TITLE: Dying with Her Cheer Pants On: Stories of the Fighting Pumpkins
AUTHOR: Seanan McGuire
304 pages, Subterranean Press, ISBN 9781596069978 (deluxe hardcover; also available as ebook)
DESCRIPTION: (from the back cover): Despite its humble origins, there is no more challenging or physically dangerous sport in the world than cheerleading. Cheerleaders are seriously injured and even killed at a higher rate than other high school sports. Their stunts are performed in skimpy uniforms without the benefit of proper safety equipment … and yet they love them, glittery eyeshadow, spirit bows, and all. And then there are the Fighting Pumpkins, who take that injury rate as a challenge. Students of Johnson’s Crossing High School, they answer to a higher calling than the pyramid and basket toss, pursuing the pep rally that is rising up against mysteries and monsters, kicking gods with the pointed toes of professional athletes chasing a collegiate career. Meet Jude, the half-vampire squad leader; Laurie, who can compel anyone to do as she asks; Heather, occasionally recreationally dead; Marti, strong enough to provide a foundation for any stunt; Colleen, who knows the rule book so well she may as well have written it; and Steph, who may or may not be the goddess of the harvest. The rest of the squad is ready to support them, and braced for the chaos of the big game, which may or may not have a big body count. Prepare to jump high, yell loud, and look pretty with the Fighting Pumpkins, those glorious girls in the orange and green, whose high kicks could still be enough to save the world. And if they’re not, it isn’t going to be for lack of trying.
MY RATING: Five stars out of five
MY THOUGHTS: Although the book is already available in ebook format and Subterranean Press has started shipping the deluxe hardcover, this review was written off of a print Advance Review Copy provided by the publisher.
The Fighting Pumpkins are not as well-known as most of Seanan McGuire’s on-going urban fantasy series (the October Daye and InCryptid books, most notably). But I have hopes that the release of this collection, which includes six previously-published stories and four new adventures, will begin to change that. This is a world and characters that deserve more attention. I’m not advocating for a Fighting Pumpkins novel, mind you – I think this concept works wonderfully at short story to novella length, as the collection shows. I just think there should be more FP stories. A lot more.
Seanan’s original concept for the Fighting Pumpkins was as a “horror movie comedy sendup, with the entire squad dying at the end of the adventure, only to be replaced by a new squad who has no memory of the previous one.” By her own admission, that plan quickly fell to the wayside as the current squad (Jude, Colleen, Marti, Heather, and Laurie) seem to have taken up space in Seanan’s heart and brain and don’t want to shuffle off the page just yet. It’s been 10 years since the first FP story saw print (featuring the ill-fated previous squad) and 9 years since the first story featuring the current squad – so I’d say most of the current group is safe for the time being, as Seanan builds towards these girls fighting whatever Big Bad there ultimately is. (I say “most,” because this is Seanan and you never know when she’s going to surprise you and murder one of her darlings.)
I remember reading that first story, “Dying with Her Cheer Pants On,” and thinking “wow, that’s a morbid ending. Everybody dies … but at least they go out on their own terms and pretty heroically.” And then, because I sometimes am not good about picking up every single anthology Seanan has stories in, several years went by before I came across “Fiber” on Tor.com and thought “wait, didn’t they all die?” Then came “School Colors” in 2017 (in the anthology Little Green Men – Attack!) and “Away Game” in 2019 (in the anthology A Secret Guide to Fighting Elder Gods). With each story, my interest in the characters and setting, and my intrigue about how all these stories fit together chronologically, and my questions about how these later stories dovetailed with the first one, grew exponentially. I discovered I had missed “Gimme A ‘Z!’” and “Turn the Year Around,” but hadn’t gotten around to tracking down the anthologies they were in (Zombiesque and Harvest Season, respectively) when Subterranean Press announced this collected edition with the intent to include four new stories.
The four new stories (“Tryouts,” “Trial by Fire,” “Switchblade Smile,” and “Compete Me”) go a long way towards fleshing out the current squad’s connection to both the squad that preceded them and much earlier squads, as well as filling in some of the gaps in the current squad’s history. All of the stories are presented in character-chronological order (new stories interspersed with the reprints), with the exception of “Switchblade Smile” which flashes back to an earlier squad and is positioned at a point where learning that earlier story answers some questions other stories have raised.
The style of the stories varies from light-hearted (my internal eternally-13-year-old loved that the action of “Fringe” hinges on impending stomach distress and potty humor) to poignant (the denouement of “Compete Me”), the threats range from earthy (“Turn the Year Around”) to extraterrestrial (“School Colors”). Some stories are narrated in first person by a particular member of the squad (“Gimme A “Z”!” among them) and some by a more omniscient narrator. In other hands, I’d be worried that the shifting of tone and narrators’ voice would make the collection feel disjointed. But one of Seanan McGuire’s many talents is making disparate elements (like physical comedy and emotional drama) work together.
Taken together, it strikes me that these stories are very much about dealing with loss and finding ways to move forward. Jude knows that a squad has been lost, even if no-one can remember who that squad was or how they died. Heather copes with being dead (for a while at least), Steph with the absence of memory or any real sense of self. Marti … well, Marti’s loss is such a vital part of “Compete Me” that I don’t even want to talk about it; it’s a stunningly beautiful reveal that had me in tears. Jude’s mother, the vampire, is one of very few previous squad captains to have survived beyond high school and it weighs on her but doesn’t stop her from raising her daughter. The Fighting Pumpkins’ history is one of loss and being forgotten, but that doesn’t stop Jude and her team from living every moment and hoping for a better future (or any future at all).
There are so many aspects of this world that Seanan has yet to reveal. We get hints about why the Fighting Pumpkins are tasked with saving their town from supernatural (and extraterrestrial) threats both large and small. We get glimpses at the squad’s history and its place in a much larger networks of cheer squads and little league teams and retirement home sewing circles. And for now, at least, we get to hope that Jude’s team will be the team that survives past high school and goes on to happy adults lives. I’m very hopeful that Seanan will get to reveal much more of this world in the near future.
The deluxe hardcover is not yet sold out on the publisher’s website, and the ebook is available from all the usual suspects. Check it out if you like urban fantasy, strong teen female characters, and a bit of comedy thrown into your metaphysical threats.