Chapter Dates

One major issue when creating a timeline for the Pretty Little Liars book series is that the weekdays and dates mentioned in the story often don’t align with the real calendar, or even with each other, suggesting that Sara Shepard did not use an actual calendar when writing the series.

To establish a foundation for the timeline, I started with the release date of the first book, Pretty Little Liars, in 2006, since no specific year is ever mentioned in the series. In the first book, Pretty Little Liars, it’s stated that it’s been “three years, two months, and twelve days” since Alison’s disappearance, which is said to have occurred on June 20. Although Alison’s disappearance is said to have occurred on multiple different dates throughout the series, June 20 is used the most and fits best with the timeline and events in the book. Since we already established that the book starts in 2006, we can then  count three years back, putting Alison's disappearance on June 20, 2003. From there, we can count forward three years, two months, and twelve days to reach the start of book one, Pretty Little Liars, on September 1, 2006. However, this date is described as a Saturday, when in reality, September 1st, 2006 was a Friday—a clear inconsistency.

Another example of the timeline’s issues occurs with the discovery of Ian’s body in Book five, Wicked. 

In this book, the story spans from January 1 to January 7, but later, Ian’s body is described as being found on January 15, which contradicts the established timeline.

There are also cases where the book states events occur in June, for example, yet earlier books indicate that June has already passed, leading to inconsistencies in the timeline.

These types of discrepancies appear repeatedly throughout the series, with days and dates often not aligning properly, making it difficult to construct a consistent timeline.

To resolve this, I’ve created a system that cross-references the fictional dates in the books with the actual calendar dates. In this system, I list both the fictional/incorrect dates described in the books and the correct real-world dates. By using the actual calendar for the years in which the events can be assumed to take place (starting in 2003 with Alison’s disappearance), I’ve created a corrected timeline. For example, if a book claims an event happens on Saturday, September 1, 2006, when in reality, September 1, 2006 was a Friday, the timeline will reflect Friday, September 1, 2006, not Saturday. 

You can find both the incorrect and correct dates below.