Pride or Die by C.L. Montblanc

The quick cut: Members of a high school LGBTQ+ club have to play detective when framed for the attempted murder of a classmate.

A real review:

Thank you to Wednesday Books for providing the arc for an honest review.

It's hard to fathom why discrimination and hatred are still such strong forces in this world. What is there to gain from being mean to those who live differently from you? For Eleanora and the LGBTQ+ club, this is a very pertinent question.

Eleanora is far too used to being discriminated against. Living in a small town, she's seen how the LGBTQ community is held to a different standard than others. When a cheerleader at their school gets attacked and the police investigate the crime, everyone is more than happy to blame the LGBTQ+ club who was meeting nearby. The principal and police are more than happy to get on board for that easy targeting too. Unless they're willing to have their futures derailed, they'll need to find the attacker themselves.

I wanted to like this story on so many levels because of the premise and opportunity for more diverse representation. In this author's YA debut though, they tried to do too much and it all fell flat for me. If you're going to tackle a very real issue of discrimination, it's way too tough to do that well while keeping a joking tone. In the end, it comes off as disingenuous at best.

I wish that was my only issue too, but the characters were bothering me as well. The core teens were not very well developed and I kept hoping for more depth in their development.

The adults were written in such a way that they acted like children. I know these things happen, but to this level? It almost feels like this book was written for inappropriate middle schoolers rather than the young adult crowd.

A mystery story that would have been better served with a serious tone.

My rating: 2.5 out of 5