YA Thriller Must Reads

Pride and Premeditation by Tirazah Price

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a young woman who desires a law career must be in want of a case. So when sixteen year old Lizzie Bennet hears about a scandalous society murder, she sees an opportunity to prove herself as a solicitor by solving the case and ensuring justice is served.

Except the man accused of the crime already has a lawyer on his side: Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, the stern young heir to the prestigious Pemberley Associates law firm. Lizzie is determined to solve the murder before Darcy can so that she can show the world that a woman can be just as good as a man. (The fact that Darcy is an infuriating snob doesn’t help.) But there’s still a killer on the loose, and as the case gets more complicated, Lizzie and Darcy may have to start working together to avoid becoming the next victims themselves.

The Summer She Went Missing by Chelsea Ichaso

Last summer, they searched for Audrey Covington. This summer, they'll search for the truth. Paige Redmond has always felt lucky to spend her summers in Clearwater Ridge, with lazy days sunning at the waterfalls and nights partying at the sprawling houses of the rich families who vacation there. The Covingtons are one of these families, and beautiful, brilliant Audrey Covington is Paige's best friend. And last year, when Audrey's crush-worthy brother Dylan finally started noticing Paige, she was sure it would be the best summer ever. Except Audrey didn't seem quite like herself. Then one night, she didn't come home. Though Audrey wasn't the first girl to disappear in Clearwater Ridge, she left behind more lies than clues. Now, one summer later, her case has gone cold, and nobody, least of all Paige, can make sense of what happened. When Paige stumbles across a secret hidden in Audrey's room, however, it changes everything she thought she knew about last summer. She and Dylan set out on their own investigation, discovering things even the police don't know about the people of Clearwater Ridge. But tracking down missing girls―girls who might be beyond saving by now―means entering a world far darker than Paige has ever imagined. And if she isn't careful, she'll become the next girl to vanish.

That’s Not My Name by Megan Lally

She thought she had her life back. She was wrong. It was a mistake to trust him.

Shivering and bruised, a teen wakes up on the side of a dirt road with no memory of how she got there―or who she is. A passing officer takes her to the police station, and not long after, a frantic man arrives. He's been searching for her for hours. He has her school ID, her birth certificate, and even family photos. He is her father. Her name is Mary. Or so he says.

When Lola slammed the car door and stormed off into the night, Drew thought they just needed some time to cool off. Except Lola disappeared, and the sheriff, his friends, and the whole town are convinced Drew murdered his girlfriend. Forget proving his innocence, he needs to find her before it's too late. The longer Lola is missing, the fewer leads there are to follow…and the more danger they both are in.

The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas

There are no more cheerleaders in the town of Sunnybrook.

First there was the car accident—two girls gone after hitting a tree on a rainy night. Not long after, the murders happened. Those two girls were killed by the man next door. The police shot him, so no one will ever know why he did it. Monica’s sister was the last cheerleader to die. After her suicide, Sunnybrook High disbanded the cheer squad. No one wanted to be reminded of the girls they lost.

That was five years ago. Now the faculty and students at Sunnybrook High want to remember the lost cheerleaders. But for Monica, it’s not that easy. She just wants to forget. Only, Monica’s world is starting to unravel. There are the letters in her stepdad’s desk, an unearthed, years-old cell phone, a strange new friend at school. . . . Whatever happened five years ago isn’t over. Some people in town know more than they’re saying. And somehow Monica is at the center of it all.

There are no more cheerleaders in Sunnybrook, but that doesn’t mean anyone else is safe.

Sadie by Courtney Summers

Sadie hasn't had an easy life. Growing up on her own, she's been raising her sister Mattie in an isolated small town, trying her best to provide a normal life and keep their heads above water.

But when Mattie is found dead, Sadie's entire world crumbles. After a somewhat botched police investigation, Sadie is determined to bring her sister's killer to justice and hits the road following a few meager clues to find him.

When West McCray―a radio personality working on a segment about small, forgotten towns in America―overhears Sadie's story at a local gas station, he becomes obsessed with finding the missing girl. He starts his own podcast as he tracks Sadie's journey, trying to figure out what happened, hoping to find her before it's too late.

Five Survive by Holly Jackson

Eight hours.
Six friends.
One sniper . . .

Eighteen year old Red and her friends are on a road trip in an RV, heading to the beach for Spring Break. It’s a long drive but spirits are high. Until the RV breaks down in the middle of nowhere. There’s no mobile phone reception and nobody around to help. And as the wheels are shot out, one by one, the friends realise that this is no accident. There’s a sniper out there in the dark watching them and he knows exactly who they are. One of the group has a secret that the sniper is willing to kill for.

A game of cat-and-mouse plays out as the group desperately tries to get help and to work out which member of the group is the target. Buried secrets are forced to light in the cramped, claustrophobic setting of the RV, and tensions within the group will reach deadly levels. Not everyone will survive the night.

