Vicious by Sara Shepard

            With a girl doing everything in her power to get revenge, Aria, Hanna, Emily, and Spencer are finding their lives difficult. In the book, Vicious by Sara Shepard, a girl named Alison is trying to get revenge on the four girls previously named. With Alison succeeding, the four girls face difficult things such as suicide, guilt, and losing everything they’ve dreamed of or had.

            All four girls are faced with the prospect of suicide. With the possibility of going to jail because of Alison, the pressure is too much for Emily to handle. “Emily couldn’t have really walked into that water. Emily couldn’t have killed herself.” (74). All four girls are being framed for Alison’s murder, when in fact she is alive. Emily has been suicidal before, and it seems she has actually followed through with it. The rest of the girls are devastated by Emily’s death, when they all thought they would go through everything together. With Emily committing suicide, guilt is the only thing Spencer and Hanna are feeling.

            With Emily committing suicide, Spencer and Hanna are feeling guilty for not picking up on Emily’s cues. At Emily’s funeral, Hanna is in shock and is blaming herself for Emily’s death. “How had Hanna not realized Emily was in that much pain?”(74). Hanna feels guilty for not knowing that committing suicide was still a thought in Emily’s mind. Even with Emily acting jumpy lately, Hanna did not say anything and she feels guilty for that. Spencer is also feeling guilty. After a fight with Hanna, that’s all that keeps playing in her head. “…and imply this was all her fault? Didn’t they realize how guilty she felt?” (92). Spencer feels guilty for suggesting that the girls stay in Cape May, where Emily drowned herself, and for not saying anything about how jumpy Emily was, just like Hanna. The girls are being driven apart by the guilt that they feel, when now, more than ever is the time they need to stick together.

            With Ali succeeding in framing the four girls, they are all losing something. Emily lost her sense of safety and her life. Hanna was dropped out of a movie deal she had. Spencer lost her dreams. “She’d gotten everything she wanted only to have it all taken away…” (21). Spencer lost her book deal and her dream college because of Alison. Also, her mother is not paying attention to her and is acting as if Spencer is an inconvenience and a criminal instead of supporting her. Aria has lost her family, as well, in the hopes of fleeing prison. (88-89). All of these girls have lost their reputation. They have all lost the most important things in their lives: their dreams and their families.

            Everyone experiences hard things in life. Suicide, the feeling of guilt when a friend died, and losing everything you have dreamed of or had is still happens in the world today. It happens everywhere and is quite common. These four girls have lost everything important to them all because of a girl trying to get revenge. While reading this book, I realized that the girls seem to be driven apart easily and value their pride so much that they won’t apologize when they are wrong. They also do things that make themselves easy targets for Alison. Although that may be true, the truth will always be revealed and people may not always be how they seem.