Review by Booklist Review
Debut author Parkman introduces readers to the Buffalo Jills, a fictionalized version of the cheerleading group supporting the Buffalo Bills football team which disbanded in real life in 2014. Virginia loves dancing with the Jills, and considers the other cheerleaders to be family--she's certainly closer with them than with her recovering-addict sister and inattentive mother. When her best friend on the team, Jeanine, disappears, Virginia sets out to find her, leading her through Buffalo's seedier side with a drug scene and local mafia that come way too close for comfort. Parkman uses the framework of the Jills organization to illustrate the solidarity that can exist among women, especially when faced with the perils of a man's world, and how it forms women as individuals. A note from Parkman shares the fascinating backstory about the real Jills and how they inspired the author to connect sisterhood with self-worth. With an urgent pace and a tenacious protagonist, The Jills is a sure bet for those who love Alison Gaylin and Gillian Flynn, or fans of Megan Abbott's Fever (2014) who are up for something darker and grittier.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Parkman debuts with a thrilling mystery that offers an immersive view into the lives of NFL cheerleaders. Ginny Barton is a Jill, as the Buffalo Bills' cheerleaders are called. One Sunday, her best friend and fellow squad member Jeanine Chanowitz fails to show up for a game. As the days pass and Jeanine remains a no-show, alarm bells go off in Ginny's head and she begins to investigate on her own, frustrated by the cops' lackadaisical response. She questions Bobby Paladino, the son of a local mobster with links to Ginny's family; Jason Morley, a drug dealer who once supplied Ginny's sister with heroin; and Ray, a cheerleader groupie who thinks of himself as the squad's guardian angel. After Ginny searches Jeanine's apartment and finds paperwork related to a wellness clinic in Ohio, she travels there. The deeper she looks into Jeanine's disappearance, the more she comes to suspect she never really knew her friend at all. Ginny narrates in an appealing voice that is both strong-willed and vulnerable. Her investigation leads into noirish territory that is as convincing as the cheerleader workout scenes, which take place under a cloud of hair spray and self-tanner. It's the best novel about cheerleaders since Megan Abbott's Dare Me. Agent: Dorian Karchmar, WME. (Jan.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
DEBUT Ginny is a member of the Jills squad, who cheerlead for the NFL's Buffalo Bills, and the coveted job is all she has ever wanted. Even as Ginny devotes nearly all her time to practicing, performing, or attending events for the Jills, she earns very little, though her friendships with other Jills perhaps make up for it. Her best friend is teammate Jeanine, who has helped unconfident Ginny find strength and courage. When Jeanine goes missing, Ginny is desperate to find her. Fearing that Jeanine is in terrible trouble, she ventures into drug-filled and seedy parts of Buffalo. Frustrated by the lack of police support for her search, she turns to her familial connections in the criminal underground. Frantically, Ginny looks for Jeanine, who is now presumed dead. And maybe Ginny doesn't know her friend as well as she thinks. When Ginny's obsession with finding Jeanine brings danger to her estranged sister, she starts to confront hard truths. The backstory of the Jills lends tenderness to the story and demonstrates the power of camaraderie. VERDICT Parkman delivers a solid mystery that also sheds light on the all-too-familiar plight of professional cheerleaders' degrading treatment and meager compensation.--Margie Ticknor
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
When a Buffalo Bills cheerleader goes missing, her friend's desperate search uncovers a drug network in New York and Ohio. Performing as a dancer at Buffalo Bills games takes hours and hours of practice and preparation. But Virginia cherishes every opportunity to dance, as well as the tightly knit friendships among the women on the team. Like most of the Jills, she has to supplement her income by teaching fitness classes. Still, it's a full life--one that she shares with another Jill, her best friend, Jeanine. One week, Jeanine doesn't show up to dance at the game; Virginia is worried, and as the days pass with no word from Jeanine, her absence seems more and more ominous. Neither her wealthy boyfriend nor her trying-to-get-straight ex have seen Jeanine. Virginia's investigations begin to uncover secrets and contradictions that make her even more concerned about her friend and start to send her into a spiral of her own, bringing up memories of everything she did to help her sister Laura kick a drug habit a few years earlier. Eventually, she has to turn to Laura for help, and they get pulled deeper and deeper into the dark side of Buffalo--the world of organized crime. Parkman spends a great deal of time in the early pages establishing the framework of the Jills as both a liberating and restricting force in Virginia's life; as the novel progresses, though some of the friendships remain core, the dance troupe takes on much more sinister overtones through its connections to mob families. Parkman may have begun this novel with the intention, as she writes in an author's note, of shedding light on the complex experiences of women in these NFL troupes, but it becomes a more traditional thriller--less commentary, more action--as the plot unfolds. Virginia all but leaves the Jills behind as she digs desperately into this mystery that overlaps with trauma in her past. Surprisingly grim and psychologically complex. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
