Read every series in the right order
The Cheerleaders Books in Chronological Order – Complete Reading Guide
Table of Contents
Quick Answer (TL;DR)
Read the duology in this order (it’s both the publication and in-universe sequence): The Cheerleaders (2018) → The Champions (2024). Book 1 is Monica’s cold-case reckoning; Book 2 returns to Sunnybrook eleven years later with new protagonist Hadley and a deadly mystery around the Tigers football team. Age guidance is 14+, hardcovers run ~384–400 pages for Book 1 and 336 pages for Book 2; audiobooks are ~9h52m (Book 1) and ~8h09m (Book 2).
Introduction
Kara Thomas writes the kind of teen thrillers that keep you turning pages at 2 a.m.—not with cheap jumps, but with careful clues, messy ethics, and that nerve-prickling sense that the past is stalking the present. Sunnybrook, her fictional upstate New York town, is the perfect pressure cooker: rumor mills, small-town politics, and a tragedy that shaped an entire generation.
This guide from Books in Chronological Order gives you everything you need to tackle The Cheerleaders Books in Chronological Order—from a quick facts table and buy-now links to detailed blurbs, timeline notes, editions worth hunting, and a reality check on adaptations. If you love YA mystery with true-crime texture, you’re in the right gym.
Quick Facts
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Series | The Cheerleaders (2-book YA mystery/thriller sequence set in Sunnybrook) |
| Primary Genre | YA Mystery/Thriller; small-town secrets; investigative contemporary |
| Ideal Age Range | 14+ (PRH/Delacorte lists “Age Range: 14 and up”; Grades 9 & up). |
| Reading Difficulty | Moderate: clear prose, dual timelines, mature themes |
| Approx. Pages (US print) | Book 1 – The Cheerleaders: 384 pages (HC), 400 pages (PB reprint). Book 2 – The Champions: 336 pages (HC/PB). |
| Estimated Read Time | Book 1: ~7.5–9.5 hours (average YA pace); Book 2: ~6.5–8 hours. Audiobook lengths below. |
| Audiobook Lengths | The Cheerleaders: ~9h52m (Narr. Phoebe Strole). The Champions: ~8h09m (Narr. Brittany Pressley). |
| Content Warnings | Grief, suicide and its aftermath, stalking/violence, substance use; references to an inappropriate adult–minor relationship in Book 1. |
| Media Adaptations | None officially announced as of September 17, 2025 (no listings from PRH or the author’s site). |
Page counts vary by edition; we cite the publisher records for the hardcover and the Ember paperback reprint.
About the Book Series
Thomas’s Sunnybrook books are spiritual cousins: two standalone cases stitched by the same town’s DNA. Book 1 chases unresolved grief and corrupted narratives; Book 2 interrogates hero worship, sports culture, and what communities choose to forget. Together, they create a compact but layered portrait of trauma’s long half-life—and the danger of the stories we tell to make tragedies feel tidy.
The Cheerleaders Books at a Glance
| Title | Amazon Buy Link |
|---|---|
| The Cheerleaders | Buy On Amazon |
| The Champions (The Cheerleaders) | Buy On Amazon |
The Cheerleaders Chronological Reading Order
1) The Cheerleaders (2018)
The setup: Five cheerleaders. Three separate incidents: a car crash, a double murder, and a suicide. Sunnybrook disbands the squad; everyone moves on—except Monica, the sister of the last girl to die. When Monica stumbles on old messages in her stepdad’s desk and a forgotten phone, her grief jolts into suspicion.
What to expect:
- A dual-timeline cold case that reads like true-crime on paper—without glamorizing harm.
- A small-town pressure cooker where adults and teens are equally compromised.
- Elegant, fast chapters that reward detail-hunting.
Why it belongs first: It lays the town’s mythology—what the police said, what families believe, and where the official story doesn’t quite fit. Publisher specs: HC 384 pp; PB reprint 400 pp; audio ~9h52m; Age 14+.
2) The Champions (2024)
The setup: Eleven years after Sunnybrook’s darkest year, a new student—Hadley—is assigned to cover the beloved Tigers football team for the school paper. A player is poisoned at a party, and anonymous warnings zero in on Hadley. When a second Tiger dies, the case stops being “sports scandal” and starts looking like reckoning.
What to expect:
- A propulsive, contemporary thriller that interrogates hero worship and the cost of protecting the “golden boys.”
- Fresh eyes on Sunnybrook’s unresolved past—plus cameos and context from grads who never left.
- A clean on-ramp for new readers that still rewards fans of Book 1.
Why it belongs second: The plot explicitly builds on Sunnybrook’s infamous history and moves the clock forward eleven years, reframing what justice means once the headlines fade. Publisher specs: 336 pp; audio ~8h09m; Age 14+.
Series Timeline & Character Development
- Monica (Book 1): The emotional core. Monica’s grief is raw, often unhelpful, and yet the force that challenges a story the town is invested in believing. Her arc isn’t “get over it”; it’s “see clearly”—about her sister, her family, herself, and the adults who failed them.
- Hadley (Book 2): A newcomer who sees Sunnybrook without nostalgia. Hadley’s outsider status lets the plot probe the rituals that pass as “tradition” and the complicities that keep winners on a pedestal. Journalism becomes her method; moral clarity becomes the risk.
- Sunnybrook (the town): In Book 1, it’s a mausoleum disguised as suburbia; in Book 2, it’s rebranded—cheer tragedy buried beneath football glory—until violence forces remembrance.
