While this was a good plot, I found it a little crazy that the characters were not freaking out more about the deaths and everything happening. And that ending didn’t give me the closure I thought I would get while reading it and finding out the whodunnit.

❝𝘞𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘯'𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘩𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩?❞
5 stars ★
𓊆ྀི❤︎𓊇ྀི
now playing: unstoppable by daniel caesar

starting off 2025 strong! The Party takes place in an old countryside castle that is set to be renovated into new apartments. A group of teenagers decide to throw a party in the castle, but what they don’t know is that it will take a very dark turn. I really enjoyed this book, so let’s get into the review, shall we?

⚜🕯🗡🗝🕷

characters
bess
bessie was so cute! i really loved following her as a main character and i felt that a lot of her decisions were actually logical given the situation.

fergus
the chemistry between bess and fergus was insane. fergus was really sweet for the most part.

hugo
#needthat. first book boyfriend of 2025?? hehe. such a good male character and i loved everything about him tbh.

allegra
very stuck up and annoying, fitting for the role she played in the book. (her and fergus are twins, their parents are the ones who own the castle)

zeke
i liked zeke’s character, but i don’t understand why he was described as a love interest when most of the story focuses on bess and hugo. it would’ve made more sense for hugo to have been stated as a love interest.

jia, kash, odette, abbas
kash got on my nerves sometimes, but other than that, all of these characters played good supporting roles.

plot
the plot in this book was insane. the ending?? and all of the plot twists? at no point did I guess who the killer was. it was really motivating to keep reading because of all of the crazy things going on. a lot of times, I’ve had issues with natasha’s endings, but this one wasn’t that bad compared to other ones I’ve read. I do wish that one person in specific lived, but I know not to have high expectations with her endings by now. a lot of the times they feel unfinished, but this one was significantly better and slightly more satisfying.

thank you so much to NetGalley for providing this book in exchange for an honest review. all opinions here are my own!

xoxo
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pre-read
~ working on catching up with some arcs!! this being one of them and i am SO excited.

Natasha Preston is steady in her releases and each one has a fun silly little story going on. All of the characters are more or less the same from book to book but I really never mind it. The book was predictable in the way that I find a lot of YA thrillers are, which is completely fine with me, I always know what I'm getting in to. Even though I guessed the twist in chapter 4, I still had a really good time. The setting and stakes of this one were a little higher than usual and I really enjoyed that.

Natasha Preston's books have usually been a 4 or 5 star for me but this one just didn't get there. I felt that there was a lot of plot holes and things that were confusing to me. I will say like any of her other books this is fast paced and a lot of twists and turns which I did enjoy.
The ending did keep me captivated as I wanted to know what happened and the twist for that I was not expecting at all.

What starts as a teenage party in an empty castle turns into a nightmare…

Welcome to another rollercoaster from Natasha Preston! We have a tried & true thriller element (being stuck in a remote location) combined with the tension of other partygoers starting to turn up dead, & when you add in the creepy basement & cryptic references to a traumatic past event on top of a mysteriously absent friend, you’ve got yourself some page-turning entertainment comparable to a bingeable CW horror show.

This is a YA author I come back to again & again, thank you to NetGalley & Delacorte Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Oh, I'm a sucker for an isolated manor where murder somehow ends up happening!! A page-turning thriller and an unputdownable read. Delightful!

This is my second Natasha Preston book that I have read and I have to say I loved every single part. This was like a combination of your favorite horror movie such as I know what you did last summer. It was very thrilling and captured my attention the whole time if I had to say my favorite genre, it would definitely be YA mystery thrillers Thank you Net Galley ARC and Random House

The best thing about Natasha Preston's book are how they absolutely engross you and drag you into the story. The world around fades away as the characters and setting become more real, taking on a life of their own. I think the only thing I didn't like about this book while reading is that I could not stand most of the characters and I think that's just because this is a YA book, I knew what I was signing up for lol.

Will be patiently waiting for Natasha's next book!

I absolute loved this book so much. This is the first one I have read from Natasha Preston, and I was not disappointed. I was hooked from the beginning, and I couldn't put it down. The locked room mystery/thriller was definitely well thought out. I was on the edge of my seat! I highly recommend this book for a good thrilling read.

Thank you Net Galley ARC and Random House

Bessie and her closest friends sneak out to a deserted castle in the middle of the English countryside. Her friend Allegra has planned the perfect party there. Once everyone shows up things take a terrible turn with not only a deadly storm but someone dying. When the body count rises so do tensions and the very real possibility there might be a killer among them. But who?

What worked: What I did Last Night meets in a deserted castle in England with horrific consequences. Good pacing and action that keeps the reader guessing who might be behind killing off the friends. Add to this is a mystery behind what happened to Bessie during a car crash that almost killed her and some of her other friends.

