This was unfortunately a DNF for me. I was hoping for something dark like Heathers. This was just far too slow for my liking. It spends a lot of time describing the cheerleading practices but I did not find those scenes interesting at all.

4/5 stars, not what I was expecting!

<i> Thank you Penguin Teen for the arc through Netgalley and the physical copy in exchange for an honest review! </i>

The story of this book was a lot different than what I was expecting, but I think that's actually a good thing. I only went into this knowing it was about a group of girls on the cheerleading team, and detailing their time on it. It's a story about murder, jealousy, hate, complicated friendships, and the threats of young adulthood.

The story follows Shade and Jadis, two best friends who are literally everything to each other. So when Shade makes the decision to join the school cheerleading team, a dream since she was little, Jadis can hardly recognize her best friend. Shade loves the feeling of falling into the group, and is finding herself drawn to the three Chloes--the three insufferable girls who run the squad. Their leader's dark side is just as compelling as it is her public side. But Jadis doesn't want her friend to go as easily, and when one of the cheerleaders dies under mysterious circumstances Shade is determined to get to the bottom of her death.

My shock from the story going a separate way from what I was thinking might have to with me not reading the full synopsis. I have gone out on a limb in the past year with a few ARCs, (advanced reader copies), as I wanted to expand my reading tastes. This was one that I just wanted to try out but I am generally glad I did. As I said before, it was a lot more than what I was expecting.

There were just a few things I had problems with, one being the pacing at some parts of the book. For the majority, it felt very compelling and I wanted to keep reading. But there were a few moments in the story I just, did not feel invested. Plot points seemed to jump out and then the pacing of the mysterious aspects leveled out. I think that this is something that comes with practice though, and for a debut novel it really wasn't that bad.

Most of the characters were very interesting to read about, Shade was pretty much your average teenage girl but she had a drive to her I admired. Even the three Chloes, the obvious heathers of the story, were compelling and had layers to them. Jadis was a bit cliche, and I really didn't like her as a person but acknowledged her traumas & what she went through. I think everyone in this book had a little bit of a splinter in them, of trauma or discomfort in the general lives. Which is usually how real life goes, so I appreciated the representation of that being so real.

A few of my favorite things about this book include the descriptions of her cheerleading practice, and the author's show of toxic friendships. I am a dancer myself so I can always relate to other athletes, and I really enjoy seeing how others do things. I read a book earlier this year about cross country runners, and now this, and one thing we all seem to have in common is the feeling of adrenaline. When the authors describe it through the characters, I know exactly what they mean, which is really nice to relate to, even if it seems boring to some. There is also an abundance of toxic friendships in this book, and the author addresses that towards the end. You can love someone and they can be bad for you, so sometimes you must love them at a distance. That's something that happens all to often in real life and I did appreciate the author sending that message.

Overall, an okay story one that I had a fun time reading. I probably won't think about it that often in the future, so I might have to bring the rating down. And yet I did enjoy my time reading it when I really got into it.

[TW: alcohol use, drug use, death of a friend, death of a parent, being drunk, head injuries, overdosing]

Shade and Jadis are best friends who don’t fit the mold of being “popular.” When Shade decides to join the cheerleading team, Jadis is shocked. Shade falls into the orbit of the Three Chloes: the girls who rule the cheer squad. Suddenly Jadis is feeling threatened.

The Falling Girls delves into the sometimes toxic relationships that teenage girls endure while trying to fit in. It also touches on the importance of healthy relationships, and how the people you surround yourself with can shape who you become. The story is a slow-burn. It picked up the pace for me during the second half, which is when a cheerleader dies and her death is a mystery. Keeping track of the Three Chloes got confusing and at times took away from the story, in my opinion. Overall, The Falling Girls was an enjoyable YA read, but I was wanting a little more mystery and intrigue.

NUTSHELL:
Two best codependent best friends struggle to keep their friendship when one tries out for cheerleading and the other becomes a suspect in a cheerleader's murder.

REMINDS ME OF:
"Heathers" directed by Lehmann meets Netflix's "Cheer"

PLUS SIDE:
+ The characters were all so interesting (like seriously intriguing, I think I'm obsessed with one, guess which one) and had really realistic (if, toxic) relationships with each other and their family members.
+ The social media presence of this novel was really well done. It actually felt like real posts and real viral videos that could actually have occurred around a scandal like this one.
+ The author obviously did her research on cheerleading terms and stunts because the writing was very vivid and precise.... and there is an entire plot point that requires the author to have chosen the correct stunt where a specific error would cause a very specific outcome she needed to happen within the plot. She nailed it right on the head!

