I received this book for free from Books Forward, Wednesday Books in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Pride or Die by CL Montblanc Published by St. Martin's Publishing Group on April 15, 2025
Genres: Young Adult Fiction / LGBTQ, Young Adult Fiction / Mysteries & Detective Stories, Young Adult Fiction / Thrillers & Suspense / General
Pages: 320
Format: ARC
ISBN: 9781250340481When 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. It’s kind of hard to graduate high school when you’re the prime suspect in an attempted murder.
Seventeen-year-old Eleanora Finkel just wants to finish her senior year and get the hell out of Texas. But when her LGBTQ+ club meeting inconveniently coincides with an attack on the school’s head cheerleader, she and her friends find themselves in the hot seat.
In order to clear their names and ensure the survival of their club for future queer teens, they’ll have to track down the real culprit themselves. Unfortunately, Eleanora is far from a professional detective; she’s riddled with anxiety, annoyingly attracted to the case’s cute victim, and her trusty crochet hook feels insufficient for fighting off a killer. But if her chaotic friend group can't sleuth their way out of an entire freaking murder mystery, they might just become the next targets.
This was an adorable and fun book with a group of LGBTQ+ high schoolers trying to solve a crime. I’m always down for books with queer kids and crime solving!
First off, I really love how complex the cast of characters was, and not just in terms of the main characters. The principal (the main force trying to ban the queer club and is so annoying you’ll want to slap his face) is still multidimensional with having founded a charity to help people get out of domestic violence situations. Plus, it really ties together the whole theme of the novel, and the crime itself, which is that people are complicated and nothing is ever black and white.
I really loved reading Kenley’s story and finding out that not only was she struggling with her own sexuality but she really sucks at social cues and communication. The whole misunderstanding between her and Eleanora was hilarious (and something I totally called from the beginning). But her earnest thought that she was trying to be nice to the LGBTQ+ students in hopes that others would be nice but instead the school misunderstood just felt so relatable.
I did love how this all turned out and how the crime was solved. It was again a case of people are complicated, and we try to do the best we can for those we care about and miss the mark so hard. I appreciated that the crime didn’t involve the LGBTQ+ club and that it wasn’t really out of malice that it happened. It was all the built up pressure that made this person finally explode.
I do have to finish off that the romance between Eleanora and Kenley is adorable, and I’m totally rooting for them out there in their fictional world.
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