The Cheerleaders

 This has to be my least favorite Kara Thomas book. But let's start with the good parts.
This is a very well written book. The writing drew me in & didn't let me go until the very end. Like all of Kara Thomas' books, this was compulsively readable. And for a thriller, this was pretty thrilling. I actually felt anxious for the characters at many points during this book.
I also really liked how complex all the characters were!
They were not one-dimensional at all & I really appreciated that. I do love me some morally grey badasses! Though I have to add, some of the characters (that I assume we were supposed to care about) were just plain assholes.
Now on to the negatives. Hmmm, where to start.
For a mystery, I don't think the mystery was very good at all.
I had so many unanswered questions by the end of this book. Like why did Jack say “I'm sorry” if he was innocent? Also, all the deaths didn't even turn out to be related at the end?! There weren't five murders, just three (plus a hit and run) unlike what the book would like you to believe. 
I felt like this entire book, we weren't getting anywhere at all. Like Monica would come across an oh-so-shocking clue and then we would somehow be back to square one? It was a lot of beating around the bush. 
Most of the discoveries that Monica made weren't even relevant until the end? It was like KT was trying to fill up pages with vaguely “thrilling” shit until she reached the desired page count. There was like ~one~ measly twist that actually shocked me. 
The ending was very weak and the whole thing just felt lazy. It was sloppy at best. The ending was also very open which I'm not sure I liked. There was no real closure when it desperately needed one. 
Anyway, I've read so much better from this author. 
 

??This has to be my least favorite Kara Thomas book. But let's start with the good parts.
This is a very well written book. The writing drew me in & didn't let me go until the very end. Like all of Kara Thomas' books, this was compulsively readable. And for a thriller, this was pretty thrilling. I actually felt anxious for the characters at many points during this book.
I also really liked how complex all the characters were!
They were not one-dimensional at all & I really appreciated that. I do love me some morally grey badasses! Though I have to add, some of the characters (that I assume we were supposed to care about) were just plain assholes.
Now on to the negatives. Hmmm, where to start.
For a mystery, I don't think the mystery was very good at all.
I had so many unanswered questions by the end of this book. Like why did Jack say “I'm sorry” if he was innocent? Also, all the deaths didn't even turn out to be related at the end?! There weren't five murders, just three (plus a hit and run) unlike what the book would like you to believe.??
I felt like this entire book, we weren't getting anywhere at all. Like Monica would come across an oh-so-shocking clue and then we would somehow be back to square one? It was a lot of beating around the bush.??
Most of the discoveries that Monica made weren't even relevant until the end? It was like KT was trying to fill up pages with vaguely “thrilling” shit until she reached the desired page count. There was like ~one~ measly twist that actually shocked me.??
The ending was very weak and the whole thing just felt lazy. It was sloppy at best. The ending was also very open which I'm not sure I liked. There was no real closure when it desperately needed one.??
Anyway, I've read so much better from this author.??
??

This barely scrapes 2.5 stars for me. I almost rated it two stars, but added a half star is for the fact that this book did keep me interested in it long enough to finish it.

I liked the premise and the jumping back and forth between Monica and Jennifer five years ago. But the ending was so sloppy in so many ways that it made the nearly 10 hours spent listening to the audiobook feel like a waste.

There were way too many red herrings here, with no clues given to the actual killer, so when we did find out his identity it was out of nowhere. Plus, because there are all these little details trying to misdirect the reader, I had absolutely no recollection of the small things that turned out to be important to figuring out the killer in the end crucial in the end - specifically the earring and a dog bite scar.

I also didn't feel the motivations for the murder were believable, and there were just too many little coincidences used to explain things. The whole way through there's this sense that you're going to find out how everything is connected and why they died, but it boils down to the most boring explanation possible: coincidence.

DNF. A book that suffers from tell-itis and I do not have the patience for badly done narratives. The writing is wooden and does not compel me to finish such a convoluted tale.