NEGATIVE SIDE:
- I think it was a little too obvious what the outcome would be by the time the ending (slowly) rolled around, but she did have me guessing a bit at the initial incidence of the death.
- The ending really did seem slow. The death didn't even happen until halfway through the book, but the first half still felt a lot more action-oriented and fast-paced than the last. Maybe it was the inevitable void left behind from the death of a wonderfully dynamic character.
- I found it highly unbelievable that it took so long for a video to be procured of the stunt gone awry. I know it is a small incident considering the entirety of the plot, but I feel like that injustice, in today's constantly vlogging world, would have been uncovered and rectified LONG before it was.

It’s no secret that friendships can be tough at times. For Shade, the protagonist in The Falling Girls, her closest friend is a girl named Jadis, someone who knows Shade like the back of her hand. They trust each other implicitly, so much so that though they are only in high school, one of their favorite things to do is come up with and give each other new stick-and-poke tattoos. Change can often make or break things though, and Shade has just made what seems like a very out of character decision for her–to join her school’s cheer-leading squad. Jadis is certain she has heard her best friend wrong, cheer-leading is so not their scene. Shade seems really into her new hobby though, and it is soon clear that she isn’t going to quit any time too soon. Even when she doesn’t get super welcoming vibes from the rest of the squad, Shade is determined to enjoy herself and do well at the sport. Teenage girls can be nasty to each other, and Shade sees this first-hand many times throughout the book. Especially when it comes to the “three Chloe’s”, three girls all with the name Chloe and all on the cheer squad. Shade is already dealing with the stress of having her friendship with her best friend be on the brink of disaster, so when the school dance comes up and Jadis says she is planning to go, Shade is hopeful that maybe her bestie is coming around. Then something unimaginable happens at the dance and Shade begins to question all of her friendships and wonder if there is anyone she can trust.

Review of a Digital Advance Reading Copy Provided by the Publisher

I really enjoyed the concept of this book! Not only was I hooked by the first chapter, but the personalities and dialogue between the characters really kept me turning pages. I think a lot of readers will be able to relate to the concept of friendships between teenage girls in this novel; it seems to be a universal experience.

When I first starting reading this book I was really scared I wasn't going to like it. It just didn't seem like my type of book once I started it... but man oh man, how wrong was I. I devoured this book in little under three hours in one sitting. Once I started, I just couldn't stop. There is just something about the Choles that just sucked you in. Such a strange dynamic but its so fascinating. It states clearing in the blurb that there is a murder, I spent half the book with theories as to who it was going to be. But it was obvious. It had to be her. Hayley does a fantastic job of twisting the story around so you are questioning everything. Who did it. Why? What happened?

And there is so much character development between Jadis and Shade, at the very beginning they are 'the same people, just with different hair' and they are so tightly woven together that you don't know where one starts and the other begins. This book is a master at giving you an insight to what could happen to two people too tightly twined together. The hurt and the betrayal and the questions.

I wish I could read it again for the first time, just to experience it again. This book is like a song with a pumped up beat, but darrkkkkkk lyrics and I loved it.

(Also always a fan of another Hayley, even if they do spell it a little differently thank I do lolol)

I think this book realistically portrayed the dynamics of female friendships/relationships and how toxic they can sometimes become, The characters were well developed, and there was a definite twist figuring out how Chloe died.

'The Falling Girls': 4⭐

(Unpaid Review: thank you to @netgalley, @hayleykrischer and the publishers for allowing me to read this eArc copy in exchange for a review.)

I can describe this book in just a few words: HeAtHeRs, female representation, queer representation and the importance of female relationships.

I mean, when you were a teen in high school, didn't you have that best friend, who was a girl and you looked up to her like she was everything you wanted to be? If you say no, I don't believe you! A very important YA to be read in every mood, in every season!

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Teen for an arc of this book.

When Shade decides to join the cheer team, her best friend, Jadis is not happy with her change of tune. But things quickly get weird as the three Chloe's begin to encompass more of Shade than just her afterschool time. When The Chloes, Shade, and Jadis all take molly at the homecoming dance, it's supposed to be a way for them to bond. Instead, it ends in someone's death...but whose fault was it.

Whooo this is a dark book about Cheerleading. I loved reading about how utterly toxic all these girls were and how all-encompassing everything that happened to them was. It is so incredibly dramatic and so fun to read. Really interesting true case of murder that this was inspired by, too!

I really liked the character depth in this one! Honestly, all of these characters are disasters but I loved reading about them. Shade is especially interesting! Great book.

Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Toxic friendship, Murder, Death, Injury/injury detail, and Bullying

There’s something about the paradoxical camaraderie and competitiveness of a cheerleading squad that makes them attractive to novelists. The Falling Girls is a compelling novel about young women’s friendships wrapped up in a cheerleading/mystery package.

Shade and Jadis are so close they’re like “the same person but with different hair.” But Shade has always been fascinated by cheerleading and decides to join the squad even though Jadis is not interested and is less than supportive. Shade quickly gets swept up by the tight world of the cheerleaders, in particular the alpha trio of three girls called Chloe.

Shade and Jadis’s friendship begins to crack as Shade devotes herself to becoming a flyer. Meanwhile Chloe Orbach, the alpha Chloe, takes up Shade much to the displeasure of the other Chloes. But after the homecoming dance in which Chloe Orbach dies under mysterious circumstances Shade wonders whether it really was an accident or did someone want her dead?

The author does an excellent job of capturing those breathlessly overwrought teen girl friendships as girls transition from their families into their adult selves. The whispering secrets, the gutwrenching overanalysis of a single text or comment, the intensity of the need for your best friend to always be your best friend has its reward in the closeness of the friendship and its agony in any threat to it.

I enjoyed the inside cheerleading passages about different poses and positions. The author doesn’t explain them all and I had to look them up but it felt authentic and an entree into this much maligned world. The girls are tough on themselves and each other but there’s no overt eating disorders or bullying. Their need to succeed and their desire for respect come through clearly.

But all of these good things need a plot to hang themselves on and that’s where I felt the novel fell a little short. The mystery feels just a bit too much like something that happens in a book and Shade’s urge to get to the truth didn’t quite ring true. For my money Kara Thomas does this sort of girl-on-the-edge focused novel just a bit better, but this is certainly worth your time.

Thanks to Razorbill and NetGalley for the digital review copy.

The Falling Girls, a cross between the Heathers and Bring It On, is a fast pace teen drama that explores the deeply obsessive and unhealthy friendship of BFF’s Jadis and Shade. The novel scrutinizes high school, competition, and ultimately murder. A fun read!

** I received an electronic ARC from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review of this book.

Toxic (and even obsessive) relationships between teens are especially necessary to address in the age of social media. It definitely plays out in the classroom as well as after school activities. I read THE FALLING GIRLS with great interest and appreciated the nod to "Heathers" with The Chloes. However, something about this story (or perhaps the writing) never drew me in. I didn't feel the intensity I expected based on the book's premise. Perhaps it's not for me because I'm not a teen, but this book is not one I'll be using or recommending in my creative writing classes.

Oh, one other note: the hints at queerness of side characters felt like an attempt to include a trend or reach an additional audience. However, it felt a lot like the queer baiting on TV shows. Because of this, I absolutely will not recommend it to my LGBTQIAP+ writing groups.

The Falling Girls is what happens when friendships get a little too intense and jealousy rears its head. Shade has always wanted to be a cheerleader but she knows her best friend Jadis won't be happy. The squad is run by three girls named Chloe who can both make you feel special or bring you to tears depending on the day. When a cheerleader dies suspiciously, Shade starts doubting everyone around her.

I couldn't put this book down. At first, I thought it was just a coming of age sort of book where Shade was finding herself, but then a cheerleader died, turning it into so much more. I loved how you could imagine more than one of the characters being the murderer since they all had one reason or another. There was a lot of juxtaposition between Shade and Jadis, especially with their family situations and how they deal with their problems. I found myself so frustrated at times with how Shade's friends acted and wished she had just one normal one to keep her grounded. The fact that there were three Chloes but I could always tell which one was which was so cool, their differing personalities really helped bring them to life. It was strange to feel sympathy for each of them but also get so annoyed with them. I honestly didn't predict the ending, I had been tricked into thinking someone else was responsible. For me, this was a 5/5.

If you like murder mysteries where everyone has motive, want to see who stabs who in the back, or have ever wanted to get matching tattoos with your best friend, this is the one for you.

I received a digital copy of this book free from Penguin Young Readers Group and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book had potential. Cheerleader murder mysteries always sound fun. But this was so boring. So predictable. So contrived. There was nothing that made this stand out to me. It’s heathers meets mean girls meets 2010 Wattpad novel—but I’ve enjoyed things I’ve read on Wattpad much more than this. I didn’t like Shade. I didn’t like any of the Chloes. I didn’t like Jadis. I couldn’t get myself to care about any of the characters, none of them had real motives, and the killer was extremely predictable and also really didn’t make sense as the killer except for the fact that the “foreshadowing” was really just making it so obvious that it was that person. None of the characters had personalities, motives, goals, or lives outside of the cliche roles they played.

