Young Adult Book Reviews

Genre: Mystery

Jodi has been friends with Zack Thrasher since elementary school and cannot help but feel pulled to him, just like everyone else. In fact, like many others, she would love to be more than friends with Zach but she knows that will never happen. The school has come to call his close group of friends The Thrashers and says anyone who tries to get too close “gets thrashed.” Jodi has never wanted to make waves because she knows she is on the outside of this group. Lucy and Paige are both rich and beautiful, while Julian is also rich and very entitled. Jodi lives with her alcoholic father who is frequently away working as a truck driver. When a new girl, Emily, desperately tries to infiltrate the group and is eventually “thrashed” she chooses to end her life. Everyone is devastated by the tragedy, but nobody expects four of The Thrashers to be arrested for bullying her to the point of suicide. Jodi is the only one in the group who is not arrested, but she can’t rest easy because there are too many things coming out from an alleged journal that Emily left behind that Jodi knows contains false information. Plus, all of them keep getting bizarre text messages from an unknown number. Could someone be trying to set them up or make them appear guilty of things they did not do? Or, could there be things that Jodi did not know about? Could the others have done some of the things they are accused of?

Fans of Karen McManus will enjoy this thrilling title that starts out fast paced and never slows down until the surprising ending. Jodi is such an interesting character because she is both on the inside and the outside of this elite clique. She knows that they often don’t tell her everything, but she’s so terrified of getting “thrashed” that she doesn’t want to rock the boat. At the same time, she knows that if she were to get in trouble she has far less protection than her very rich friends and therefore has a lot more to lose. Plus, her home life is very volatile at times, which is something she would prefer not everyone know about. As things start to heat up, however, it becomes obvious that no matter how rich or powerful someone is they can still feel scared, ashamed, or embarassed. Jodi is determined to find out what really happened, even if it means turning on the very friends she has come to rely on.