Review: ALIBI

ALIBI Volumes I-IV: The Complete Series by Annie Miles, John Byrne, Isabel Eckersley, Sorrel Provola
Release Date ~ February 29, 2012
Twist Literary
ASIN: B007FUG9ZI
Review copy received from publisher for review

Goodreads Synopsis:
Abigail Shelton is dead.

Spring Valley's golden girl is found floating face-down in her boyfriend’s pool, hands bound behind her back, head bleeding, drugs and alcohol in her system. Her friends are the only suspects – and they all have reasons to want her dead. Everyone has an alibi, but no one is innocent.

ALIBI is a 4-part young adult e-book series. Each one-hundred page installment reveals the perspective of a different character: the secret love, the nemesis, the boyfriend, the best friend. As their tales unfold, we learn that Abby is not as perfect as everyone believes, but she’s not the only one with secrets to hide. This page-turning tale of suspense, betrayal, murder, and lust will keep fans of Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars up and reading well past curfew.
ALIBI has been publicized as the next book for fans of Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars. Luckily for me, I followed both those series for the majority of their never-ending books (I gave up on PLL recently.) Note that ALIBI is a 4-part series, and you can buy the series either separately or as a complete volume.
But after reading ALIBI, I can say that isn't a fair remark to make about the series. ALIBI is what Gossip Girl WISHES it was and what Pretty Little Liars SHOULD have been! It's a guilty pleasure read that you won't be able to put down, as the story continues to unravel with secrets galore.

1. Twisted, dark storyline:
   Rich kids in YA seem to come with a disclaimer these days: they're messed up. Seriously. And ALIBI is no exception to this, and uses this to its advantage in creating a dark story of murder and betrayal when Abby ends up dead. The question is why and how; and it seems like everyone close to her has a motive and secrets they're keeping. But what I found interesting is that this story wasn't heavy on a mystery, whodunnit plot. After the first couple novellas, you'll most likely have a guess for who killed Abby, but you'll still be dying to know why they did that and what the other secrets there are being kept by the characters. These people are all involved with serious problems.
2. Complex pasts and characters:
   I found it so interesting to uncover how much these people were hiding, and the secrets which came out that they were hiding. You really get a great idea of what their priorities are, and it's neat to piece together the whole story by putting together the pieces offered from each character's perspective in their own novella. Charles, Palmer, Ace, and Rowan are such interesting people, and they're nothing like what you expect at first. Not at all.
3. A definite ending:
   This is my main complaint about Gossip Girl and PLL; the books just go on and on. While enjoyable at first, after a while you just get tired of watching these characters stumble into the same issues agan and again. ALIBI is fantastic because it incorporates what made those series great (drama, secrets, murder, and mystery) but finds a way to wrap it up. The story focuses on Abby's death and the events leading up to it, but don't feel the need to hash out every other minor detail in their lives and don't see a need to continue on and drag it out. And that's what makes ALIBI such a success.
4. Four distinct voices:
   I really enjoyed the multiple perspectives that ALIBI incorporates and I thought it was great that they all stood out as their own, seeing as different authors wrote each novella. Yet they all blended together very well at the same time.

ALIBI really knows how to make it appealing to readers; it plays off of what's exciting and popular, and then uses that to its advantage. This story could easily be a hit, and I think many people are going to find this is their newest guilty pleasure read.

I will say though, that this story only revolves around the events of Abby's death and leading up to it; it doesn't feel the need to continue past this, so you may not feel that everything is all wrapped up neatly with a definite ending. It's left somewhat open ended.