I also had an issue with the writing. It was painful for me to read. I think that’s more about it not being my style than a fault of the author. At least 80% of the story was told through internal monologue and narrative summary from Shades POV with very little dialogue or like, active action. Which not only do I find boring in general when books are narrated this way, but because I didn’t like Shade’s character, it became borderline intolerable at points.

Also, Shade had so much chemistry with every girl she became close to. She kept saying she was straight, but I kept expecting her to hook up with Jadis and/or Chloe Orbach the whole first half of the book. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, it was just a weird strand of the story that was never elaborated on at all—I’m not sure the author even did it on purpose.

So, would I recommend this book? No. I didn’t enjoy it, but if you think it’s something you’d really enjoy and the things I pointed out don’t bother you, it could be worth a shot.

*Special thanks to Turn the Page Tours and Razorbill for providing me with a finished copy of The Falling Girls!*

This book was such a wild ride! I didn't expect it to be nearly so dark, but it actually had some mystery vibes and could almost be considered a thriller. It dove deep into exploring adolescent friendships between girls and the darker, all-consuming side of these relationships. This book dealt heavily with toxic and codependent friendships, which was a little hard for me to read about at times; it is a very important topic, though, which I haven't seen much in YA literature, so I'm glad that this book tackled these issues head-on. I also found the cheerleading aspect of this story really interesting! This book gave an insider's look into the world of high school cheerleading, exploring both the positive and problematic aspects of it.

The characters were very interesting, although I unfortunately can't say that I liked any of them (except for sweet Zoey!). I felt like our protagonist, Shade, was slightly boring and frustrating sometimes. However, this book did do a good job of portraying her experience with the difficulty of navigating unhealthy relationships. The three Chloes were the most interesting characters to read about, mainly because they were so audacious. At first they seemed very similar, almost the same person, but over the course of the first half of the book their differences were revealed and I began to view them as three separate people. The author did a good job of making them different enough from one another that they could be told apart, despite having the same first name.

​This book had lots of surprises and tackled many important issues. There were many moments when I was suspicious of nearly all the characters! Some things that happened were genuinely shocking. Additionally, I enjoyed the author's notes in the acknowledgements about her inspiration behind many elements of this story.

Thank you to Penguin teen and Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

In a similar vein to The Heather, The Falling Girls explores female friendships, how these relationships can become codependent/unhealthy and how the end of such formative relationships affects them.

I really thought this was going to be a cutesy little romance/contemporary story. What a got was a lot darker than that. This even borders on a thriller at times. What I know for certain is that this book blew my expectations out of the water and took me on a ride I wasn't expecting.

I loved the focus on female friendship, how important friendships are and how ugly it can get when those relationships turn bad or end. This book centers several friend relationships and I loved seeing how all of them were explored. Shade was such a great narrator. I loved how we saw her grow into herself and become more confident after she joined the cheer team. Cheerleading is absolutely a sport and I will fight anyone who says differently.

This book also has very little romance. The only romance is between side characters in relationships. I liked that friendship got the spotlight here compared to romance. It's such a nice switch for a YA contemporary.

Rep: female MC, lesbian female side character, sapphic female side character, Indian-American female side character, Black female side character.

CWs: Alcohol consumption (underage), blood, body shaming, bullying, death, drug use, drug overdose, emotional abuse, fatphobia, gaslighting, grief, injury/injury detail, murder, toxic friendship/codependency.

I enjoyed this book which is about two best friends who share everything until Shade decides to join the cheerleading squad and Jadis doesn't recognize her. Shade is drawn into the three Chloes but one cheerleader dies and she thinks that if Jadis is behind it then so would she. I have read Hayley's past book which I enjoyed and let me say that this one didn't disappoint. I enjoyed the story of this book and the conflicts that were thrown in. The pacing was well done for this book and I enjoyed the setting being mostly at school. I do have to say that some facts about the cheerleading squad sounded very toxic and awful so beware. This book is written from Slade's pov but when I read the summary, I was expecting it to be Slade AND Jadis pov just because of the way the summary sounded. So I was kind of disappointed with that. This book is all about friendships, betrays and family love that brings the whole book together in an amazing way.

