Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas

36 reviews

lorie336's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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? Yes

5.0

I am a sucker for school drama especially when it deals with cheerleaders or popular kids and this was everything I wanted. Five years ago five cheerleaders die in three different scenarios and five years later the younger sister of one of the cheerleaders looks into what happened and if they were all connected. I love how you didn't know who killed these girls until the end, although the one I knew was the truth and that's really sad. Great thrill ride and love the character of Ginny. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Death

Moderate: Car accident, Gore, Grief, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

Minor: Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Child abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Pedophilia, Suicide, and Vomit

junefish's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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, Death, Drug use, Grief, Murder, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Abortion, Car accident, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Vomit

Minor: Cancer, Death of parent, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, and Child abuse

the pedophilia is with underage teenagers (not small children)

imstephtacular's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Abortion and Child abuse

fallandfox's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abortion, Addiction, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Car accident, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Infertility, and Pedophilia

thatsssorachael's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

I had fun with this book. Was it spectacular? No. Was it enjoyable? Definitely. 


I did like Thomas' other book, Little Monsters, a lot more. It pulled me in way more than this one did. But I don't have any strong feelings about The Cheerleaders. It was a fun YA mystery, nothing more and nothing less.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Rape, Abortion, Gore, Alcoholism, and Domestic abuse

itsmeyseniab's review against another edition

mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.5

I'll start by saying that YA mysteries and I don't always get along. The plots always seem pretty generic, and being YA they don't tend to get into weird "what-the-hell" territory all that often. Reading the synopsis of this one really intrigued me, so I thought I was going to enjoy this but...

it was a whole lot of yikes from me.

The plot itself was fine, and I appreciate how Kara Thomas was not afraid to showcase some of the more intense issues that some teens/young adults face, but MAN did it feel yucky at times. I hate when authors add triggering things for "shock-value" or as plot devices and I felt as though Kara did that a LOT. For example important topics were included such as abortion, suicide, bullying, and domestic violence, but I just felt like they weren't handled well. They were just sort of "thrown in" at times and it left a bad taste in my mouth. Another issue I had was some of her word choices - for example, the phrase "real dad" was used on more than on occasion to distinguish between the main character Monica's biological father and stepfather who raised her practically her entire life) and it really irritated me. Just say biological? (I know this is such a minor complaint, but it's a pet peeve what can I say).

Monica was extremely unlikeable, and honestly all of the characters were pretty unmemorable. It was even hard for me to distinguish between the five cheerleaders throughout the novel and their deaths were the main conflict! I don't have much else to say simply because they gave me NOTHING to work with. I said what I said.

Overall this just fell really flat for me, and took me WAY longer to get through than it should've. There are plenty of other YA mystery/thrillers that I would recommend before I recommended this one. I applaud Kara Thomas for including hard-hitting topics in this (and I know that she does this in every book she has published) but I'm just not sure I feel the desire to pick up another.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Abortion, Suicide, Body shaming, Bullying, Drug abuse, Rape, Mental illness, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Mass/school shootings