The Cheerleaders

After reading Thomas' Little Monsters last year, I was eager to dig into another contemporary mystery from her. In this book, a girl starts investigating the mysterious circumstances around her older sister's suicide that happened 5 years ago, a terrible time during which 4 other girls, all cheerleaders, had died. Finding some clues that point to two of those deaths, which were murders, were maybe pinned on the wrong person, Monica starts to dig into the lives of those girls and the days leading up to their deaths, along with her classmate Ginny, who is a loner. Meanwhile, Monica herself is hiding a secret from her own friends, and almost everyone in her life. At the start, I was invested in the story - I truly was - because there were so many aspects of it that had potential. There were three different incidents - an accident, a murder and a suicide - and the question was whether they were related, whether the girls had enemies, whether Monica will uncover something shocking. As the book went on, though, it felt like it was dragging itself all over the place; there were too many plot threads for it to have a main direction to work to. First, she is invested in her sister's suicide, for which she finds a diary and an interesting note. Then she starts investigating the murder, which is the focal point of the mystery as it was what started this whole thing. But the truth is that Monica and Ginny both don't have a personal connection to the murder aside from it being of two girls from their town. Monica's older sister has some POV chapters (in flashback) which is how we, the readers, can piece together the mystery, but she herself does not. There are plenty of red herrings, as well as Monica jumping to conclusions. Moreover, I do feel that Monica herself didn't have much to with the plot, despite being the protagonist. Her personal life doesn't have much bearing on the story and vice versa, and the things troubling her at the start barely make a dent in the plot. The story became interesting only towards the end: the thing I was betting on turned out to be true (like, he had to serve some purpose in the plot!), and the ending was probably the best part of this book. All in all, it was disappointing to me, even though it had potential.

I loved it personally, it was a little predictable but I didn't mind it!

Good suspense. Almost feel cinematic the whole time reading it.