I enjoyed the main character Slade in the way she changed throughout the book but I have to say I was confused about her relationship with her bestie Jadis. For someone who has been best friends with her for a while, it was weird to see her forget about her for most of the book until the murder happens. The side characters were well done and I enjoyed all of the Chloe's characters as they were all different and have secrets. There is no romance in this book as this book is mostly about friendships and betrayal.

The ending was well done and I loved the mystery in this book. It was well done and I kind of didn't expect it to happen. Overall this book was very well written with very minor problems. I will for sure be reading more from this author in the future. I'm so glad that the publisher sent me an early copy to read. I recommend this to fans of One of Us Is Lying and The Foul Girls.

Shade and Jadis have been best friends for years and they do everything together and promise that they'll never leave the other behind. When Shade decides to try out for cheerleadingJadis feels like she's losing her bestie. Shade quickly becomes a star and friends with Chloe Orbach, one of three Chloes that are on the team. After Chloe unexpectedly dies at the homecoming dance and foul play is suspected, Shade becomes suspicious of Jadis and the other two Chloes.

The Falling Girls examines the toxicity that can exist when you're young and trying to fit in. Krischer examines how different friendships can be: from the toxic relationship the Chloes have to the co-dependent relationship Shade and Jadis have. The threat of exposing secrets and the lengths that some high schoolers take to fit in made these friendships feel even more real to me. The Chloes reminded me of the Heathers and I did not like them. While figuring out who she was and how to stand up for herself, Shade made some stark realizations that felt very real to growing up and apart.

This was an enjoyable YA thriller that kept me engaged and desperate for Shade to realize what had happened.

CW: drug overdose, drug use, murder

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Teen for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

NOTE: I've changed my disclaimer because it was too long to keep typing it every single time. What was I thinking?

People of the book world, take my advice. Put aside your pre-judgments before you read books--or at least before you read books that sound slightly out of your interest range. I love YA, and when this got compared to Holly Jackson (love), I couldn't resist. Mainly because I thought, "Oh, REALLY? That's a tall order, person who wrote the blurb."

But I don't usually do contemporary. Lately I've been trying to incorporate different stuff into my literary diet, and I've been enjoying for the most part. (Side-eyes BEWILDERMENT.) So I said to myself that I can deal with this. It's YA, it's thriller, it's dark academia. Shut up and drive. So I drove.

I have no regrets.

THE FALLING GIRLS starts us out with Shade and Jadis--BFFLs and anti-conformists--watching their high school's pep rally for the start of their junior year. Shade is fixated, can't take her eyes off the stunts and athleticism of the cheer squad. She was a gymnast when she was younger and kept up the skills on her own. Jadis is bored and posting TikToks throughout, mocking and casting aspersions on the entire concept of cheer. Then Shade decides you know what? No, I want to do something of my own, outside of Jadis. And she kicks ass in her cheer audition, making it onto the team as a flyer.

Here's where my pre-judgments came in: I was convinced that we'd get a Mean Girls-esque romp through teen Dramaland. Instead, we got complex characters, real-life bouts of envy, and friendships that broke up, changed, transformed into other levels of complicated. Especially when one of the three head cheerleaders ends up dead on Homecoming night.

The relationships are what made this book spectacular. Jadis and Shade are in that enmeshed type of friendship where they can safely say, "We're the same person with different hair." They have to learn what it means to grow apart and become their own woman, and that's a painful process. Krischer writes about this kind of truth in an empathetic and tender, but inevitably painful, way.

Shade's relationship with her mom is also difficult and frustrating and complex, but still filled with love. All these little moments they have in coming to understand each other were sometimes uncomfortable to read; it felt like we the reader were staring in through a window on this private moment of tension, and that was a good thing. Her mom is this free-spirit feminist type, who has artist friends from around the world crash at their house for poetry readings and informal wine tastings (well, drinkings). Then her daughter wants to become a cheerleader, and Shade knows that'll annoy her because it's "serving the Patriarchy," but all Shade wants is to push herself to her physical limits and defy gravity. Their journey toward embracing each other and changing was a hard one, but man, Krischer killed it.

Real characters can also be creepy and frustrating, and in this age of social media, it can be even more so. Krischer says in her afterword/acknowledgements that she based some of the tension in this squad after a real murder case where a 16-year-old girl was killed because the two perpetrators "didn't like her." (I'll leave a link to the fantastic article by Holly Millea right here for your convenience: https://www.elle.com/culture/tech/a22/skylar-neese-disappearance-twitter/.) So the psychology is there, the facts are there, and the execution of it in a novel is fantastic.

I'm so glad I picked this one up, and it's more than likely something I'll be adding to my personal library. Read it!