Cover Image: The Elizas

The Elizas

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Member Reviews

This book was another in the unreliable narrator category— but it worked so well. Although the Eliza character was a bit unsympathetic, I was rooting for her to figure out what happened the night she was found in a pool. I loved the book within a book and that made the alternating chapters just as enjoyable. I picked the perfect time to pick up this lighter thriller and absolutely enjoyed it.

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This book was FANTASTIC!!!! Is the novel Eliza wrote true or a figment of her imagination?! I could not put this book down!

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I didn’t find the Eliza character sympathetic until much of the mystery had been revealed, which made it harder for me to root for her in the first half of the book. I do think that fans of Shepard’s YA books will easily transition to this piece, and while the material is definitely disturbing, the book as a whole is not beyond the scope of a teen reader who is used to mature subject matter.

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The Elizas is the first adult novel by the author of Pretty Little Liars and it is a crazy ride that is reminiscent of those books. Eliza is sure she is going crazy, she has all these strange and terrifying memories and when she wakes up after being rescued from an attempted suicide in a hotel pool she knows she has to find the truth. The more she looks into things the more confused she becomes as her memories are startlingly like the novel she wrote. What is real and what is fiction and who can she trust? Readers that have grown up with Pretty Little Liars will enjoy this story that has them questioning what is the truth..

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This one's for the new adult age readers who enjoyed pretty little liars. I found Eliza's story hard to care about and...flat. Perhaps I expected more from an interesting premise.

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The one thing I can say about Sara Shepard is that she knows how to keep you interested in a book. From the moment i began reading this book, I was hooked. I loved how the protagonist was untrustworthy; in fact, all of the characters were very untrustworthy. As the reader, you had to put together what was going on, what was "truth," and what was "lies," because the characters barely told you anything. This made this thriller amazing, and interesting, and impossible to put down. However, the end of the book dragged out. I think the last few chapters were unnecessary, and the "important" discover didn't actually happen until the epilogue. Eliza was a very complicated character, and a little crazy. You never knew if what she was doing was right, or crazy.

There wasnt a big "twist," in the story... it was very understandable what was going to happen, and the secrets coming out during Eliza's book. However, it was nice when Eliza finally put all of the pieces together, and came to a conclusion to support her future. The book was not only a thriller; by the end, you get a whole new idea of growth from Eliza and the meaning of what the book is.

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Intriguing story of the inner-monologue between a young woman, Eliza, and her anxiety-riddled relationship with her aunt, mother, and her inner monologue. Eliza spends countless hours trying to decide if her own demons are driving her need to escape, or if someone else is in on it.

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I was already a fan of Sara Shepard because of Pretty Little Liars, so I was excited to read this! This book is more adult then PLL, and it was twisty & turny and I liked it! This story revolves around Eliza Fontaine, who is a bit of a hot mess. She is also a writer, and we see excerpts from her book, giving this a story within a story feel. Eliza was found at the bottom of a pool, but she knows she was pushed. This book is exciting, shocking, and I enjoyed it.

Thank you to NetGalley for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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The Elizas by Sara Shepard is high on my list of To Read books! You might know Sara from the Pretty Little Liars series. I really cannot get enough of mysteries and suspense books, and this one sounds like its going to be really good. The kind of book that keeps you up late at night, reading past your bedtime!

When debut novelist Eliza Fontaine is found at the bottom of a hotel pool, her family at first assumes that it’s just another failed suicide attempt. But Eliza swears she was pushed, and her rescuer is the only witness.

Desperate to find out who attacked her, Eliza takes it upon herself to investigate. But as the publication date for her novel draws closer, Eliza finds more questions than answers. Like why are her editor, agent, and family mixing up events from her novel with events from her life? Her novel is completely fictional, isn’t it?

The deeper Eliza goes into her investigation while struggling with memory loss, the closer her life starts to resemble her novel until the line between reality and fiction starts to blur and she can no longer tell where her protagonist’s life ends and hers begins.

