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arthur_ant18's review against another edition
challenging
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? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Dysphoria, Murder, Emotional abuse, Toxic friendship, Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, and Fatphobia
Moderate: Abandonment, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Lesbophobia
thesaltiestlibrarian's review
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
NOTE: I've changed my disclaimer because it was too long to keep typing it every single time. What was I thinking?
People of the book world, take my advice. Put aside your pre-judgments before you read books--or at least before you read books that sound slightly out of your interest range. I love YA, and when this got compared to Holly Jackson (love), I couldn't resist. Mainly because I thought, "Oh, REALLY? That's a tall order, person who wrote the blurb."
But I don't usually do contemporary. Lately I've been trying to incorporate different stuff into my literary diet, and I've been enjoying for the most part. (Side-eyes BEWILDERMENT.) So I said to myself that I can deal with this. It's YA, it's thriller, it's dark academia. Shut up and drive. So I drove.
I have no regrets.
THE FALLING GIRLS starts us out with Shade and Jadis--BFFLs and anti-conformists--watching their high school's pep rally for the start of their junior year. Shade is fixated, can't take her eyes off the stunts and athleticism of the cheer squad. She was a gymnast when she was younger and kept up the skills on her own. Jadis is bored and posting TikToks throughout, mocking and casting aspersions on the entire concept of cheer. Then Shade decides you know what? No, I want to do something of my own, outside of Jadis. And she kicks ass in her cheer audition, making it onto the team as a flyer.
Here's where my pre-judgments came in: I was convinced that we'd get a Mean Girls-esque romp through teen Dramaland. Instead, we got complex characters, real-life bouts of envy, and friendships that broke up, changed, transformed into other levels of complicated. Especially when one of the three head cheerleaders ends up dead on Homecoming night.
The relationships are what made this book spectacular. Jadis and Shade are in that enmeshed type of friendship where they can safely say, "We're the same person with different hair." They have to learn what it means to grow apart and become their own woman, and that's a painful process. Krischer writes about this kind of truth in an empathetic and tender, but inevitably painful, way.
Shade's relationship with her mom is also difficult and frustrating and complex, but still filled with love. All these little moments they have in coming to understand each other were sometimes uncomfortable to read; it felt like we the reader were staring in through a window on this private moment of tension, and that was a good thing. Her mom is this free-spirit feminist type, who has artist friends from around the world crash at their house for poetry readings and informal wine tastings (well, drinkings). Then her daughter wants to become a cheerleader, and Shade knows that'll annoy her because it's "serving the Patriarchy," but all Shade wants is to push herself to her physical limits and defy gravity. Their journey toward embracing each other and changing was a hard one, but man, Krischer killed it.
Real characters can also be creepy and frustrating, and in this age of social media, it can be even more so. Krischer says in her afterword/acknowledgements that she based some of the tension in this squad after a real murder case where a 16-year-old girl was killed because the two perpetrators "didn't like her." (I'll leave a link to the fantastic article by Holly Millea right here for your convenience.) So the psychology is there, the facts are there, and the execution of it in a novel is fantastic.
I'm so glad I picked this one up, and it's more than likely something I'll be adding to my personal library. Read it!
NOTE: I've changed my disclaimer because it was too long to keep typing it every single time. What was I thinking?
People of the book world, take my advice. Put aside your pre-judgments before you read books--or at least before you read books that sound slightly out of your interest range. I love YA, and when this got compared to Holly Jackson (love), I couldn't resist. Mainly because I thought, "Oh, REALLY? That's a tall order, person who wrote the blurb."
But I don't usually do contemporary. Lately I've been trying to incorporate different stuff into my literary diet, and I've been enjoying for the most part. (Side-eyes BEWILDERMENT.) So I said to myself that I can deal with this. It's YA, it's thriller, it's dark academia. Shut up and drive. So I drove.
I have no regrets.
THE FALLING GIRLS starts us out with Shade and Jadis--BFFLs and anti-conformists--watching their high school's pep rally for the start of their junior year. Shade is fixated, can't take her eyes off the stunts and athleticism of the cheer squad. She was a gymnast when she was younger and kept up the skills on her own. Jadis is bored and posting TikToks throughout, mocking and casting aspersions on the entire concept of cheer. Then Shade decides you know what? No, I want to do something of my own, outside of Jadis. And she kicks ass in her cheer audition, making it onto the team as a flyer.
Here's where my pre-judgments came in: I was convinced that we'd get a Mean Girls-esque romp through teen Dramaland. Instead, we got complex characters, real-life bouts of envy, and friendships that broke up, changed, transformed into other levels of complicated. Especially when one of the three head cheerleaders ends up dead on Homecoming night.
The relationships are what made this book spectacular. Jadis and Shade are in that enmeshed type of friendship where they can safely say, "We're the same person with different hair." They have to learn what it means to grow apart and become their own woman, and that's a painful process. Krischer writes about this kind of truth in an empathetic and tender, but inevitably painful, way.
Shade's relationship with her mom is also difficult and frustrating and complex, but still filled with love. All these little moments they have in coming to understand each other were sometimes uncomfortable to read; it felt like we the reader were staring in through a window on this private moment of tension, and that was a good thing. Her mom is this free-spirit feminist type, who has artist friends from around the world crash at their house for poetry readings and informal wine tastings (well, drinkings). Then her daughter wants to become a cheerleader, and Shade knows that'll annoy her because it's "serving the Patriarchy," but all Shade wants is to push herself to her physical limits and defy gravity. Their journey toward embracing each other and changing was a hard one, but man, Krischer killed it.
Real characters can also be creepy and frustrating, and in this age of social media, it can be even more so. Krischer says in her afterword/acknowledgements that she based some of the tension in this squad after a real murder case where a 16-year-old girl was killed because the two perpetrators "didn't like her." (I'll leave a link to the fantastic article by Holly Millea right here for your convenience.) So the psychology is there, the facts are there, and the execution of it in a novel is fantastic.
I'm so glad I picked this one up, and it's more than likely something I'll be adding to my personal library. Read it!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic friendship, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Cursing, and Drug use
Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Body shaming, and Lesbophobia
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
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