This book was everything I hoped it would be and so much more. Julie Soto can write.

This book follows Jodi, the unconventional 5th wheel in an elusive group of friends, known as the Thrashers. Many others have tried to join this group of friends, only to be “thrashed” and left on the outside, humiliated. After a student dies, claims are made that she was a victim of one such “thrashing” which led to her death. Some damning claims are made and suddenly the friend group is questioning what really happened. What secrets have they been keeping from each other? When their friendship is put to the test, who will come out unscathed?

I’m someone who tries (and usually succeeds at) figuring out the “whodunnit” early in a story. But this book had me questioning everything I thought I knew EVERY. STEP. OF. THE. WAY.

The fact that any human who has questioned where they belonged amongst friends can relate to this book, shows just how beautiful Julie Soto writes. She hit all the marks when diving into the dynamic of the friend group. Raw and real. She allowed us to follow Jodi and feel all the questions and uncertainties along the way, never sure what or who to trust. I’m still processing this book days later and I know I’ll continue to think back on it. I’ve told everyone I know that they need to read this book.

13 Reasons Why meets Mean Girls, with a paranormal twist. We have teen angst, suspense, drama, romance, action, mystery… it never stops.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, Wednesday Books, and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC.

5/5 ⭐️s
🫑 - kissing only

LOVES:
- Jodi is a really interesting FMC. I think everyone has felt like her before. Am I anyone’s first choice? Do people even like me? Are my friends hanging out behind my back? Classic stuff. The dynamics of this friend group are interesting for a lot of reasons and they only continue to get more and more so.
- I wasn’t necessarily expecting the paranormal element, but it was done in a way that had me creeped out and questioning reality and believing it (I’m not one for believing in ghosts or related things so that’s quite a feat).
- The media and attention surrounding a case like this was really tough to stomach sometimes. It made me question where people draw their lines of morality. Who’s willing to lie for their moment in the spotlight? Who is outraged by someone being bullied enough to harass the bully in return? 😨
- No question that the mystery and unraveling of the true events had me locked in on this the whole time.
- There were definitely things that surprised me. And that epilogue fvcking SHOOK me. 🥺😳🫠😵‍💫😵🥴🫨

Make sure to check your TW/CWs.

This absolutely lived up to my expectations. Honestly, the romantic in me wants more 😆 I’ve read too many romances so I just long for that HEA, but I loved this ending.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the eARC 💝

I have read and absolutely LOVED Julie Soto's adult romance books && was so excited to see how she would do a YA Thriller. And boy am I SO GLAD I read it! While maintaining a YA-status, this book thoughtfully and thoroughly explored topics ranging from bullying, suicide, social hierarchies/cliques, people-pleasing, and so much more. I honestly could not stop reading it once I started last night, and ended up staying up until 3am to finish. The plot, the characters (hello, 5 morally grey teenagers that we get to follow & root for while they are definitely misbehaving), the writing & pacing – all superb.

This book has vibes of 13 reasons why, pretty little liars, and I know what you did last summer (also maybe some final destination?) with some added paranormal flare. It kept me on my toes and THAT ENDING?! Ma’am. My jaw was on the floor!!! I am going to need another installment of our favorite toxic quintuplets STAT (and if I could specifically pls have more Jodi + Julian, that would be even more amazing)!

I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a fun, incredibly well-written thriller to read!!

Rating: 5 ⭐️

4.75 stars

Ok yes Julie Soto romance writer who also wrote an amazing YA thriller! You did that thing! I really enjoyed this book and felt that some twists I saw coming in a good way (great foreshadowing without hitting you over the head with it) and some twists I did not see coming (that epilogue! And the actual ending incident!) but that weren’t a twist for the sake of a twist. I felt like I was constantly back and forth on what was real and what was rumor just like Jodi was. What was bullying and what was just not liking someone - which is sometimes a really blurry line. I couldn’t put it down (but I actually HAD to because I have responsibilities ugh) and really hope there is a sequel because I would love to see more especially with Jodi and Julien. If you like the authors other books, I’d recommend giving this a shot despite being a different genre. And if you like thrillers, definitely check this one out!

My only qualm is I wish the school counselor came up again because it did sound like Jodi was interested in returning and I wanted to know more about what Emily’s sister was claiming about Jodi to her.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC!

