Book review: The Falling Girls by Hayley Krischer

Hayley Krischer’s new book The Falling Girls highlights the trials and tribulations of navigating friendships when you’re trapped between the comfort of an old friend and the thrill of new ones.

High school is hard enough, but for girls in high school it can be the best of times and the worst of times all rolled into one depending on which social group you find yourself in. For Shade, she’s never had to consider where she stands among her peers because her ride or die best friend Jadis is always there for her.

When Shade wants to try out for the cheer team, it puts their friendship into an awkward place as Shade spends more and more time with cheer and the holy trinity of Chloes: Chloe Orbach, Chloe Schmidt and Chloe Clarke. Shade is a natural gymnast and she quickly finds a place for herself among the Chloes. But it’s also driving a wedge in her friendship with Jadis and when the unthinkable happens, Shade is left wondering if her best friend played a role.

The Falling Girls is like Mean Girls with a Bring It On twist

Krisher wastes no time introducing the closer relationship between Shade and Jadis. The story is told from Shade’s perspective so readers know that she had always been interested in gymnastics and cheer but was turned away after a negative encounter with one of the Chloes at the gym.

Shade and Jadis are incredibly close, close enough to share toothbrushes, but Jadis doesn’t understand why her best friend would want to subject herself to the three Chloes. To her, it feels out of character. It feels like a betrayal.

I think we can all relate to a moment in our lives when we chose a different path than what our close friends would have expected, and in those moments there’s a fundamental shift in the nature of those relationships. When Shade becomes a cheerleader she isn’t the same person to Jadis as she was before, even though Jadis is busy with her new girlfriend.

It’s the drama between friends that makes the drama of The Falling Girls so compelling. The three Chloes are at the top of the cheer pyramid, literally and figuratively, but they too share some darkness amongst each other even though they project a very different public persona. Shade’s presence on the squad shifts the balance enough for the whole pyramid to become unstable and the consequences are unimaginable.

The Falling Girls is a poignant reminder that women, especially young women, can be harder on each other than anyone else, and navigating the complexities of friendships is hard at any age. But being a young woman in high school is a whole other beast altogether and that’s why you can’t take anything at face value. You never know who is hiding a secret, secret pain or something worse. But no matter what, it’s important to always be true to who you are.

The Falling Girls by Hayley Krischer is available now.