Summary

The prologue, “How It All Started,” is told in the second person. The narrator addresses the reader and asks her to imagine that it is “a couple of years ago, the summer between seventh and eighth grade” (1), and that she is seeing the picture of a missing girl on a milk carton. There is a section break, and then the narrator introduces the reader to the four teenage protagonists (Emily, Aria, Spencer, and Hannah) and their mysterious leader, Alison DiLaurentis. It was the last day of seventh grade, and the girls were having a sleepover in Spencer’s renovated barn. Next door, construction workers were building a gazebo in Alison's backyard. The girls made fun of a nerd, Mona Vanderwaal, and then went inside. Alison lit some vanilla scented candles, because vanilla was her favorite scent, and hypnotized the girls for fun...