The action builds as the friends start questioning one another. Secrets slowly reveal what really happened that one night and why one of them might be afraid if the truth did come out.

Bessie and Hugo's relationship is complex. I wanted to know more about their past to understand his protective behavior towards her. The other so-called friends didn't seem as if they really were that close in their interactions.

I had problems keeping the characters apart because most of them sounded too similar and were one-dimensional. There's the rich society girl; the brooding guy friend; and the rich twins. The main character though is the deserted Gothic castle with its creepy atmosphere which is a perfect site for a murder mystery.

Fast moving thriller where everyone has a deadly secret.

I give this book a 4.5 star rating for being a fun YA thriller read, but a 5 star rating here on NetGalley because this will be a great book for me to handsell in my shop. We will be including this book in our Teen Book Club reading list for 2025!

Loved this locked room thriller. I was definitely on the edge of my seat and jumping at every noise at some points. My only complaint would be too many characters at the beginning, and since we don’t really know anyone yet it can be hard to keep track of who is there and who is who.

I love a good locked room mystery, one set in the English countryside in an abandoned castle? SIGN ME UP! Unfortunately, this wasn’t what I needed it to be. The setting had room for so much more.

Twins, Fergus and Allegra, are hosting a big bash at the abandoned castle their family owns and plans to soon turn into apartments. This decision has the locals angry, they don’t want a piece of their history turned into anything other than what it is today. Forums show the lengths they’ll go and Bessie overheard some would rather burn it down than let it be developed.

Bessie used to date Fergus, but they got into a bad accident that distanced them. Bessie wanted to heal and focus on herself, especially since she can’t remember how the accident happened. She just knows it ruined her relationship and caused the other member, Raif, to leave school ridden with guilt.

Bessie and her best friend Kash, along with the rest of their friend group, head to the castle early to setup. But a storm came crashing in causing flooding and trapping them inside. When the first member of the group is found dead, they realize either they’re not as alone as they thought, or one of them came to the castle with a plan for murder.

Like most YA murder mysteries, I found myself so frustrated with the choices this group made. I also pretty much knew what was happening from the start which just caused the story to drag. There wasn’t a lot of suspense, but a ton of running around aimlessly because every other page the group who decided to stick together, would split up and hide, leading everyone to search for them. It got annoying.

The reveal was ridiculous. The only reason I went from 2.5 stars to 3, was because while there was a bit of a cliffhanger, it wasn’t as awful as Preston’s previous books so I wasn’t ending with a load of anxiety. I’d still read her books, but this one wasn’t for me.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, Delacorte Press, for providing this digital ARC with me in exchange for my honest opinion.

I think I’ve realized that Natasha Preston books aren’t for me :(
This is my fourth book by this author and I really wanted to love it but sadly it didn’t keep my attention at all and it felt like a chore to finish.

Shoooooo, nothing like trying to party with a bunch of friends while a storm comes through and end up getting trapped in a creepy castle just to be picked off one by one!!! If you want a fast paced YA thriller that keeps you on your toes then definitely give this a try!! I enjoyed it!

A solid lock-room (locked-castle is more accurate though) mystery where characters are picked off one by one.

Bessie and her closest friends head to a castle with an actual moat for a post-term party only to be rained in. None of their classmates are able to come in and none of them are able to leave. As one by one each of Bessie's friends are killed off, the terror sets in and loyalties are questioned.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC!

Another wild, suspenseful ride with this thrilling story! I absolutely enjoyed the journey of figuring out who was next to die and attempting to study the subtle clues to figure out the killer. The ending wasnt quite as shocking as i'd hope but this story was well worth the journey.

Natasha Preston never disappoints! The Party is a fantastic YA thriller that will have readers guessing until the final chapters. Preston always ends her books with an unexpected twist. The one sentence twist on the final page is so subtle that readers might even miss it. Recommended for all YA collections where Preston's other titles are popular.

3.5 stars

In the mood for a creepy thriller with teenage protagonists? This novel gives And Then There Were None vibes with the cast trapped in an old castle during a terrible storm when someone starts picking them off one by one. You get a lot of rich people behaving badly as you learn how daddy's money has made things go away, and there are plenty of red herrings.

HOOK: Teens go to an island to have the party to end all parties. And that ain't a lie because lives are ended.

REVIEW: This was my first Natasha Preston book, but I had heard of her. Her stories are known to be enthralling and pack a punch while feeling authentically teen. This fit the bill. I did feel like I was in the age group. It was a true thriller. With a body count rising, how could it not be?

RATING: 4.5, rounded.