- Thematic continuities: Institutional failure, rumor vs. fact, the ethics of amateur investigation, and the long shadow of gendered power (girls as symbols vs. people).
The Cheerleaders Books in Chronological Order (in-universe events)
- The Cheerleaders — the five deaths and their aftermath are five years in the past; Monica’s present-day investigation unspools the official narrative. (First published July 31, 2018.)
- The Champions — eleven years later, with Hadley tracking fresh crimes that may be entangled with Sunnybrook’s old sins. (Published August 27, 2024.)
This is a true two-book arc: read exactly in this order for clean reveals and maximum thematic punch. (Goodreads also lists the series as two primary works.)
Novels Sorted by Publication
- The Cheerleaders — July 31, 2018 (Delacorte; HC 384 pp; audio ~9h53m).
- The Champions — August 27, 2024 (Delacorte; 336 pp; audio ~8h09m; Lexile 850L).
Companion Works
There’s no “book 1.5” or novella, but a few extras are worth knowing:
- B&N Exclusive Edition of The Champions: a retailer exclusive with special treatment (check current stock).
- Author’s site occasionally offers pre-order goodies (e.g., a bookmark/patch promo before The Champions release). It’s over now, but the page gives a feel for series ephemera.
- Kara Thomas’s adjacent YA thrillers—Little Monsters, That Weekend, The Darkest Corners—aren’t set in Sunnybrook, but share DNA: flawed narrators, forensic clue-weaving, and endings that refuse fairy-tale neatness.
Editions & Formats
- The Cheerleaders: HC 384 pages (Delacorte, 2018); Ember paperback reprint 400 pages (2019). Retail listings also show a 2024 Ember reissue; all are in the Age 14+ band.
- The Champions: HC & PB 336 pages (Delacorte, 2024), Lexile 850L, Age 14+.
Shelf appeal tips: The 2018 hardcover of Book 1 pairs well with Book 2’s standard jacket; if you prefer uniform spines, the Ember paperbacks (2019/2024) keep a consistent YA-trade look.
Audio
- Narrators: Phoebe Strole (Book 1), Brittany Pressley (Book 2)—both veteran YA talents.
- Lengths: ~9h52m for Book 1; ~8h09m for Book 2. The audio editions amplify the investigative mood without gore, ideal if you like your thriller tense but not graphic.
Why Read The Cheerleaders Books in Chronological Order?
- Continuity of myth vs. memory: The Cheerleaders builds the town’s foundational lie; The Champions tests whether putting a name to a killer actually heals damage. Reading out of order blunts that interrogation.
- Character resonance: You’ll recognize names and histories that matter more when discovered the first time in Book 1.
- Structural elegance: The second book is calibrated to echo the first—right down to how authority figures talk about “moving on.”
- Practical bonus: With only two titles, The Cheerleaders Books in Chronological Order is a weekend-to-weeklong project, depending on your pace.
Author Spotlight
Kara Thomas is a Long Island–based thriller author whose YA list includes The Darkest Corners, Little Monsters, The Cheerleaders, That Weekend, and The Champions; she’s also written adult crime like Out of the Ashes and Lost to Dune Road. She’s an “unsolved mystery enthusiast,” a detail that tracks perfectly with her breadcrumb-clean plotting; interviews and publisher bios repeat her fondness for lingering at the edge of real cases.
Media Adaptations (films, TV, radio)
- Official status: None announced for either book as of September 17, 2025. There are no PRH or author-site notices of optioning, development, or release, and no credible trade-press reports. (If this changes, we’ll update.)
- Why it could adapt well: Dual timelines; teen journalist POV; community complicity—the same elements that powered recent teen thrillers on screen. But again: no official adaptation for this series yet.
FAQs
Do I need to read The Cheerleaders before The Champions?
Yes. While The Champions introduces a new protagonist, it leans on Sunnybrook’s old wounds and benefits from the context and questions posed in Book 1. (The publisher’s description explicitly places Book 2 eleven years later.)
Is this a finished series?
At present it’s a two-book sequence. There’s no official word on a third Sunnybrook novel.
What age is appropriate?
Publisher guidance is 14+ (Grades 9+). Note the content warnings for grief, suicide, violence, and references to an adult–minor relationship in Book 1.
How scary/graphic is it?
It’s tense and emotionally heavy rather than gory. Thomas writes implication and dread better than splatter.
Audiobooks or print?
Both work. If you like a podcast-adjacent feel, the narrators capture the investigative mood. If you annotate clues, paperback margins are your friend. Audio timings: ~9h52m (Book 1), ~8h09m (Book 2).
Are there special/collector editions?
Check the B&N Exclusive Edition for The Champions and periodic reprints with updated jackets.
What’s the best way to gift the set?
There’s no official boxed set (as of this writing), but the standard HC or PB pair wraps nicely; many retailers bundle the two on a single order page.
Final Thoughts
As compact as it is devastating, Sunnybrook’s two-book arc hits like a cheer routine that starts smile-bright and ends with bruised ribs. Read The Cheerleaders first for the raw, unspooling ache of a family that never got answers. Then read The Champions to watch a new narrator pry at what’s been lacquered over with pep rallies and trophies. In other words: follow The Cheerleaders Books in Chronological Order and you’ll feel every echo the way Thomas intends—sharp, earned, unforgettable.
