Thoughts on : The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas
The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas
Genre : Mystery, YA
Stand alone
About the Book :
There are no more cheerleaders in the town of Sunnybrook.
First there was the car accident—two girls gone 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 why he did it. Monica’s sister was the last cheerleader to die. After her suicide, Sunnybrook High disbanded the cheer squad. No one wanted to be reminded of the girls they 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 letters 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.
My Thoughts :
I recently reviewed Little Monsters by Kara Thomas, and mentioned how much I had appreciated the two of her books I had read. I was eager to read The Cheerleaders, her latest release, and to see what twists she had to offer this time around.
Sadly, I thought The Cheerleaders was her weakest book so far. It’s not bad, just not really exciting. Even though there were numerous developments and revelations, the story felt really slow. Things happen in the very few last chapters, but until then, I felt a bit bored. I wouldn’t say it was predictable exactly, but I can’t say I felt surprise.
There were some good ideas in there, and I liked Monica as a character. I felt she wasn’t overly naive nor overly clever for her age. It was easy to relate to her issues and I thought she handled them in a realistic manner.
As I said in my review of Little Monsters, I still feel that Kara Thomas writes thrillers featuring teenagers, rather than YA novels mystery novels that are only a pretext for romance. Romance can be fun, but it’s also great to have characters who have other things to focus on – school, hobbies, friends. The Cheerleaders isn’t different in that regard; sadly, it failed in its most important part, which is the mystery.
I’m sure I’ll want to read more from Kara Thomas in the future, but if any of you are new to her books, I’d highly recommend starting with Little Monsters or The Darkest Corners.
That’s too bad because I thought this one had a lot of potential.
I did too! Who knows though, perhaps you’d enjoy it more than I did 🙂
Century to a kind of destruction:
among them acquired “Moral