Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for access to this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

Book Tagline: When the members of an LGBTQ+ club find themselves accidentally framed for attempted murder, it's up to them to clear their names before it's too late.

I love a good mystery. I love teen protagonists trying to find whodunit. I am always pleased to see great messages about inclusion and diversity.

But this one missed the mark for me in a few ways. The mystery, while interesting, took too long to be revealed and when the motive appeared, I felt disappointed. I also thought the romance element between one of the members of the club and the "victim" was not all that appealing. Even when I was a teen myself, I disliked the whole " I am being mean to you because I hate myself and won't admit to my desire for you." Not romantic, in the least.

Beautiful cover, though!







#PrideorDie #NetGalley
Expected Publication 15/04/25
Goodreads Review 18/03/25

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for providing a free e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I went into this book with an open mind that it could be a fun and quick YA murder mystery. Unfortunately, the story was done well through most of the book, but the ending was just utterly ridiculous and was a complete waste of time.

We follow a group of teens in the LGBTQ+ club at their school who are seen as social pariahs and blamed for everything. The main character finds herself in a bind as she finds her once former best friend and now popular girl at school knocked unconscious in the hallway bleeding and immediately the club is found to be be the primary suspects by their school principal who is a biggot and disbands the club.

Of course this sounds like every other social commentary book of the day, and it is with many unnecessary comments regarding people who are not apart of the community and including racial comments that were unnecessary to the story whatsoever. As someone apart of the community, this is getting overplayed, and I don't really think the social rhetoric needs to be shoved down kids' throats, especially when reading a book to escape reality and entertainment.

All of this takes me out of the book completely where there could have been a great story, but unfortunately, I cannot recommend this book as it is quite underwhelming.

I wanted to like this one I really did. This book was a way too much on the younger side. The drama was so unnecessary. I felt like the author was trying too hard to make this book relatable and it just didn’t work.

This had far too much teen angst to be enjoyable as an adult. I did appreciate the fight in the main character to ensure that future queer teens in his school would be accepted and have a safe placeto meet and find support.

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this arc I went into this book not knowing what it was about. I really enjoyed this book I laughed out loud and some of the plot twist!!!! I will recommend this book to future readers

As a member of the queer community, I thought this was a very empowering read with a fun, almost murder. The four main characters are the first to arrive on a scene where a cheerleader was attacked. They work to find out who did it before their club gets banned. I liked all of the characters and the plot was well thought out. The twists at the end surprised me, but I kept wanting more from this book while I was reading it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC of this book!

Pride or Die is a fun and funny book that tackles serious subjects. I liked it well enough, but a lot of the elements of the story felt either a bit shallow or pretty unrealistic. I enjoyed most of the characters and thought some of the side characters in the LGBTQ+ club were great. The book/plot had vibes reminiscent of Scooby-Doo, and I did get a genuine chuckle at the end with the "Be gay, solve crimes" motto. This is a great book for teen readers looking for solid LGBTQ+ rep who also like their mysteries to be on the tame side.

With a title like Pride or Die, I was expecting more thriller and less campy, which definitely impacted my enjoyment. I kept waiting for the stakes to raise, but it was just more chaos. This is like queer Scooby-Doo minus the dog, which is a pretty fun descriptor but not what I thought this would be.

You have to suspend your disbelief for this one because there are just so many moments where it just doesn't make sense otherwise. Inattentive parents, incompetent staff, a wild reveal. They refer to the attacker as a "killer" more than once but no one died. It was just too many hmm moments for me.

I will almost always enjoy queer stories, and I did like the friend group. The romance was light and a little shallow, but I liked the concept.

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for the opportunity to read and review.

CW for homophobia and mentioned racism/Islamophobia.

Pride Or Die , by CL Montblanc
.5-1/5⭐️

TRIGGER WARNINGS-
.
.
.
Violence, drinking, attempted murder, bullying, homophobia

This book just wasn’t for me. I think it’s more for a younger audience like middle/high school. With that being said I had a few issues that made it difficult to push though to finish.
-Unbelievable that at 17 they don’t know that they shouldn’t be questioned as minors alone. But later on she says shouldn’t they have a lawyer present when they are questioned again. Not one of them said let me call my adult???? Even though Tyler is wanting to get into law school…
-How the principal gets away with calling them “blt” and then gets mad at “sloppy joe” but none of the kids stand up for themselves or tells their parent’s. The email was proof that the principal calls them “slurs/names”.
-That the school/cops jump right past them as suspects and to them as being the ones who did it with next to no evidence and everyone, even the parent’s just roll with it…
-Adults weren’t notified about the assault and the kids were just sent home without a parent knowing they were leaving school grounds.
-Adults weren’t notified cops showed up and took them in for questioning.
-Throughout the whole book it goes on about a murderer/killer on the loose but she wasn’t killed and is not dead. “That everyone has to watch out for a violent person”, when it was just one isolated incident…
-Very overly descriptive and overly done. Felt like a child trying to write a creative writing assignment and use all the big, new fancy words that they just learned.
-Let the principal interfere with the investigation/do his own, like talk to the kids without an adult, interject into an active case and talk to suspects????
-Academic probation?!?! Again where’s the parents…are they not to be informed of anything…
-Teachers not standing up for the kids…it’s like she’s just throwing characters in that really don’t serve a purpose, just might be needed for some reason later on…
-Seemed to make a bigger deal than the situation that was actually presented in the books, over doing it?
-Kenley’s Injuries were so sever but no one heard or saw anything?
-Arrested as a minor but no parents contacted…
-The guidance counsellor is OK giving out information about her coworkers to a student trying to solve a crime instead of reporting everything to the parents and the police. And then fleas when there’s danger instead of staying and getting help.
-Her mom jokes about her solving the case yet. Not even the parents take it seriously. Not going to the school or police to confront them about the treatment of their children.
-All of this was not done right, no basis for the book…No research was done at all in prep for this book.
-I don’t understand how Eleanors’s point about how Sal could’ve done it based off of Kenley’s statement equated to her being racist. I don’t get how it has anything to do with him being a Muslim and why that was even brought up? Felt like they were trying to tackle to many diff subject matters and narratives and out them in places where they didn’t quite fit.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press, for giving me an E-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Pride or Die is a YA thriller/mystery where a LGBTQ+ club in a high school gets framed for a crime then sets out to clear their own name.

