3.9 - a little convoluted and confusing, but entertaining overall; somewhat disappointed in the ending as it related to Monica's sister

Based on the title and description I went in expecting some sort of darkly comic story, but alas - no vampires or dark humor or mysterious curses against cheerleaders to be found in this story.

The Cheerleaders was actually quite a straightforward mystery about Monica, a girl trying to get to the bottom of her sister’s suicide five years earlier, which she begins to think is connected to the deaths of four other Sunnybrook cheerleaders.

So Monica starts poking around her police officer stepfather’s office. She starts talking to her sister’s friends and frenemies. She spends less time with her own friends and makes some new ones, kids she never would have given a second glance before. She basically carries out the investigation that the police should have.

I thought Thomas’s other books (Darkest Corners and Little Monsters) did a slightly better job evoking small town menace. Sunnydale turned out to be a bland suburb in Westchester. And since these deaths were all in the past the tension was not as high as it could have been. What this story did really well was present a lot of possible suspects and keep me guessing. I had a feeling about where the story was going and I was (mostly) right, but I was never sure until the very end.

Definitely check this out if you’re a mystery fan like I am!

Years ago the town of Sunnybrook was shaken up by the untimely death of five HS cheerleaders from the same squad within weeks from each other.
Now a junior in HS, the sister of the girl who committed suicide, is desperate to find answers and determine whether or not the deaths were related and if there’s more to them than an accident, an open and shut murder case and an isolated suicide.
This was my first read by the author and a really nice one. I liked the storyline, the whole murder mystery led by a 16 year-old somehow mirroring her sister’s last months of life and was enthralled by Monica and Ginnie’s relentless pursue of the truth. I enjoyed the way the author depicted Monica’s struggle with her own coming of age while dealing with her sister’s death and the aftermath that looms over the town even five years after the incidents.
Bottom line, if you like YA and a little mystery in your reading, you are bound to enjoy reading about The Cheerleaders.

This is a review of an ARC from NetGalley.

It's been five years since Sunnybrook High School got rid of its cheerleading squad. Five years since the squad lost five girls in the space of a few weeks: to car crashes, murders, and suicide. Monica's sister was one of those girls and while she'd rather just continue about her life, parts of her past keep coming back, with hints that everything was not the way it seemed.

A very well-done mystery. While it's pretty standard plotting, Thomas did a good job of twisting things up along the way. I would think I knew which way the path of the plot was leading, and then it veered off slightly - not a sharp hairpin where you can feel the author patting themselves on the back for their trick, but just enough that I went "oh huh, ok, yes it could have been THAT."

The story is told partially in flashback by Monica's sister, which did get confusing at times (I would mix up which high school girls were friends with which sister). But in general: well-thought out mystery, high school students who generally talk and act like high school students (always a plus in YA), and writing that kept me reading to see what was going to happen.

Before fully diving in to this book, I’ve read an excerpt first. In Monica’s voice, the book’s first line is “This house was made for someone without a soul.” It’s a pretty strong statement that I was instantly smitten and I wanna find out why Monica would say that. Looking back after I’ve finished the book, there was never really a definitive answer to my question. My best guess is that Monica is referring to herself as the “someone without a soul”. Maybe she thinks very badly of herself for opting abortion to an unwanted pregnancy with a summer fling. I can only make conjectures for Monica because her own belief systems and personality are vaguely drawn in the book. She is merely the reader’s conduit to the unfolding of what really happened to the five cheerleaders of Sunnybrook High five years ago. She is just the designated Nancy Drew.

The inciting incident for Monica to investigate was when she accidentally discovered four anonymous mails addressed to his stepdad, sent yearly on her sister’s death anniversary. The mails contain a group photo of the five cheerleaders with a note, “Connect the dots. Find the truth.” Later, Monica found her dead sister’s old cellphone on the stepdad’s desk. Why does her stepdad has it in his keeping? Then looking through the call log, she saw an unnamed caller right before her sister died. Who was the anonymous caller? What if her sister’s suicide was a murder to cover up the deaths of the other cheerleaders? With those ominous questions in mind, Monica went off amateur sleuthing to solve the mystery.

As she starts snooping around, Monica ditched her usual popular clique, Rachel and Alexa, and befriended the quiet and reserved, Ginny. ‘Coz what’s a sleuth doing without an unassuming sidekick? You know, like Sherlock and Watson? But I digress. Ginny is actually one of my favorite parts. The one and only chapter in her PoV, which is also the last chapter of the book, is the most chilling thing in the book. It drives to an unsettling realization that, to borrow a line from another Kara Thomas book, “...at some point, every little girl grows up and gets ruined.” The book is solid with that ending. But I have to admit that Ginny also felt like a plot device in some parts. Like when Monica just uses her as her ride to go places or to gain access to things that she needs in the investigation. I also never really felt any emotional connection in Monica’s friendship with Ginny.

