Best Books Similar to Pretty Little Liars

If Pretty Little Liars and The Breakfast Club had a baby, this would be it. You’ve got five teens stuck in detention, all from different cliques, but only four walk out alive. The one who dies? He ran a gossip app that exposed everyone’s secrets. Sound familiar? As the story unfolds, each of the survivors has a motive, and you’ll keep changing your mind about who did it. It’s addictive, super fast-paced, and will totally scratch your “mystery plus high school drama” itch.

This one plays with your head in the best way. The main character, Jules, is basically a chameleon, reinventing herself, stealing identities, and running from something we don’t fully understand at first. The kicker? The story is told backwards. You’re unraveling her secrets in reverse, like peeling layers off an onion, until you hit the truth at the core. If you loved the constant second-guessing in PLL, this book has that exact vibe.

This book is haunting in the most beautiful way. Cadence spends her summers on her wealthy family’s private island, but after a mysterious accident, she can’t remember what happened. Everyone around her is acting shady, and she’s desperate to piece it together. It has that eerie, slow-burn suspense, and when the twist finally hits -trust me- you’ll sit there staring at the page in shock, just like the biggest A-reveals in PLL. Check the best books similar to We Were Liars!

This one is pure PLL energy. Kacey, the new girl in town, is trying hard to fit in with the “cool” crowd. But when one of the popular girls goes missing after a party, all fingers point at her. It’s creepy, it’s tense, and it makes you question just how far people will go to protect their reputations. Kara Thomas has this way of making small towns feel sinister, kind of like Rosewood where everyone smiles but hides something nasty underneath.

Think PLL but set in a boarding school. Kay Donovan is one of the popular girls until a classmate dies and leaves behind a scavenger hunt that exposes everyone’s worst secrets. The clues are sinister, the stakes are high, and Kay keeps wondering if she’s next. The whole thing feels like A is alive and well, just operating out of a prep school this time.

This is PLL’s cousin -literally- it’s from the same author. Emma finds out she has a twin sister, Sutton, who vanishes mysteriously. To uncover the truth, Emma has to pretend to be Sutton, stepping into her life full of frenemies and dark secrets. The tension of “will they find out who I really am?” mixes perfectly with “who wanted Sutton gone?” If you loved the double lives and dangerous lies in PLL, you’ll binge this one.

Another Shepard gem, and honestly it feels like she built a whole PLL universe. This one’s about a group of girls who all hate the same guy. They jokingly plot out how they’d kill him, but then he ends up dead exactly the way they described. Suddenly, they’re suspects in a crime they didn’t commit (or did they?). It has that same glossy, perfect-on-the-surface world, hiding all the ugly secrets underneath. Perfect for ones seeking books similar to Pretty Little Liars.

This one is like PLL meets And Then There Were None. Ten teens get invited to a super-exclusive event, thinking it’s their big break. Instead, they’re caught in a deadly game where one by one, people start dying. Every character has secrets and lies, and you’re never sure who’ll survive. It’s got the same tension of not knowing who to trust, friends become enemies really fast.

This one is so much fun and so twisty. Four girls from completely different cliques secretly team up to form a group called DGM – Don’t Get Mad. They expose bullies and corruption at their elite school. But when one of their targets winds up dead, they’re the ones under suspicion. The mix of revenge, secrets, and “oh no, someone’s framing us” makes it feel like A is running the show again, just in a new school.

Okay, no one gets murdered here, but the drama is chef’s kiss. It’s all about New York City’s elite teens, whose every scandal is blasted by the anonymous Gossip Girl. Affairs, betrayals, backstabbing…. It’s messy in the best way. If what you loved most about PLL was the lies and secrets among beautiful, privileged people, Gossip Girl gives you that in spades.

This book feels like Rosewood all over again. Five cheerleaders from the same squad died under suspicious circumstances in one small town: accidents, suicides, and maybe murder. Years later, Monica, the sister of one of the girls, starts digging into the past. The deeper she goes, the scarier it gets. It has that same mix of grief, cover-ups, and dark secrets that made PLL so compelling.

Imagine playing a party game that suddenly becomes deadly serious. At a school event, a game of Two Truths and a Lie turns into real-life accusations and, eventually, a death. Now everyone’s pointing fingers, and you can’t tell who’s hiding something. It’s not just about one mystery. It’s about peeling back layers of lies until the truth finally cracks through. Definitely has that “A is always watching” vibe. You should give it a shot if you are looking for books similar to Pretty Little Liars.

If you loved the puzzle-solving parts of PLL, this one is a must. Stevie Bell is obsessed with solving a decades-old kidnapping and murder at her elite boarding school. But then, while she’s investigating, someone else gets killed on campus. It’s got riddles, secret messages, and a heroine who’s basically Veronica Mars for the YA set. Super clever, super addictive.

This one’s a little darker and more adult, but it fits the PLL mood if you liked the psychological twists. Quincy survived a massacre years ago, making her part of the media-dubbed “final girls”, women who lived through horror stories. She thinks she’s moved on, but when another final girl shows up, secrets from that night come crashing back. It’s creepy, layered, and makes you question memory, trauma, and truth.

This book is less about murder and more about the damage rumors can do, but it still feels very PLL. Alice is branded the school slut after a party and accused of causing a classmate’s death. Told from multiple perspectives, the story shows how gossip spirals out of control and how cruel people can be when protecting their own reputations. It’s sharp, real, and hits hard emotionally.

This is a quieter, darker story that sneaks up on you. Elliot reinvents himself when he transfers to a new school, determined to hide his insecurities. But instead, he gets pulled into a secret society of boys who control the school through fear. The whole thing feels like a chilling metaphor for identity and secrets, kind of like how in PLL no one’s ever really who they seem to be.

If you wanted PLL with a supernatural twist, here’s your book. Stacey has recurring nightmares that often come true, and when she dreams that her roommate is in danger, she has to piece together clues before tragedy strikes. It’s suspenseful, spooky, and still has that high school friendship-drama core. Like if A had a witchy vibe.

This one is intense. Six teens are lured to a dinner party, only to find themselves locked in a room with a bomb, a syringe of poison, and one impossible choice: kill someone or die together. As the clock ticks, secrets are revealed, grudges explode, and you see just how tangled their relationships are. It’s like A locked them all in a room and said, “Figure it out.”

Yes, I mentioned this one earlier, but it seriously belongs on the list twice because it’s so PLL-coded. At first, it looks like a glamorous high school competition: you know, homecoming queens and social media fame. But behind the scenes, someone is targeting the “chosen ones,” and the stakes get deadlier with each page. It’s glossy on the surface but razor-sharp underneath, just like Rosewood itself.