The Not-so Stereotypical Cheerleading Drama

  

Rating: 4/5

Summary: Hermione is in her final year of high school and starts it off by attending her final cheer camp session. However, it ends with her being drugged, left in a lake and raped. Hermione doesn’t know how to feel afterward, though she knows she feels different. Matters are only complicated when she discovers she’s pregnant.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a nice break from all the fantasy and magic I’ve been reading. I just needed something grounded in reality for a quick second and this did it for me. Hermione was a pretty strong character too. She had her insecurities like anyone, but she wasn’t plain or a pushover by any means. I liked her narrating because she was calm and able to process things without getting too angry (exception being her jerk of a boyfriend Leo).

The other reason I liked this book so much was that Hermione had this amazing support network that rallied around her, starting with Polly. Polly is the blaze to Hermione’s breeze. If Hermione is calm and collected, then Polly is spitting fire and bashing in teeth. I loved Polly! She is so badass- her shining moment (there were really a lot though) in this book was when she got on a reporter’s case by asking how girls can avoid being raped. Ugh! But Polly and Hermione’s answers were perfect and just marvelous. Especially when Hermione just pauses, stops thinking, and goes with her gut by asking “Would you ask a guy that?” and the reporter answers “Of course not.” And this is why we have a problem.

I think I would’ve liked to see more of the actual cheer routines throughout the book. There was a lot of talking about it and practicing it, but the routines themselves aren’t really described. I love gymnastics and dance related sports so I would’ve loved to watch these play out in my head. The other thing that annoyed me was Hermione and Leo’s relationship in the beginning. They were together for all the wrong reasons and he was a total dick. They had no real connection besides the “we should be together so we are” high school relationship crap. In the beginning, I was constantly asking Hermione “Why are you with him? You don’t even seem to like him”!