The Cheerleaders

Today’s post is on The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas. It is 370 pages long and is published by Delacourt Press. The cover is beige with the shirt of a cheerleader in the center with blood on it. The intended reader is someone who likes mysteries and complex characters. There is mild foul language, sex, violence and other intense topics in this novel. The story is told from first person of the main character Monica. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the dust jacket- There are no more cheerleaders in the town of Sunnybrook.
First there was the car accident- two girls dead after hitting a tree on a rainy night. Not long after, the murders happened. Those two girls were killed by the man next door. The police shot him, so no one will ever know his reasons. Monica’s sister was the last cheerleader to die. After her suicide, Sunnybrook High disbanded the cheer squad. No none wanted to be reminded of the girls they’d lost.
That was five years ago. Now the faculty and students at Sunnybrook High want to remember the lost cheerleaders. But for Monica, it’s not that easy. She just wants to forget.
Only, Monica’s world is starting to unravel. There are the letter in her stepdad’s desk; an unearthed, years-old cell phone; a strange new friend at school…
Whatever happened five years ago isn’t over. Some people in town know more than they’re saying. And somehow, Monica is at the center of it all.
There are no more cheerleaders in Sunnybrook, but that doesn’t mean anyone else is safe.

Review- A twisty mystery about what really happened and one girl’s quest to discover it. When the real villain was revealed it was surprising and very interesting. Monica is not in a great space mentally at the start of the book, she has made some bad choices over the summer and she is still recovering from them. She feels very alone in her mistake and is getting pressure from teachers to be involved in the memorial for the five dead cheerleaders but Monica just wants to understand what drove her sister. So that is the basic plot add in some growing pains from Monica and the cast around her and that’s the novel. I really had a good time with this book, Monica was not easy to like but I did sympathize with her. She was interesting, driven, and I found her to be very engaging. I am getting into so much of the book with the plot or character interactions or even Monica’s mental state; the book is just too dense to get all of that into a quick review. But you like twisty mysteries with an interesting main character when you should give this book a try.

I give this novel a Four out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.