If you ever want a book that will end on a nice, neat note and leave you with a complete sense of reality, don't read this one. From page one, my head was spinning with questions. Some of these questions are answered directly, some are given abstract hints as an answer, and some are never answered at all. This book is a beautiful, confusing gem, one that you can look at from a million angles and still not understand what makes it glitter. It makes your mind a whirling abyss of wondering, and I'm still shaking from the twists and turns. As the main character tries to navigate her own muddled memories, you'll be yanked around like a puppet controlled by demons. 

The story follows Cadence Sinclair Eastman as she tries to get over a traumatic event. The problem is, she's suffering from strange, selective amnesia and can't even remember the said event. This book is dark, including mentions of drug overdoses, and it lacks a positive spin on things, so don't expect a friendly ending. Reading this will change your worldview, for better or worse. It's intense, abstract, perplexing, and I couldn't put it down. I read most of the book in one day at school, much to the annoyance of my teachers, but the plot and characters were so intriguing that I repeatedly risked my teachers' scorn. 

In this book, everything is revealed slowly and in little pieces of information that don't make sense until they're all but together. Cadence "Cady" Sinclair is back on her grandparent's island for "summer seventeen" (as in her seventeenth summer there), and is suffering migraines, a warped past, and perpetually bickering relatives. She is trying to get a grip on her strange love life, wishing for a boyfriend who can't decide whether he can be with her. Cady and "the Liars," consisting of her boyfriend, Gat, and her two cousins, Johnny and Merrin, are finally reunited after Cady missed "summer sixteen."  But the strange, unspoken-of events of "summer fifteen" isn't making this reunion pleasant. Cady's fragmented memory isn't helping her to piece together what happened, and no one will tell her. She's hurting in a million places, and she can't tell why. 

Fascinating plot, intricate characters, and a dizzying storyline一this book has all you could ask for.  

And then a shocking plot twist will turn it all upside-down.