The Champions by Kara Thomas

e-Audio, 08:08:40
Narrated by: Brittany Pressley
Release Date: August 27, 2024 
Published by: Books on Tape (Delacorte Press)
Read from: August 26-27, 2024
The Cheerleaders companion
Source: PRH Audio App (I received a copy of this e-audio from the publisher in exchange for a just and honest review. This did nothing to influence my review.)
Content Warning: Sexual Assault, Rape, Gun Violence, Death, Physical Abuse, Car Accident, Abortion, Animal Death, Racism
For Readers Interested In: Mystery, Thriller, Realistic Fiction, Series, Companion Novel, YA

      From the author of The Cheerleaders comes another dark YA thriller set in the same town of Sunnybrook. When a mysterious accident befalls a member of the all-star high school football team, the town’s deadly history stands to repeat itself—and the price of discovering the truth is higher than anyone could imagine.It was the deaths of five cheerleaders that made the town of Sunnybrook infamous. Eleven years later, the girls’ killer has been brought to justice, and the town just wants to move on. By the time Hadley moves to Sunnybrook, though, the locals are more interested in the Tigers, the high school’s championship-winning football team. The Tigers are Sunnybrook’s homegrown heroes–something positive in a town with so much darkness in its past.Hadley could care less about football, but shortly after she gets assigned to cover the team’s latest championship bid for the school newspaper, one of the Tigers is poisoned at a party, and almost immediately after, Hadley starts getting strange emails warning her to stay far away from the football team.It’s becoming clear Sunnybrook’s golden boys have secrets, and after a second player is mysteriously killed, Hadley’s beginning to suspect that someone wants the team to pay for their sins. Or does this new target on the football team have something to do with what happened to the cheerleaders all those years ago?As an outsider in Sunnybrook, Hadley feels like she’s the only one who can see the present clearly, but it looks like she’s going to have to dig up the darkness of the past to get to the bottom of what’s happening now. Luckily, there are still some Sunnybrook High grads who never left–people who were around eleven years ago—and if she can just convince them to talk, she might be able stop a killer before another Tiger dies.

*MY THOUGHTS*

I remember when I finished The Cheerleaders I sat there for a minute and had to like really think about what I was reading. I don’t think I’d ever been that caught off guard by a thriller. Like ever. But that was a long time ago. So I wasn’t expecting to be caught up like that in this one. But I definitely should have known better.

Ok so the characters in this SEEM to be nice, but they were all terrible. I feel like I say this about the adults in YA books, but this is the first time in a long time where I say I didn’t care for any of the teens either. And like, I know this is by design, but geez, all of them were terrible, Even the main character was bad. She was very naiive. She was being a teen detective, but she wasn’t even being careful about it. She basically thought that her shining light on the fact that the players weren’t perfect, she’d get people on her side. As someone who lives in the South, I knew what was coming. People will defend their favorite football team before they defend their sibling.

The mystery itself was a tiny bit predictable. I figured this was going to be something centering around sexual assault, but I think I wanted it to be something more. In every book about football players and they did something terrible, it’s usually something like this. The thing that made it different from all those others was the fact that the mystery KEPT GOING. Even after all the clues about the girls came out, bodies were still piling up. And that was just crazy. In the end I called one part of this mystery, but I missed a whole other side of it.

One thing about Thomas’ books tho, she’s always going to have a crazy ass ending. But this one didn’t have that and I was a little sad. I got myself all ready to make sure I saw it coming this time, but I didn’t even need to be ready. it was a little disappointing. I guess I’ve gotten so used to her books having that last “jump scare” that when there’s not one, it feels weird.

The person she had helping her was just as weird as her. I kept trying to figure out what their problem was. Why was that person so damn mad? They were mad the entire book but it never said why he was so mad. I thought it was just to her at first, but then it was to their family too. Maybe it was their personality. But if it was, it was annoying af lol

I don’t want to say too much because I don’t want to give away any spoilers. But this one isn’t as wild as The Cheerleaders, but it’s still an experience in it’s own way. I want there to be another, like maybe about the band, but I don’t want to send anymore kids to Sunnybrook. Everyone that goes there seems to not come back.

Overall I give this