Speaking of emotional connection, let’s talk about Jennifer, Monica’s dead cheerleader sister. When a book decides to play the dead sibling card to me, I try to find things that will make me care about what was lost when the sibling died. To some extent, the book delivered. After reading the chapters in Jennifer’s 3rd person PoV, I even find myself liking her more than Monica. I related to her when she saw that her friends were slowly slipping away. I felt her loneliness even as she was on the top of the high school social strata. I understood her when she was confused with her feelings for an unpopular boy. I only wished that there was more between her and Monica. The joys and pains of sibling relations are things that I enjoy reading about but they were scarce and unexplored in this book. It mentioned that they stopped being close once Jennifer started middle school and except for a scene of Monica braiding Jennifer’s hair on one of the cheerleader’s funeral, that’s that. And yet the book cared to have Jennifer being friendly with Ginny on gymnastics class. Ginny even looks up to Jennifer as her angel but I am not sure how Monica feels about Jennifer except for the obligatory grief for a dead relative.

As for Monica playing the amateur sleuth part, well it really is amateurish. Monica follows any lead she has by talking to a bunch of strangers. With these meet-ups with strangers, it’s one red herring after another red herring of who the murderer was. Halfway through, I got tired and stopped guessing about the whodunit. The reveal and confrontation happened with the real perpetrator spewing expositions about what happened the night of the murder while Monica, and then eventually Ginny beat the pulp out of the said perp. If the beating up was supposed to make the reader empowered for our sleuth and sidekick duo, then it did nothing of that sort for me.

For a book that is supposedly about teens doing detective work, the book is not so keen about details. For example, there’s a part where Monica meets up with the dead cheerleaders’ ex-coach. The ex-coach said that she’s going to order chai but then she came back to the table holding a latte. Is this an error on detail (note that I’ve read from an uncorrected proof) or the ex-coach got a last minute change of heart off the page? Okay, I’m giving that a pass and go to another example of a detail slip-up. I cry from disappointment when I noticed this upon close scrutiny because it has the potential to ruin the book’s great ending. The explanation that follows contain spoilers so I’m hiding it behind spoiler tags <SPOILER> In Chapter 12, Ethan McCready said that minutes before the crash, his skater friends saw Bethany Steiger and Colleen Coughlin (the cheerleaders in the car accident) in the same 7-Eleven where Ginny’s dad scored the pain pills from Brandon’s friend. That means that Bethany’s car and Ginny’s dad’s truck were both coming from the same direction, so they couldn’t have crashed from opposite lanes like it said in the last chapter in Ginny’s PoV. The last chapter explicitly mentioned that Bethany’s car is from “the oncoming lane” and Ginny even saw the “headlights of the other car through the rain”, so major detail slip-up in there. </SPOILER>

The conflict of Monica’s character stems from her not wanting to talk to her family and friends about her own issues. I actually can’t blame her because their family’s kind of dysfunction is them keeping secrets from each other. Monica’s mom does not want her stepdad to know that they went to a clinic for the abortion. The stepdad in turn does not want Monica’s mom to know that he brings his stepdaughter to shooting range practices so she can learn to protect herself. And both parents in a problematic attempt to protect Monica, intentionally hid a key information regarding Jennifer's death to her

I am not saying that I despise the book. There were a lot of misses for me but still, it held my attention and I even liked some parts. It would’ve been better though if Monica was allowed to take off her sleuthing hat long enough so she could do more emotionally grounding things. Like process her feelings. Or make real connections with her newfound friend, Ginny. Or repair the broken ones with family and estranged friends organically, not the just-hug-it-out-and-now-we-good kind. It’s just funny that Monica couldn’t talk openly to her family and friends, but she actively searched and talked to strangers so she can pursue the case. The book treated Monica as a sleuth first, and a human second. Like I said, she is the story’s designated Nancy Drew

Interesting and sufficiently twisty suspense novel. Some of the plot lines veered a bit too much in the hope of ramping up the who/what/whys of it all, and some did not conclude properly, but overall a fun read.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me an advanced copy of this book for review.

This book was doing ok as a basic formulaic mystery for teens until about the last 50 pages when it decided to completely cop out of the mystery that it created. It almost seems like the author lost her will to find a culprit at the end and gave up.

I received an advanced copy of this book through Netgalley. This book had me from the very beginning. I love that it kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. I would highly recommend this book to my fellow readers. Thank you for the chance to review this book!!!!