The Debutantes by Olivia Worley

For the New Orleans elite, the Les Masques Ball is sure to be the social event of the season—if they can avoid another dead Queen. When debutante Margot Landry was found dead the morning after her reign at last year’s ball, it was a tragedy, but not a shocking one. Margot was a wild child with a self-destructive streak, nothing like this year’s Queen, Lily LeBlanc. With a perfectly poised debutante on the throne, everything is going according to plan…until the ball is hijacked by a mysterious figure in a Jester costume. That night, Lily sends a text to three of the Maids on her royal court—her best friend, Vivian; her boyfriend's sister, Piper; and April, her former frenemy—asking them all to meet the next morning. But Lily never shows up.

On the surface, these three debutantes don’t have anything in common except their exclusive private school and their ties to Les Masques. But soon, they realize why Lily brought them together: something dark is lurking beneath the glamorous surface of the debutante world, and it might be the reason she disappeared. And the further the girls dig, the more they begin to suspect that Margot's death may not have been an accident—and that Lily may be next. When the Jester starts threatening to expose their own secrets, this unlikely trio must team up to uncover the monsters behind the Mardi Gras masks—before they’re left with another dead debutante.

Getting Away With Murder by Kathryn Foxfield

Cabin in the Woods meets Squid Game - a girl playing a game with a supercomputer unwittingly traps her sister in a deadly escape room. When Saffron is forced to do work experience at a tech company, she gets into an argument with her supervisor over which high school stereotype would survive the longest in a horror film: the sports star? The queen bee? The swot? The drama girl? The class clown? The rebel? Unbeknown to them, the AI robot she is working on at the time decides to determine the answer by testing it out for real. It designs an algorithm to search social media and school records to find the best examples of each stereotype from the neighbouring towns, and the invitations go out - six people, including Saffron's perfectionist sister Georgia, will be trapped in a series of deadly escape rooms and only one will survive the night...

Now She’s Dead by Roselyn Clarke

Last summer, Sara Ellis was found dead by the lake, and only Mandy knows what really happened.

This summer, she's desperate to keep it a secret.

For a few weeks every summer, Sara was Mandy's best friend. At Highmark, the lake resort where their families vacationed, the two were in a world of their own. Or at least Mandy got to be part of Sara's world.

But now Sara’s dead. The police ruled her death an accident; a tragic mistake after a night of impaired judgment. For the past year, Mandy's coped by escaping: leaving home and barely keeping it together at school. The last thing she wants to do is return to Highmark this summer—even if she does need "closure." As soon as she's back, though, she hears the whispers: someone killed Sara Ellis.

And if she’s not careful, they'll figure out it's all her fault.

As evidence resurfaces and anonymous accusations are scrawled in angry red spray paint, Mandy must confront the truths she's been avoiding about last summer. Because someone wants to make her pay for what happened to Sara that night.

Silent Sister by Megan Davidhizar

Two sisters went missing on their class trip—Grace, the outgoing athlete who is friends with just about everyone, and Maddy, the wallflower wilting in her sister’s shadow who'd rather absorb herself in her journal than talk to her classmates.

But when Grace is found—injured, with no memory of what happened—everybody thinks she’s lying. It’s hard not to look guilty with Maddy’s blood on her clothes.

Desperate to save her sister—and prove her own innocence—Grace must piece together what happened on that school trip with the help of her sister’s notebook and classmates who may not be telling the police everything that about that tragic night.

She will discover her sister’s secrets can’t stay quiet…but what if her own are the most terrifying of all?

Kill Her Twice by Stacey Lee

Los Angeles, 1932: Lulu Wong, star of the silver screen and the pride of Chinatown, has a face known to practically anyone, especially to the Chow sisters—May, Gemma, and Peony—Lulu's former classmates and neighbors. So the girls instantly know it's Lulu whose body they discover one morning in an out-of-the-way stable, far from the Beverly Hills mansion where she moved once her fame skyrocketed.

The sisters suspect Lulu's death is the result of foul play, but the LAPD—known for being corrupt to the core—doesn't seem motivated to investigate. Even worse, there are signs that point to the possibility of a police cover-up, and powerful forces in the city want to frame the killing as evidence that Chinatown is a den of iniquity and crime, even more reason it should be demolished to make room for the construction of a new railway depot, Union Station.

Worried that neither the police nor the papers will treat a Chinese girl fairly—no matter how famous and wealthy—the sisters set out to solve their friend’s murder themselves, and maybe save their neighborhood in the bargain. But with Lulu’s killer still on the loose, the girls’ investigation just might put them square in the crosshairs of a coldblooded murderer.

14 Ways to Die by Vincent Ralph

Ten years ago, Jess's mother was murdered by the Magpie Man.

She was the first of his victims but not the last.

Now Jess is the star of a YouTube reality series and she's using it to catch the killer once and for all.

The whole world is watching her every move.

And so is the Magpie Man.

They Wish They Were Us by Jessica Goodman

In Gold Coast, Long Island, everything from the expensive downtown shops to the manicured beaches, to the pressed uniforms of Jill Newman and her friends, looks perfect. But as Jill found out three years ago, nothing is as it seems.

