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A review by dinipandareads
The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas
3.0
TL;DR: I seem to be in the minority here but I found this to be a disappointingly bland read. I don't know if it's my current fickle reading mood but I found this underwhelming and boring. While I admire the author for tackling heavier real-life topics in a YA book, this didn't offer anything different to make it stand out or particularly interesting. Perhaps if you are just starting to explore the genre of YA mysteries then this might be a good title to check out in the early days.
Before seeing this in a secondhand bookshop on my travels in Cambodia, I hadn’t heard about it but noticed it had some great reviews, so I was excited to give it a go. Sadly, this wasn't the book for me! It wasn't horrible or the worst thing I've read recently and I guess, it was decent enough to pass the time, but I found the writing to be so dry and I didn’t care much about what was happening or any of the characters and what they went through.
Something I’ve been struggling with in my recent reads is when there’s a lot more telling than showing, and that applies here too. “Monica goes here and does that. She didn’t like this and got irritated at that.” It’s everyday filler that added nothing to the story or character arcs. I honestly don’t know if I even liked Monica by the end because I didn’t understand who she was due to poor/surface-level characterisation. She's certainly driven but her frantic energy and desire to learn the truth behind what happened to the five cheerleaders was more irritating than compelling. The other characters were also one-dimensional and I didn't find the cheerleaders to be empathetic characters who I cared about, so while their deaths were tragic, I didn't find myself invested in learning about the truth.
The reveals and plot twists were also underwhelming. I didn’t find any of it surprising just… kind of sad, lol. I feel like I should’ve found the truth more shocking but because I felt so little about the overall story, it just fell flat. I also didn't think the storylines intersected well and at times it felt like Monica was trying to learn about a series of unrelated deaths rather than "interconnected deaths". The reveal of the big killer also felt so confounding because, despite the "significant" role they initially have in Monica's life, their overall role in the story felt inconsequential and lacking in weight, if that makes sense...
What I found refreshing was Thomas' inclusion of dark real-life elements in this YA. She doesn't hold back on rather "taboo" topics and I didn't expect to see it, so that was interesting.
**I was going to rate this 3 stars but after writing my review I’m lowering it to 2.5 rounded up. It just didn’t work for me. Maybe if I had read this years ago or as a young adult I would’ve found it engaging and maybe scandalous but sadly, adult me doesn’t think so.**
Before seeing this in a secondhand bookshop on my travels in Cambodia, I hadn’t heard about it but noticed it had some great reviews, so I was excited to give it a go. Sadly, this wasn't the book for me! It wasn't horrible or the worst thing I've read recently and I guess, it was decent enough to pass the time, but I found the writing to be so dry and I didn’t care much about what was happening or any of the characters and what they went through.
Something I’ve been struggling with in my recent reads is when there’s a lot more telling than showing, and that applies here too. “Monica goes here and does that. She didn’t like this and got irritated at that.” It’s everyday filler that added nothing to the story or character arcs. I honestly don’t know if I even liked Monica by the end because I didn’t understand who she was due to poor/surface-level characterisation. She's certainly driven but her frantic energy and desire to learn the truth behind what happened to the five cheerleaders was more irritating than compelling. The other characters were also one-dimensional and I didn't find the cheerleaders to be empathetic characters who I cared about, so while their deaths were tragic, I didn't find myself invested in learning about the truth.
The reveals and plot twists were also underwhelming. I didn’t find any of it surprising just… kind of sad, lol. I feel like I should’ve found the truth more shocking but because I felt so little about the overall story, it just fell flat. I also didn't think the storylines intersected well and at times it felt like Monica was trying to learn about a series of unrelated deaths rather than "interconnected deaths". The reveal of the big killer also felt so confounding because, despite the "significant" role they initially have in Monica's life, their overall role in the story felt inconsequential and lacking in weight, if that makes sense...
What I found refreshing was Thomas' inclusion of dark real-life elements in this YA. She doesn't hold back on rather "taboo" topics and I didn't expect to see it, so that was interesting.
**I was going to rate this 3 stars but after writing my review I’m lowering it to 2.5 rounded up. It just didn’t work for me. Maybe if I had read this years ago or as a young adult I would’ve found it engaging and maybe scandalous but sadly, adult me doesn’t think so.**