by Julie Soto
Release Date: May 6, 2025
2025 Wednesday Books
Ebook ARC; 352 Pages
ISBN: 978-1250377173
ASIN: B0CW9FRZM9
Audiobook: B0DFR9YZSV
Genre: Fiction / YA / Thriller
Source: Review copy from publisher
4 / 5 Stars
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.
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.
My Thoughts
The Thrashers follows a group of five high school seniors over the course of a year as they navigate not only their senior year, but also an investigation into the death of one of their classmates, the blame being put on them and their behaviour towards not only their classmate, but for their behaviour in general. Known as ‘The Thrashers’, this ‘it’ group has a lot of power at school and is known to ‘thrash’ people with whom they no longer wish to be associated. I enjoyed this book as it was so much deeper than I anticipated at first, and although the plot was fairly predictable for the most part, the ending totally caught me by surprise.
I think the author did a great job creating characters not only with whom I empathized, but ones that were also morally grey and quite complex. So many YA novels depend on tropy type behaviour and often use miscommunication to propel a plot forward, but the author made her characters go through some pretty complex emotional trauma, exploring a lot of topics throughout the book. While it’s been years since I’ve been in high school, I have taught it for years, so I thought the author captured a lot of the complexity of navigating high school life with characters that were definitely not perfect, had to reflect not only on their previous behaviours but also on their relationships and how they treated people, and were dealing with current crises due to some of their choices in the past. Each of the characters had their own distinct voices, and while most of the book was told from Jodi’s POV, the author did not forget about the other characters and worked hard to make them unique and well-developed as well.
The plot itself was quite engaging and the way the mystery was wrapped up within the daily life of the main characters was interesting. With mysterious text messages from a person unknown, to a secret diary, to incidents happening, the MCs had to lean on each other to try to figure out what was happening, but they also had to keep their distance for reasons which will become clear as you read. They were in a difficult position trying to navigate the investigation into Emily’s death as well as navigate daily high school life as a senior and the author did not hold anything back when it came to exploring themes. Suicide, date rape, trauma, depression, alcoholism, physical assault, car accidents, drug use, abuse, culpability, loss of a loved one, bullying (including cyberbullying), and consequences were all explored throughout the pages of this book, to a depth that was quite satisfying. It was not glossed over or avoided, but the author made the characters face the truth of their actions and deal with the consequences, something that made me quite happy.
I wish the author had spent more time exploring Jodi’s behaviour with regards to Zach as that is an area I feel needed more development and was worth discussing. It sounds vague, but I don’t want to give any spoilers from the story. When you read it, you will understand.
Verdict
The Thrashers was a fascinating look at a group of five teenagers who made poor decisions and had to face the consequences of those decisions. It definitely went a lot deeper than I had anticipated and explored a lot of themes. The ending caught me by surprise, something that surprised me considering a lot of the book was somewhat predictable, and I am really hoping there will be a sequel. Otherwise, I definitely recommend this book if you like well-developed characters and an interesting plot.
I think the author did a great job creating characters not only with whom I empathized, but ones that were also morally grey and quite complex. So many YA novels depend on tropy type behaviour and often use miscommunication to propel a plot forward, but the author made her characters go through some pretty complex emotional trauma, exploring a lot of topics throughout the book. While it’s been years since I’ve been in high school, I have taught it for years, so I thought the author captured a lot of the complexity of navigating high school life with characters that were definitely not perfect, had to reflect not only on their previous behaviours but also on their relationships and how they treated people, and were dealing with current crises due to some of their choices in the past. Each of the characters had their own distinct voices, and while most of the book was told from Jodi’s POV, the author did not forget about the other characters and worked hard to make them unique and well-developed as well.
The plot itself was quite engaging and the way the mystery was wrapped up within the daily life of the main characters was interesting. With mysterious text messages from a person unknown, to a secret diary, to incidents happening, the MCs had to lean on each other to try to figure out what was happening, but they also had to keep their distance for reasons which will become clear as you read. They were in a difficult position trying to navigate the investigation into Emily’s death as well as navigate daily high school life as a senior and the author did not hold anything back when it came to exploring themes. Suicide, date rape, trauma, depression, alcoholism, physical assault, car accidents, drug use, abuse, culpability, loss of a loved one, bullying (including cyberbullying), and consequences were all explored throughout the pages of this book, to a depth that was quite satisfying. It was not glossed over or avoided, but the author made the characters face the truth of their actions and deal with the consequences, something that made me quite happy.
I wish the author had spent more time exploring Jodi’s behaviour with regards to Zach as that is an area I feel needed more development and was worth discussing. It sounds vague, but I don’t want to give any spoilers from the story. When you read it, you will understand.
Verdict
The Thrashers was a fascinating look at a group of five teenagers who made poor decisions and had to face the consequences of those decisions. It definitely went a lot deeper than I had anticipated and explored a lot of themes. The ending caught me by surprise, something that surprised me considering a lot of the book was somewhat predictable, and I am really hoping there will be a sequel. Otherwise, I definitely recommend this book if you like well-developed characters and an interesting plot.
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