The Thrashers by Julie Soto

TL;DR: A surprisingly fast paced and gripping thriller.
Source: NetGalley – thank you so much to the publisher!

Plot: One girl’s death rocks the It crowd clique.
Characters: No one here was good, but you truly end up enjoying all of them.
Setting: Not the strongest but it wasn’t necessarily needed with the strength of everything else.
Mystery/Thriller: I genuinely liked this setup and execution.

Summary:

Welcome to the Thrashers, the elite friend group at New Helvetia High.

They’re everything everyone wants to be.

Jodi Dillon was never meant to be one of them. Julian, Lucy, Paige, and the infamous Zack Thrasher are rich, sophisticated, and love attention. Jodi feels out of place, but Zack’s her childhood best friend, so she’s in.

Then Emily Mills, who desperately wanted to be a Thrasher, dies—and the whispers about the Thrashers begin. As Emily’s journal surfaces, detectives close in, and Jodi faces an impossible choice: betray her friends or protect herself.

But as eerie messages and strange occurrences escalate, it becomes clear—Emily isn’t done with them yet.

Thoughts:

The Thrashers is not my usual cup of tea. I don’t read a lot of YA, let alone Thrillers. But occasionally I’ll grab one and this one scratched the itch SO well. If more thrillers were this well done, I’d be gobbling them up.

No one here is good, no one here is without blame and as the story progresses we see more of the cracks and broken edges of our characters. Even our primary PoV character, who I deeply cared about by the end has to face some hard truths on her own behavior. The best part for me, the BEST part, was climax and the reveals. I spent a good chunk of this book convinced of one thing, actively disliking and hating a character to somehow end the book feeling empathy for them? Well done.

If I had to complain about something it would be the epilogue, which I think was completely unneeded and actually killed a bit of the mystery in the story. I would recommend perhaps not reading it, but it’s up to you ultimately.

Do I recommend this one? Yes! This is a great thriller with a great subtle message about bullying. I would especially like to see this in the hands of some younger folks as I think it might be a great read for them to explore. Julie Soto should definitely look to write more books like this, it was a fantastic read.