Book Review: The Thrashers by Julie Soto

Official Synopsis: 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.

This story follows a group of teenagers known as 'The Thrashers' by their classmates, who find them both intriguing and a bit scary. Jodi Dillion feels like she's on the outside a lot, even though she is one of the thrashers, with her home life being very different from the others. When they go to a party only to find themselves arrested and questioned in the death of a classmate that happened a few months before. The police believe the group bullied the girl into suicide and have her journal to prove it. The Thrashers are determined to prove they played no role in this and the five of them are willing to do a lot of prove their innocence. This means separating their classes and only hanging out together in places the whole town won't witness.

But when they hang out all together, weird things start to happen. Things that almost kill them each time they happen. When they start to notice how the lights flicker and more weird things keep happening when they are together a group, they start to wonder if they are being haunted by Emily, the girl who passed away.

As the story continues, Jodi starts to learn a lot more about her friends, and the secrets they've kept from her throughout the years. As she starts to see herself more on the outside of the group, she is able to see that maybe the ghost is trying to keep her safe. Jodi was the nicest to Emily, but their relationship became strained when Emily started to act more and more obsessed with Jodi.

As The Thrashers continue to avoid harrowing events, and try to prove they are innocent in all of this, the weird things continue to happen. That is until the truth comes out and it starts to look like Emily might be right about some things after all.

I am not normally a mystery/thriller reader, but this book caught me from the beginning. I've read Julie Soto's adult romances, and really enjoy her writing style and though this book is different, it is written so well. The book is engaging, hooking you from the first line and keeping you on your toes throughout. The book does a good job of balancing the 'heavy' moments with some lighter ones, and making you second guess what you think will happen next. There are definitely a lot of moments in the book that put on the suspense, especially with Jodi feeling stuck in the middle of two different worlds.

Without giving too much away about the book, I think it was really well written and set up, the story itself kept me engaged and near the end of the book I couldn't put it down. There is also an open ending that makes me wonder if we will get more from the story in the future, or at least a little hint as to what happens to the group next. I thought all of the characters were written well, each suffering from their own issues while having issues as a group too. I found a few of them pushing 'annoying' but I think that was the point, but also being able to see how the characters change throughout the story was really great.

If you are a fan of mystery or thrillers I would highly recommend this book! Even if you aren't normally a young adult reader. This book is a wild ride and I want some people to talk about it with!

I rated this book 4 out of 5 stars!

The Thrashers comes out May 6, 2025!

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