The Cheerleaders opens with Monica who is soon turning 17 with the weight of the world on her shoulders: there are try outs for the cheerleading squad, there is emotional baggage from trying to cope with the loss of her older sister Jennifer five years earlier, there’s been a messy break up and a quick flare up with an older man leading to an abortion.

What pulled me in to The Cheerleaders was the whole ambience of the teen mindscape: growing up angst, grappling with whom to trust and connect with, trying to find a toehold with the adult world, making bad decisions and coping with heartbreak even as one ploughs on with the frills of being a teen – cloths, body image, friendships, groupism et el. Set in this backdrop is Monica’s discovery of her deceased sister’s mobile phone in her step father’s locked drawer. The discovery triggers off her doubts and her memories of the time when the 5 member cheerleading squad of Sunnybrook High were killed in three separate incidents.

Monica sets out to piece together what could have happened, all the while battling with herself that her step father Tom who is a Sergeant with the local police, was present on all three occasions in which the cheerleading squad died. She plays detective and she gets an interesting character as a sidekick whose own backstory is tied to events 5 years earlier. Once this element in the narrative comes in, the author takes readers on a thrilling ride wherein suspicious characters are introduced.

I was very taken in by the manner in which the thrilling elements of the book when Monica starts digging into the past went along with her present of trying to move on in life. The Cheerleaders made for a gripping and emotional read at times with its nuances about building friendships, maintaining them and letting in new people. Recommended!

Would rate it at 3 and a half stars out of 5

irst and foremost- I received an advanced copy of this book from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review!

I LOVED this book. I’ve been on a YA binge lately, and Kara’s books do not disappoint. The Cheerleaders is intriguing from the beginning, and doesn’t leave you waiting for the hair-raising, thrilling moments. The ending had me on the edge of my seat, and was entirely not what I expected. This is definitely another YA novel I’ll be recommending to anyone and everyone.

After multiple horrible tragedies that took place 5 years ago, the cheerleading squad no longer exists. Still searching for clues, and not entirely believing the story of what took place that night, Monica Rayburn finds her dead sister’s phone in her stepfather’s desk. Jen’s phone contains starting information, including the phone number of the person Jen spoke to right before she killed herself. Unable to turn to her family, who basically refuses to speak about any of the deaths, especially Jen’s... Monica is forced to dig deep into the past on her own, and what she discovers is equally horrifying and life-changing.

This was one of my most anticipated new releases for the year, and I wasn't disappointed! While it wasn't quite the thriller I expected it to be, I really enjoyed the evolving friendships in the story. Thomas did a good job of giving us a peak into the lives of the dead girls without giving too much away. It felt a lot like being in the friendship with them and trying to figure out what was happening (the way they were with each other), only we eventually get all the pieces of the puzzle... and they didn't live long enough to do the same.

This is definitely more of a plot/mystery driven story. I had a really hard time connecting with Monica and most of the characters felt very... similar. I kept confusing Monica's friends and Jennifer's friends, except for Ginny and that's because she was set as the outlier from the very beginning.

I took off a star for lack of satisfaction in a few areas. I wanted an explanation for why Monica's mom kept Jen's suicide note a secret (which is why Monica believed her sister didn't commit suicide). The two girls who died in a car accident were treated like a really, really forgotten subplot that got brought up briefly and then ended up being a huge part of the story in the literal last 1%.

**Thank you Netgalley for the ARC approval**
I couldn't put this book down. This book is a refreshing original book. Kara Thomas does not disappoint I was on the edge of my seat throughout the book. I will be buying this for my library as well as pushing it into the hands of every student who likes mystery and intrigue.

THE CHEERLEADERS, by Kara Thomas, is a terrific murder mystery with just the right amount of intrigue on every page. Kara Thomas is a wonderful writer, engaging my imagination on page one and keeping my attention through the very last page.

As the fifth anniversary of the cheerleaders' deaths approaches, the main character, Monica, is determined to learn the truth, because Monica doesn't believe the stories that everyone else has accepted. She knows there has to be more behind how and why her older sister died.

Monica struggles to not only find the truth, but she also struggles to find her place in the world, making some questionable choices along the way.

Some of my favorite lines:

"The empty house has been the subject of my mother's bitching. All the house is doing is existing, not bothering anyone. It's exactly the type of thing that offends my mother."

"In my head, I break down the agonizing wait for Saturday. Twenty-four hours; nine class periods; one dance team practice; one awkward Friday family dinner at Ristegio's, the Italian restaurant in town; and one restless night's sleep. All hurdles to clear before I can talk to Daphne Furman."

"...computer club boys plagued by ill-fitting jeans and cafeteria pizza breath."