This was such a fun read and I was instantly hooked. I am such a sucker for these type of mysteries. It's hard not to when they leave you wondering what's going to happen next.

I was quite shocked at how much I enjoyed this because I usually enjoy more action and scariness in my thrillers but this had me captivated and left me second guessing everything and everyone.

I'm not ashamed to admit that I actually gasped at a few plot twists that happened in this.

This book surprised me with the way it also addressed grief and the struggle of moving on and letting go. I really do think that this is going to become a comfort read for me.

If you're into thrillers or amateur sleuths, this is definitely the read for you.

2.5 stars

3.5 stars!!!!

Let's just say... Karen McManus does it better.

Actually, I still have more to say, but from the opening line, you know where this review is heading. Read on, if you are so inclined.I thought the editing was poor (see below, re: age inconsistencies), and the author writes to such effect that I felt like I was falling in and out of consciousness while reading the words on the page. A character is sitting in a chair, but in the next sentence, that characters is suddenly across the room. Did I black out? Did the character teleport? Goes back and rereads the last sentence Nope, didn't miss anything. Very disorienting and confusing.The author seemed to emphasize dates and ages, but none of them make any sense. Even more maddening is that these details don't make a difference to the story, so the fact that I'm so bothered by them rather than focused on the actual narrative, speaks volumes. For example, Monica is sixteen and Brandon is some number of years older than her... either 6, 8 or 11 years, per the various age references throughout the book. [For an example of bad math, see Chapter 5: “ ‘He [Jack] was twenty, and she was seventeen. [...]' Four years. The age difference between Brandon and me is twice that.” – actually, the initial difference stated is three years, and twice that is six. Mike Meija is either 22 or 27 (i.e. possibly the youngest cop EVER).Another quibble is that dogs in this book apparently blink in and out of existence, as needed to make the story work. Why was Mango MIA when Brandon forced his way into Monica's house? In other dog news, how did the cops overlook the dog from 5 years ago at the scene of the murder?My last point of contention about “The Cheerleaders” is that the characters are bland and interchangeable, and too many are characters of convenience. Some of these people are not too bright, including the town cops. Why would Brandon return to the scene (town) of the crime, and why would he get involved with the sister of one of the titular Cheerleaders? Are we supposed to accept the coincidence that he is/was Allie's boyfriend? What was Carly Amato's purpose? Monica's mom seems to underreact to her pregnancy and abortion, and overreact to her getting detention or other typical teenage infractions. Monica does some questionable things and none of the adults seem to be the wiser. I had to suspend my belief multiple times that everyone seemed so oblivious.

This was a FANTASTIC mystery!!!!!! I was on the edge of my seat the Whole Time, trying to figure out the truth!!!!!! I never did expect the ending!!!!!!

4.5 stars.

The ending had me shocked.

2.75 ★

i enjoyed this, but i felt like there was still a lot that i didn't quite appreciate. i think it was mostly my lack of empathy for any of the characters, i just couldn't connect and commit to the story itself. it's a nice read though, just not for me

i enjoyed the writing in this story and the twist at the end but for most of this book i was so bored and slogged through it

The library is probably ready to kill me. It took me weeks to read this, because I kept putting it down to read other books. I've had this checked out for so long.
Anyway,
I just don't do well with mysteries and thrillers, but I keep trying. This one did not sway me toward the dark side. I liked Monica, I wanted to know more about her, but it quickly becomes her sister's story and it was frustrating me that everyone Monica hunted down and questioned...didn't really have anything to say. I liked Ginny, but she was clearly the “Velma” part of the operation that clicks keys on the computer to pull up insta-info.
The tie-in at the end with Ginny's father did nothing for me. Is it a set up for a sequel with Ginny as a killer? Also, after being told repeatedly that Monica needed to “connect the dots” the dots do not connect and the whole thing felt kind of pointless. Also, the whole Brandon (Brendon?) thing is just too friggin coincidental to make any sense.
So, in short, not a good read for me.