High school cheerleaders as government spooks hide in plain site behind their sparkles and designer bags. Sounds juicy, right? It's a real page turner; I went through it in about 24 hours. I totally recommend it to a teen, tween, or fellow adult young adult literature aficionado, and I'm requesting the 2nd installment (Killer Spirit) from NYPL as I type.
My affection for The Squad is not without reservations. The writing is a little loose and cutesy, e.g., three instances of "needless to say" between pages 207 and 212. There is only one person of color identified on the squad, "the school's resident Asian party girl," who turns out to be a child prodigy with a PhD. Otherwise blondness seems to be the ideal. Granted, the book is about what's behind stereotypes, so the fact that it deliberately reinforces them (the cheerleaders humiliate their female competitors, dish celebrity gossip, fight over hot guys, and have names like Bubbles), isn't necessarily a crime. I look forward to reading future installments to see.
CATS: no cats, but the protagonist does mock designer pets, referring to hand held Chihuahuas as "rat-dogs"