"I knew what we were doing was wrong, and I didn't care because I was ready to set my perfect life on fire and walk away while it burned."

I highly recommend THE CHEERLEADERS by Kara Thomas to anyone who enjoys a twisty murder mystery.



[I received an early copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This in no way influenced my opinion.]

First let me start off by saying holy crap what a book! Second this was my best first book by Kara Thomas and if her books are anything like this one then she just found herself a new fan!

Monica finds her dead sister’s phone she begins lookinh through it to see why her sister committed suicide. Monica's own family wont talk about it, so she sets off by herself to find out. As she discovers things out about her sister she quickly realizes something isnt right about her sisters death and the deaths of 4 other cheerleaders. 

The Cheerleaders is a dark mystery full of twists and turns that will have you turning page after page to find out what happens next. I have been craving an edge of your seat thriller leave you guessing! Loved this book and can't wait to check out this author's other books!

I recieved a free galley from @prhinternational. This is an independent and honest review.

This blew me away. I'm usually not the biggest fan of YA thrillers, since I often find the plots too simple. So I started reading this without much expectations at all, but it sucked me right in and I couldn't put it down. I loved pretty much everything about it, it was fast paced and full of plot twists. If you're looking for an excellent YA thriller, this is the book for you!

A tense YA mystery/ thriller for fans of A LINE IN THE DARK, PRETTY LITTLE LIARS, ONE OF US IS LYING, and Meghan Abbot's books.

Plot: There isn't a cheerleading squad in Sunnybrook anymore. Not since five girls died within a month of each other five years ago. One of those girls was Monica's sister and she's determined to figure out what really happened to those girls, convinced that the official stories are false.

I really enjoyed this one and couldn't stop reading. It felt a little generic at first, although I liked the premise. However, it really grew on me and the ending was definitely unexpected which I appreciated. I would recommend this to fans of other YA mystery and thriller novels, and have already told a few people about it.

Liked it, but didn't love it. It was too obvious who the killer was. I loved the main character and her sister, and it's a sign of how much that I still find myself wishing the book's mystery was actually more mysterious.

Wow. This book was a ride. It kept me guessing until the very end. I'm convinced Kara Thomas writes the best endings. I'm always surprised, creeped out, and satisfied. She's definitely my favorite writer of YA thrillers.

I definitely have students that will love this. I can't wait to recommend it to them this fall.

The Cheerleaders is being marketed as "a little bit Riverdale and a little bit Veronica Mars" and as a CW/WB superfan, this couldn't be more spot on (and awesome). The Cheerleaders is a YA thriller that will definitely have major appeal in the adult market as well. This is my first book by Kara Thomas and definitely will not be my last! This book definitely packs a twist that is so well done I almost fell off my seat. Centered around a town where 5 cheerleaders die in a short time, including Jennifer, who's younger sister Monica just can't seem to untangle herself from the drama, things take an interesting turn, five years after the tragedies took place. I had my guesses, some of which were right, but the ones I did not see made this book absolutely awesome for me!

Five years ago, five cheerleaders in the town of Sunnybrook died in three separate tragedies.

First, two girls were killed in a gruesome car accident.
Soon after, two girls home alone at a sleepover were murdered.  A suspicious neighbor was shot by police and they'll never know why he did it.
The final cheerleader Jennifer committed suicide not long after her four best friends died.

Now, Jennifer's little sister Monica has gotten into some trouble.  (*ahem* The kind caused by reckless behavior with an older guy.)  Back at school with the fifth anniversary of the deaths looming close, that older guy who was a summer fling is now the track team coach.  (Awkwaaaard.)

Sunnybrook High wants to plan a memorial for their five lost cheerleaders but Monica would rather forget.  When she finds mysterious letters and her sister's old cell phone in her stepdad's desk, Monica begins digging in to the past she wanted to bury.

Was there someone targeting the Sunnybrook cheerleaders, connecting all three tragedies?  Was the car accident *really* an accident?  Was the suspicious neighbor the real killer?  Did Jennifer actually kill herself?  As Monica learns more, suspicion is cast on her stepdad.  Can it be a coincidence that he was not only the first police officer on the scene of the car accident but also the officer to shoot and kill the neighbor suspected of murdering the next two girls?

Monica's determined to find the truth with the help of her new friend Ginny and a few surprising people from Jennifer's past, but soon secrets and lies are revealed that could put Monica in danger.

This was a well written and highly entertaining YA mystery with a great pace!  I practically read this book in one sitting because as new information was revealed, I needed to know what was going to happen next.  I figured out a good portion early on but it took a while to piece together how it all fit and the conclusion was truly well done!

Thanks to Delacorte Press and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.