It’s a fun, fast paced thriller that acknowledges the difficulties that students have truly being themselves. The club suffers a lot of bullying and even hate from the administration and cops due to their respective sexualities / gender identities. This is a prominent plot point that impacts both the investigation and the characters personal lives.

Mental health issues are well written and the author is clearly interested in intersectionality within the LGBTQ+ community and the impacts that has on its members.

I loved that all of the characters have secrets and there were plenty of twists. I also appreciated that sometimes the characters made really questionable decisions, they are high schoolers after all, so it felt more realistic.

I enjoyed this campy teen mystery! It wasn't what I expected (I had expected it to be a lot darker), but the LGBTQIA+ representation was spot on, and the main cast of characters was lovable and fun. The most of the adult characters were a bit cartoonish, but I think that's the vibe the author was going for.

I'd recommend this to anyone who is in the mood for a low-stakes mystery with a whole lot of silliness -- think Scooby Doo, but super queer!

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to review this ARC!

With a title like ‘Pride or Die,’ I was expecting something slightly more hard-hitting. At no time during the story did there feel like any real danger happening. I did enjoy the storytelling and characters. Also, without going into any spoilers, the ending felt very Kumbaya. I was hoping for more suspense and mystery.

This book was camp. Thank you so much to the publisher and Netgalley for letting me read this early!

Sometimes I feel envious of this generation and all of the inclusion they seem to have - when I came out a million years ago, I didn’t think twice about it, but I also got treated like sh*t by A LOT of people… strangers, friends, and family alike. This book definitely made me realize it’s still not “easy” for queer youth, just because there’s more visibility and social norms these days - especially in states like Texas.
As in a lot of YA, the angst level is high, and I didn’t always connect with Eleanora’s extreme need to help everyone. As a people-pleaser myself, I thought she was a bit much, but I did appreciate her and her band of misfits. Though I do think some of the stunts they pulled to solve the mystery were borderline jailable. And I could see two love stories coming from a mile away.
This is cute, deep, and a sad reality for way too many youths who just want to be themselves. I hate that things have progressed enough to make being out easier and this book definitely emphasizes some important changes that should be made for our queer youth in this country. It’s a great read for any YA readers especially.

yes, i believe in the holy trinity! (gays, chaos, and attempted murder)

in all seriousness, this is an incredibly hilarious and refreshing mystery novel! i truly fell in love with it and hope it gets all the hype it deserves!!

okay i absolutely LOVED this book. genuinely such amazing writing and great characters and plot. i lovee eleanora and i absolutely loved how her and kenley got together in the end! super funny and wholesome book with some crazy things to keep you on your toes!! make sure to give this a read! also salim is literally my son i love him

ABSOLUTELY LOVED!!!!!! I loved that I wasn't able to figure out who did it till the characters did, I never would have guess that person would have been the one to do it, but once I read the reasoning it clicked. I loved that there was so much representation of the LGBT+ community, I felt so bad for the characters in the club because they did nothing wrong but try to be themselves and that's hard enough in high school. The fact that there was bullying, racism, bigotry and other social issues was very important to read about because I feel like these are things that happen daily but never really get addressed.

I loved the characters, the plot, the overall message of this book and would 100% recommend it to any teenager who felt like they didn't belong, were being bullied or were just questioning who they were, because I feel like they would come out of reading this feeling like they had been heard.

I'm not sure why, but I was under the impression that this book was a horror and it very much is not. This one is definitely a murder (ish) mystery/thriller with a cast of lovely characters and an engaging story, though it did start to drag there a bit in the middle. The plot twist caught me by surprise- that doesn't happen often. All in all a fun mystery with enjoyable characters.

First of all, I LOVE THE title. Like 10/10 obsessed, so it pains me that I didn't love the book as much as the title. I think I was hoping for more queer horror rather than queer mystery solving, but if you're looking for that, this will hit the spot.

I really liked this one. It achieves the tone of a dark comedy with the main characters flaws and shortcomings often landing her in hot water. The premise pays appropriate attention to the difficulties that these teens are facing and the perceived burden of protecting not only herself and the current students but future students who would need community as well. I thought the mystery was pretty well done and the suspense builds well.