My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Title: Pride or Die

Author: CL Montblanc

Format: eBook (NetGalley)

Pages: 336

Publication Date: 4/15/25

Publisher: Wednesday Books

Categories: Young Adult, Contemporary, Mystery, Thriller, LGBT+

Disclaimer: **I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Thank you to Wednesday Books for giving me a chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

In this delightful dark comedy debut, 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.

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 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. But 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 murderer. Can this ragtag group of unlikely sleuths find their way out of an entire freaking murder mystery before one of them is next?

Content Warning: violence, cursing

+ Students in an LGBT+ club are witnesses to an attack on a cheerleader, but because they were seen at the scene of the crime, people are suspicious that they were the ones who attacked her. So to prove their innocence, they decide to investigate to find who the real attacker is.

+ Eleanora and her friends in the club are funny! There is cursing but I thought it was fine. They are quite a cast of characters and they found themselves in a lot of chaos and drama. Plus I love the diversity that is being represented in the story.

~ I didn’t feel invested in the story. I was thinking it was going to be a serious mystery but it wasn’t but that’s part of it’s appeal. I eventually did enjoy the dark comedy vibes but I also felt like maybe a younger audience will definitely enjoy this book more than I did.

Final Thoughts:

I love the representation in this one! It’s got queer kids trying to solve a crime with lots of chaos and drama. Eleanora and her friends are a fun group! I think this one will appeal to young adults and teen readers.

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