Freshman year Jill's best friend, the brilliant, dazzling Shaila Arnold, was killed by her boyfriend. After that dark night on the beach, Graham confessed, the case was closed, and Jill tried to move on.

Now, it's Jill's senior year and she's determined to make it her best yet. After all, she's a senior and a Player--a member of Gold Coast Prep's exclusive, not-so-secret secret society. Senior Players have the best parties, highest grades and the admiration of the entire school. This is going to be Jill's year. She's sure of it.

But when Jill starts getting texts proclaiming Graham's innocence, her dreams of the perfect senior year start to crumble. If Graham didn't kill Shaila, who did? Jill vows to find out, but digging deeper could mean putting her friendships, and her future, in jeopardy.

10 Hours to Go by Keely Parrack

Lily wants to get home. Her friends want to get even. Lily needs a ride―a fire warning in Oregon has cancelled her train home to California. Her ex-best friend, Natasha, has offered to pick Lily up on her way back from Portland, though they're barely on speaking terms. As it turns out, Natasha's also giving a ride to Elke Azizi, the girl Lily got expelled from their school four years ago. Elke hasn't forgotten, and neither has Natasha. It's getting tense in the car, and it's not just about the past. There's smoke in the air, and with the wildfires nearby, staying on the road is becoming riskier by the hour. When Natasha and Elke decide to take a detour, Lily hopes it'll get them out of danger. She has no idea, though, what her former friends have planned for her. But as night comes, the plans change again when it becomes all too clear that leaving the main road was a mistake. Now the three of them are trapped in the woods under a burning sky, with no easy way out. To survive, Lily must depend on Elke and Natasha―but after all that's happened, can she trust them with her life?

Last One to Die by Cynthia Murphy

16-year-old, Irish-born Niamh has just arrived in London for the summer, and quickly discovers that girls who look frighteningly like her are being attacked.

Determined to make it through her Drama Course, Niamh is placed at the Victorian Museum to put her drama skills to the test, and there she meets he’s kind, fun, attentive, and really hot! Nonetheless, there's something eerie about the museum...

As present-day serial attacker and sinister Victorian history start to collide, Niamh realizes that things are not as they seem. Will she be next?

Never Coming Home by Kate Williams

Everyone knows Unknown Island—it’s the world’s most exclusive destination. Think white sand beaches, turquoise seas, and luxury accommodations. Plus, it’s invite only, no one over twenty-one allowed, and it’s absolutely free. Who wouldn’t want to go?

After launching with a showstopping viral marketing campaign, the whole world is watching as the mysterious resort opens its doors to the First Ten, the ten elite influencers specifically chosen to be the first to experience everything Unknown Island has to offer. You know them. There’s the gamer, the beauty blogger, the rich girl, the superstar, the junior politician, the environmentalist, the DJ, the CEO, the chef, and the athlete.

What they don’t know is that they weren’t invited to Unknown Island for their following—they were invited for their secrets. Everyone is hiding a deadly one, and it looks like someone’s decided it’s payback time. Unknown Island isn’t a vacation, it’s a trap. And it’s beginning to look like the First Ten—no matter how influential—are never coming home.

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

Everyone in Fairview knows the story.

Pretty and popular high school senior Andie Bell was murdered by her boyfriend, Sal Singh, who then killed himself. It was all anyone could talk about. And five years later, Pip sees how the tragedy still haunts her town.

But she can't shake the feeling that there was more to what happened that day. She knew Sal when she was a child, and he was always so kind to her. How could he possibly have been a killer?

Now a senior herself, Pip decides to reexamine the closed case for her final project, at first just to cast doubt on the original investigation. But soon she discovers a trail of dark secrets that might actually prove Sal innocent . . . and the line between past and present begins to blur. Someone in Fairview doesn't want Pip digging around for answers, and now her own life might be in danger.

The Counselors by Jessica Goodman

Camp Alpine Lake is the only place where Goldie Easton feels safe.

She's always had a special connection to the place, even before she was old enough to attend. The camp is the lifeline of Roxwood, the small town she lives in. Alpine Lake provides jobs, money and prestige to the region. Few Roxwood locals, though, get to reap the rewards of living so close to the glam summer that camp, with its five-figure tuition and rich kids who have been dumped there for eight weeks by their powerful parents. Goldie's one of them.

Even with her "townie" background, Goldie has never felt more at home at camp and now she's back as a counselor, desperate for summer to start and her best friends, Ava and Imogen, to arrive. Because Goldie has a terrible dark secret she's been keeping and she is more in need of the comfort than ever.

But Goldie's not the only person at camp who has been lying. When a teen turns up dead in the lake late one night, she knows that the death couldn't have been an accident. She also knows that Ava was at the lake that same night.

What did Ava see and what does she know? Why hasn't she said anything to Goldie about the death? Worse--what did Ava do?

But asking questions offers no answers, only broken bonds of lifelong friendship, with hidden danger and betrayals deeper than Goldie ever imagined.

Written by Carlie Renee