Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas

77 reviews

blb2006's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was a very quick read for me. It also has alternating timelines; present with the MC and 5 years prior with the MC’s sister. The ending left me with so many unanswered questions though, it felt as though there was another chapter that had been left out of the book. Other than that it was a pretty good read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, and Murder

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Abortion and Alcohol

t1k1_bab3r's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

This book was amazing! The first half of the book however, took me ages to get through, nearly 2 weeks, and I didn’t have much ambition to read it, however the second half took me two days to read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Pedophilia, Suicide, Murder, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Minor: Death of parent

rebecca_spain's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• 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

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Content Warnings

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

olivia_v's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, and Murder

liez's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Infidelity, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Car accident, and Murder

s_lorenz's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Pedophilia, Rape, Suicide, Blood, Car accident, Abortion, and Suicide attempt

ruthypoo2's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

• 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

This is a really well-crafted YA murder mystery and I thought it was very effective to have narratives set in two different timelines. 

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Suicide, Car accident, Abortion, and Alcohol

ellesbells1510's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

This book just really irritated me from start to end. There were so many characters mentioned in the first 20 or so pages that I felt overwhelmed and confused. The protagonist was really unloveable and everything only seemed to happen because she said so, nothing was really backed up with facts. There were also at least two contradictions in the novel, they were small but to me noticeable. The blurb says that the cheerleaders died in the summer whereas in the book it is said from the beginning they died in autumn and the description of the protagonist changes over the course of a couple pages, she goes from having blue eyes to brown eyes. 
Overall the flimsy plot and paper thin characters did nothing to justify what could have been a very interesting idea. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Murder

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Suicide, and Stalking

Minor: Alcoholism, Drug use, and Abortion

makenna_reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicide, Violence, Grief, Car accident, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, and Toxic friendship

gissellellamas's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

I enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I would. It wasn't as predictable as most mysteries I've read, so I appreciated that. I loved Ginny as a character and Monica coming to terms with what happened was really nice to see in the end. Overall, I would definitely recommend this book to someone who wants something more tense and mysterious. Just please check TW; there are a lot of them!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Car accident, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Bullying, Drug use, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, and Abortion