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kellyreadingbooks's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.5
Moderate: Suicide
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Mental illness, Physical abuse, and Abortion
honeyland's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
The characters were a little bland and I constantly mixed up all of the girls for that reason.
The ending was a bit disappointing, I was hoping for a more interesting twist, some kind of scheme, not just
Throughout the book I was constantly fearing that B & M would end up together, which, luckily they didn't, and it made sense for him to be the murderer. However, I still felt like the topic of him being a predator wasn't fleshed out with enough care, as it still ended up with Monica going "well...I used him, too, sooo..." No girl. You're 16. He's 27.
Graphic: Pedophilia, Abortion, and Pregnancy
halebugs's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, and Abortion
Moderate: Drug use, Suicide, Car accident, and Murder
3mmers's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
Five years ago in the sleepy cliché of Sunnybrook, five cheerleaders died within a month of each other in a tragedy whose effects still reverberate through the town. Two died in a freak car accident. Two were murdered in a shocking incident no one saw coming. And the last committed suicide after the deaths of her best friends. Our protagonist Monica is the younger sister of the last cheerleader to die, and after a summer of failing to find meaning in a self-destructive relationship with an older man, she turns to the unsatisfying resolution of the five deaths. Monica draws further away from her old friends and closer to a childhood teammate of her sister, Ginny, and together they pursue the many loose ends of the case out of the conviction that her sister did not kill herself and all is not as it seems.
I want to talk, in this review, about narrative promises. Narrative promises are what a story implicitly advertises itself as doing. They are the expectations it sets for itself. In romances, the premise that two (or more) people will fall in love is a narrative promise. If they have a whole book’s worth of romantic tension only to part ways at the end because the timing wasn’t right and one of them got a job offer in another city and long distance would just be really tough right now… You’d be justified in feeling a little betrayed. Failing to fulfil them isn’t refreshing; it’s a let down. The many things that are bad about this book largely come down to the fact that its idea of innovation and subversion is not fulfilling its narrative promises. The narrative promise of mysteries is that there is something to discover. All is, in fact, not as it seems. Specifically in this case, The Cheerleaders promises that something is fishing about the five deaths and implies they’re actually all connected. Spoilers:
This is a mystery novel, so having the protagonist uncover clues and reconstruct events is mandatory. Rather than grapple with how a teenager might discover information that has remained hidden for five years, stuff that is tough to plausibly record like private emotional states or personal secrets, information known only to closed institutions like the police of school administration, The Cheerleaders instead
The most egregious example of this is
I have been a bit cheap with my examples to make a point.
But wait!
I’d like to take a tangent here to talk about a few parts of this plot thread that are emblematic of the failings of the rest of the book. First, The Cheerleaders is really sloppy with its hard numbers.
The other thing that undermines the book’s attempt at a nuanced and considerate approach to teenage agency and trauma is that, contrary to its approach to Monica dating an older guy, it is extremely judgemental and cruel towards anyone else. Monica is allowed to have ambiguous feelings about Brandon, but the other teenage characters that cope with their problems by acting out are punished aggressively for it. None of the other characters actually do anything wrong, or at least nothing more wrong than Monica and Ginny, but the book had no sympathy for the idea that acting out might be a symptom of a troubled childhood. There are two characters that this book singles out as doing bad things and therefore finds itself free to treat disproportionately cruelly.
As a final thought, a friend of mine has this book shelves as ‘you should have been sapphic’ on Goodreads and she’s 100% right.
This isn’t enough to make me give up on mysteries, YA or otherwise, but my first outing has been nothing more than disappointing. Pro tip: if you want to avoid or subvert the common tropes of your genre, make sure the alternative is in some way more interesting. Subversion in and of itself is not sufficient.
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship
Minor: Abortion
laneyts's review against another edition
2.75
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, and Suicide
Minor: Vomit, Grief, Abortion, and Injury/Injury detail
rebecca_spain's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Grief, and Car accident
Moderate: Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Gore, Rape, Suicide, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Abortion, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
s_lorenz's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Pedophilia, Rape, Suicide, Blood, Car accident, Abortion, and Suicide attempt
amandag's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.5
Moderate: Car accident and Abortion
Minor: Suicide and Murder
bookedandbusy's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, Rape, Suicide, Grief, Car accident, and Murder
Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug use, Eating disorder, Mass/school shootings, and Abortion
ruthypoo2's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
In the current timeline, the main character, Monica, is struggling not only with a personal crisis, but the upcoming 5-year anniversary of her sister’s death that was determined to be a suicide. Monica has never been convinced that her popular and happy cheerleader sister, who was planning a bright future, would end her own life. The fact that immediately preceding her sister’s death, four other girls on the same cheerleading squad had died from either a car accident or as a murder victim leads Monica to suspect there are a lot of unanswered questions that the police, including her beloved stepfather, have ignored. Monica accidentally uncovers some items hidden away in her house and this sets her off on a personal quest to find out if there’s any connection between the cheerleaders’ deaths.
As for the secondary timeline, peppered in between Monica’s chapters are flashbacks that reveal what was happening in other characters lives five years earlier, including the cheerleaders and their friends. This insight helps the reader connect to the victims and become more invested in seeing Monica succeed with her amateur sleuthing.
The story moves along at a fast pace, even though there’s minimal action. Most of the book is character development and conversation. There’s definitely satisfaction when Monica gets some insight through snooping and research, which really is as much as can realistically be expected since she’s just a teenager with a bicycle and not Magnum, P.I.!
The author, Kara Thomas, includes difficult and complex issues into the story, such as substance abuse, bullying, body image, abortion, statutory rape, and suicide. I feel these topics are handled well, but get lost in the story as it progresses. For example, one character seems to be headed down a path leading to misuse of prescription pain meds, but gets distracted and never voices another craving or complaint about the pain that was causing them to take up to 4 pills at a time. This is just a side note though because I didn’t get too hung up on this oversight and stayed glued to the progression of story regardless.
Overall, a very good book. I listened to the audio and really like the narrator, Phoebe Strole, who did a great job voicing teen and adult characters, as well as different temperaments and emotions. Her voice was well suited to this book.
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Suicide, Car accident, Abortion, and Alcohol