shepard’s books with Alloy Entertainment, I haven’t been as big a fan of the books themselves.
The Pretty Little Liars books felt geared to the younger end of the YA market, and I found that I much preferred the fact that in The Lying Game show, both twins were alive. I’m sorry The Lying Game was cancelled!
When I started The Amateurs, I thought it would fall into that same pattern (“I’ll wait for the show”). But after finishing the book, I’m not so sure.
This book is a little different than Shepard’s previous YAs. The characters are all out of high school — most are freshmen in college.
Most of the characters are also regulars on a true crime message board called Case Not Closed. All these developments were positive ones for me — I was hoping that The Amateurs would be Serial for the YA set.
The negatives? The Amateurs had a ton of characters — and friends and siblings and love interests — so many that I had to keep a list.
Most of the characters’ names were amusingly (to me) SO millennial — Heath and Aerin and Maddox.
For a while, the plot of this was a little snoozy. Most of the time, the characters ran around upscale Connecticut hunting down clues — all that was missing was that groovy Mystery Machine!
But the end of the book had a twist that I thought was pretty interesting, a twist that may actually get me to try future books in this series. But then again if the “A” in The Amateurs turns out like the “A” like in PLL, I’m out. I’m so over A 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 that I can’t even. I guess we will see!
Check out my post on Books To Read if You Like Pretty Little Liars!
That last chapter really reeled me in because I don't think anyone was expecting it. And the names!!! So millenial!
Agree – didn't see that twist coming 🙂
I've only read her Perfectionists duology. But I've been reading positive things about this twist (whatever it is) and I'm soooo intrigued!!
Read it!
I don't know about Sara Sheppard's books. It's never been my thing but my daughter loved them once upon a time. She also loves PLL the tv series. At this point, I've developed a complex about her books. I feel like it'll be the same thing rehashed, recycled, redone. So definitely not for me.
Yeah, I'm with you. I find a lot of her stuff better for the teens and tweens.
Hmm I wasn't really interested in this but maybe now. I love a good twist. Ha with the millennial names!
Loved the twist!
Ugh, sounds like too many characters to keep track of for me. I could never get into the show either unfortunately
I read the first couple PLL books, but I agree, they come across as a little young. I have this but I really wasn't planning on reading it. I might give it a try now. I love a good mystery and twist!