Pretty Little Liars - Characters

Characters

Although the series features an extensive cast of characters of varying significance, the novels focus predominantly on seven main characters:

Spencer Hastings

An extremely competitive girl who strives for perfection in everything she does. A high-strung over-achiever, Spencer is willing to do whatever it takes to win, often to the detriment of herself and others. She is often quick to jump to conclusions and suffers from IED. Spencer was a half-sister to Alison and Courtney DiLaurentis, her father having had an affair with Jessica DiLaurentis around the time of Spencer's conception. Spencer's parents later divorce when the affair comes to light. She attends a summer program at Penn to improve her GPA. Spencer has an ongoing feud with her older sister, Melissa, who is equally competitive. Throughout the book series, the two argue over the implications of their individual successes in life, such as becoming valedictorian and having award-winning essays.

Hanna Marin

A pretty, popular girl who used to struggle with both bulimia and anorexia due to insecurities about her appearance. While in seventh grade, Hanna was very overweight and developed complicated eating problems, including binge eating from stress often followed by a bulimic episode. Flighty and occasionally air-headed, Hanna often acts purely on impulse. In Alison's absence, she became best friends with Mona Vanderwaal, Ali's previous bullying target, and they transformed themselves into Rosewood's new "It" girls. Hanna's parents divorced when she was twelve, after her father had an affair. She lives with her mother and would rarely see her father, especially after he started dating an average-looking nurse named Isabel. Hanna dislikes her father's new wife, Isabel, and her daughter, Kate, with whom she forms a rivalry. For a short time Hanna is sent to a mental institution, her father believing her eating disorders would resurface due to stress. Prior to Twisted, Hanna is involved in a car accident, which leaves another girl badly injured; she covers up her involvement with the help of the Liars.

Aria Montgomery

An artistic, bubbly, independent girl whose family moved back to Rosewood after her father took a three year sabbatical in Iceland. Prior to Alison's disappearance, Aria became aware that her father was having an affair with Meredith, a student of his at the local college. Having promised her father to keep the affair a secret, Aria is kicked out of the house and goes to live with her new boyfriend, Sean Ackard, after the first "A" reveals the affair to her mother. Her parents divorce and Aria's father marries Meredith who soon becomes pregnant. Aria often feels out of place in Rosewood and tends to be attracted to older, more worldly men, which frequently causes her conflicts. For example,her relationship with Ezra Fitz, her AP English teacher, resulted in Ezra losing his job at Rosewood High. After a near-death experience, she is overcome with guilt and decides to confess to accidentally killing Tabitha (unaware she was not actually responsible for Tabitha's death).

Emily Fields

Emily is a shy, dedicated swimmer. In "Flawless" she tells her parents she wants to quit swimming, but once she is made captain she changes her mind. She was in love with Alison, and kissed her once back in seventh grade. A fact which she takes great pains to hide. She develops feelings for a new girl named Maya, resulting in a secret relationship, but she is then outed by the first "A" when a picture of them kissing in the photo booth at the Kahn party is passed out at a swim meet. Although at first her parents make attempts to "de-gay" her, they eventually come to accept her and her sexuality. After she and Maya break up, Emily meets a guy named Isaac at a church event, and realizes that she's bisexual. They start dating and Emily loses her virginity to Isaac, whom she later breaks up with. It was revealed in Twisted that Emily had gotten pregnant from her first time with Isaac and hid it from her family by staying with her sister over the summer. She gave birth to a baby girl, Violet, and was going to give her to Gayle (her friend's extremely rich boss) for money but she changed her mind and gave the baby to the Bakers, a family she met through an adoption site. Emily's change in heart on who to give the baby to greatly anger Gayle, who later threatens both Emily and the baby. Even after the baby fiasco, Emily receives an athletic scholarship to attend UNC.

Alison DiLaurentis

An extremely popular, beautiful, and cruel girl. When she and her twin sister Courtney were younger, Alison was jealous of her more popular sister and forced Courtney to impersonate her, at the same time tormenting Courtney to the point that Courtney got angry and got into a physical fight with her. When the doctors were called by girls' parents, Courtney panicked and revealed that Alison was threatening her and forcing to impersonate her. Alison (who was acting very innocently all the time) claimed it was not true and decided that her sister had to go (allegedly for everyone's safety). In the outcome, Alison's master plan worked: Courtney was recognized as a paranoid schizophrenic. Her family moved then to Rosewood to avoid attention and changed their surname Day-DiLaurentis to DiLaurentis. In the beginning of sixth grade her twin Courtney successfully tricked their mother Jessica into taking Ali to the mental hospital. Alison blamed the liars for ruining her life and swore revenge. She was the second "A" and killed Courtney, Jenna and Ian. Later on she tries to kill the girls in her Poconos home but they manage to get out. Alison is left inside and it's unknown whether she died or not. She threatened Courtney to be her, so she would seem crazy, and sent away. She kills her sister by pushing her into a hole that was originally made for a gazebo, accompanied by an unknown person.

Courtney DiLaurentis

Courtney was the good twin of Alison who the girls knew as Ali. Courtney since childhood was tormented by her twin sister (despite their initial friendship). Alison was always jealous of her more popular sister and forced Courtney to impersonate her, at the same time tormenting Courtney to the point when angry Courtney got into a physical fight with her. When the doctors were called by girls' parents, Courtney panicked and revealed that Alison was threatening her and forcing to impersonate her sister. Alison (who was acting very innocently all the time) claimed it was not true and decided that her sister had to go (allegedly for everyone's safety). In the outcome, Ali's master plan worked: Courtney was recognized as a paranoid schizophrenic. In the beginning of Alison's sixth grade, Courtney successfully tricked their mother Jessica into taking Ali to the mental hospital and she become Ali the Liars knew. Even though Courtney was mean to everyone in their school, she didn't want to be; she only did because she was pretending to be Alison. If she acted nicer to people, her family would notice the change, so Courtney always acted wrong despite her being good.

"A"

The main antagonist of the series. "A", is an anonymous extortionist who is privy to the Liars' deepest and darkest secrets, and uses these secrets to exact revenge on the Liars for (often) perceived wrongdoings. There are three different "A" characters throughout the series. The first "A", Mona Vanderwaal, was able to discover the Liars' secrets by reading Alison's old journal. During a physical confrontation with Spencer Hastings, Mona was pushed over the edge of a quarry and died. The second "A" is the "real" Alison DiLaurentis, who was sent away to a mental hospital in place of her twin sister, Courtney. She later was said to have died in a house fire, while attempting to kill the Liars. A third "A", whose identity is currently unknown, begins tormenting the girls following an incident in Jamaica during spring break, prior to the events of Twisted.

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