I was just reading some reviews of this book and people are saying there are lots of twists and turns within the pages of this book which makes me think I’m going to read it quickly.

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Maybe I was expecting too much - metafiction AND a trashy fun thriller? But that's what this book promised, and for me it didn't quite deliver. It was good fun for what it was but to be honest I've already mostly forgotten it.

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The description had be iffy at best on this one, but I'm so glad I gave it a try! It turned out to be far more interesting and complex that I was originally led to believe. Shepard's writing was excellent knowing just how many hints to drop without revealing too much at once to keep readers interested and engaged.

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A suspenseful thriller that will be a fantastic experience for the right reader!

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I really enjoyed this novel. I loved the way it kept switching between Eliza’s life and the novel called Dot’s that she has just finished.
Eliza is recovering from brain surgery and goes to Palm Springs and is found almost drowned in a swimming pool. Eliza has a history of throwing herself into swimming pools, but she is convinced that someone pushed her at Palm Springs, no one believes her, so she sets out to find the truth of what really happened. Her memory loss prevents her from remembering big chunks of her life. She struggles with false memories and lies told by her friends and family. She is very afraid of the person who is stalking her and needs to find out who was with her just before she almost drowned at Palm Springs.
This novel will keep you guessing all the way to the end with all its twists and turns.

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A thoughtful, original and compelling novel, propulsively paced.

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The Elizas is an engaging, fast-paced thriller from the Pretty Little Liars author, Sara Shepard. It's the story about Eliza, with chapters her first novel interwoven throughout her story. The reader spends the entire book trying to figure out just how much the novel is fiction or non-fiction, which was a great twist to the overall story.

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This book has an interesting premise. Novelist Eliza is close to the release of her first novel but there are strange things happening and she is losing touch with what is actually happening. She was recently rescued from the bottom of a swimming pool but no one believes her when she says she was pushed. Her memory of the evening are sketchy. She knows she was at a bar with someone--but who?

I wanted to like this book more. The explanation for Eliza's memory lapses pushed the book into SF territory but wasn't fleshed out enough to be interesting. Eliza is a problematic character; I didn't connect with her at all.

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A couple of years ago, I got the four-book Pretty Little Liars collections as a library ebook. I started reading it on the G train from the studio, and I read it all freaking night. I could not stop until I knew all the secrets. (The show is fine, but it didn't suck me in the way the books did.)

The Elizas, Sara Shepard's newest book, was also a one-day read for me. The story begins with novelist Eliza Fontaine waking up in the hospital after almost drowning in a hotel pool. She's sure she was pushed, but doesn't know who tried to kill her, or why. Eliza, though, has a history of attempting suicide by drowning, and some memory issues after her brain surgery, and maybe a little problem with alcohol, so she has trouble convincing anyone.

There are a lot of really ominous moments, where it seems like something's going on just out of Eliza's vision. For example, there's a police detective (or is he???) who shrugs off her suspicions of attempted murder by telling her she seems like a nice girl, based on the five minutes he's seen her, so she probably doesn't have any enemies. Gabby, Eliza's strangely passive step-sister, is either way too nice or just biding her time to take revenge on the sister who harassed her for years. And the guy who fished Eliza out of the pool is one odd duck, for way too many reasons.

Eliza's story is told in alternating chapters with chapters from her novel, The Dots. At first, they two stories seem to be thematically similar, but then there are some uncanny similarities between Eliza's life and the book that she believes is fiction. The novel shifts between two mysteries and the realization that the solution to both mysteries is connected.

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I was uncomfortable with this book and I realized it was because I couldn’t relate to the main character.

Confusion, amnesia and accusations of instability prevented me from digging down into this book.

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This book didn't capture my interest from the very beginning, and I was not able to finish the first chapter much less the entire book. Not all books appeal to all readers, and in this vein of understanding I agree to not publish a negative review of "The Elizas" on Goodreads, Amazon, my blog, or any other form of social/print media.

I do appreciate being given the opportunity to read the ARC of this book, unfortunately it was just not for me.

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