Reviews

"There are no more cheerleaders in the town of Sunnybrook."

And that is how this book starts, a book I had in my possession for months now. I was at first waiting to read it during my vacation, but then I decided to keep it until October, aka horror/mystery month. I am really glad I did, because this was just the best to read during this month.

I will do my best to write a review, however, I am still filled with emotions and feels.

This book is written from two POVs, Monica and Jen. Monica is the younger sister of Jen, the girl who died along with 4 others, all of them cheerleaders. Jen is the older sister, she died 5 years ago. Monica is generally the POV we read the most from, Jen's pops up occasionally.

What happened 5 years ago? Was everything connected? Was it a serial killer? Was something else stalking the town? Or was it just all a coincidence. We see how Monica, now 5 years later, finds her sister's cellphone and several letters from an anonymous person in her stepdad's drawer, and from that point she is deep into investigating. What happened to her sister? What happened to her friends. Was it truly that one guy, who was shot when the police entered his house? Monica goes full junior detective and yes, this means there were also moments that had me shaking my head. Really, I get that you want to investigate, but you also have to be way more careful. Did you really think no one would notice?

I just adored, really ADORED, how the writer managed to make everyone a suspect, and how there were twists and turns all the time. Each time I thought I was onto the person, every time I thought I had figured it out, something would happen that would throw me off and I had to scramble back to figure it all out again. Eventually (around 3/4 in) I had a very good idea of what was going on. At least in regards to the deaths of the first two girls, and also what had happened to Jen. As for the other two girls, well, I wasn't yet so sure about the whos and the whats in that case. I just have to applaud to the author for writing it all so wonderfully and intricately.

I loved Jen's POV. Though I did feel so sad for her. She reminds me of me. Oh so much. At one point, very shortly after this book, my youtube played one of my favourite songs, Evanescence - Bring Me Back To Life, and it just fitted so well with Jen. Her feelings, how she thought about things. Yes, I cried.

I quite liked that the sisters close, if that makes sense. Jen was a cheerleader, Monica is in the dance team. Both of them have/had troubles with their friends, and feeling like they were growing apart. Both were changing, and both weren't always too happy to see the change.

Ginny, I quite like the girl, though I was always a bit suspicious of her. She seemed to hide something, something big.

Ethan was an interesting character, I quite like him. While I don't approve of what he did back in school, I can imagine that he did it. Bullying is horrific, it hurts, it breaks you. :(

Then there is the last chapter, and oh boy. Oh booooooy. Of course, I had my suspicions, but this? No. It exceeded everything I thought.

Oh, and I did feel sorry for Monica, I wouldn't consider it a spoiler given it is mentioned at the very early start. Yes, she wasn't responsible with what she did, but still getting pregnant and having an abortion, that poor thing. Later we find out what has happened, and sorry girl, but even if you were OK with it, found him sexy, he manipulated you, he should have stayed away from you. You are still a kid, he was an adult. It was just wrong.

Phew, I think I avoided all the spoilers, or at least dodged around them. I could probably chat about this book some more, but I think I mentioned all I wanted to mention. I finish with that I would recommend this book to everyone.

Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/