“Either you’re in or you’re out.”

Sometimes I see people rate books infinity ♾️ stars and I wonder if it really is that good, and you know what, THIS ONE IS! Holy. Freaking. Smokes. If you love Pretty Little Liars, Veronica Mars, or Mean Girls, you are going to dieeee for The Thrashers and it really is THAT good. Consider me obsessed.

“It’s really hard to not have the life you imagined. And to be alone for it.”

I knew this would be good because, hello, it’s Julie Soto and the woman does not miss, but I truly did not expect to blow me away as much as it has. The Thrashers follow Jodi, Paige, Lucy, Julian, and Zack after the death of their classmate Emily and the investigation that follows, and the paranormal experiences they’re faced with. I was literally on the edge of my seat, gasping, kicking and screaming, swooning, and just overall on a wild freaking ride with this one. Ughhh and that ending?! THAT. ENDING. Miss Ma’am - there better be a Thrashers 2.0 because I neeeed to know what happens next, and I’m frothing at the mouth for more Jolian.

Read if you like:
💋YA suspense/thriller
💋paranormal experiences
💋high school setting
💋toxic secrets
💋betrayal & revenge

Check tw - yes this ya but it deals with many dark and difficult subjects that should be taken seriously. They’re beautifully done and heartbreakingly portrayed, but this story is raw and the feelings expressed are honest.

“It’s not fair that you can shave your hair—your career-defining hair—and still look this good.”

If this book isn’t on your radar it needs to be.
It’s set in high school, but, as an adult reader, don’t let that deter you. The things these students are dealing with go well beyond the classroom.
This book starts with a death and is a story of the aftermath, but also trying to understand why it happened.
It has a paranormal side, but I found it deeply moving as a middle school teacher about how a relationship among a friend group can affect so many people outside of it.

I enjoyed this one! It was full of mystery, betrayals, toxic friendships with paranormal elements! It did start off slow to me, but when I got that first creepy feel, it picked up lol.

The Thrashers is about an elite friends group at New Helvetia High, Zack, Jodi, Julian, Paige, and Lucy. Everyone wants to be them and be around them. However, when Emily Mills is found dead, could the Thrashers be at fault? This story unfolds through the main character, Jodi.

Jodi Dillon has never really felt like she fit in with her friends. They are rich, refined, and gorgeous. She has always been the odd ball out, felt like an outsider. But she's in and has been since the 2nd grade and she won't lose her spot. Each character was well developed and had distinct flaws which made them not only interesting, but also added a bit of mystery. I was constantly questioning, did they or not?

Jodi was certain they would have never done what they are being accused of to Emily or anyone else. But when Emily's journal is found, truths begin to come out that start to fracture their friendships as Jodi realizes her friends have been keeping secrets after all.

This YA thriller was riveting and eerie! And that epilogue… it was chilling and left me speechless!

Thank you to St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books, and NetGalley for eARC.

The Thrashers by Julie Soto

Rating: 4/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Jodi is a high school senior and is part of THAT group in school. You know the one.. everyone wants to be around them or a part of them, some way or somehow.

Jodi, Paige, Lucy, Julian and Zack Thrasher make up “The Thrashers” and Zack, is the glue that holds them all together. Jodi doesn’t live on the same rich side of town as the others but she’s been Zack’s BFF since they were kids.

When Emily Mills, a classmate who wanted desperately to be accepted into The Thrashers dies on prom night, the clique tries everything they can to distance themselves from the story that they had anything to do with it.

But weird things keep happening to The Thrashers and it feels like Emily has something to do with it..?

This was an entertaining, page turning, mystery. Easy to read and hard to put down.

Thanks to #netgalley, the publisher and the author for this e-arc! It’s out today, 5/6!!

I loved this book. I love to read or watch a good young adult thriller.. and this one just checked all of the boxes I was looking for. I think this book gave a very accurate description of what it’s like to be in a friend group and have normal teenage insecurities. Even with being a thriller, the experiences seemed very realistic for teenagers. and some of Julie’s romance writing came in when I just wanted Jody and Julie to kiss because they had so much tension between them

The Thrashers is an intriguing YA debut from romance author Julie Soto, and let’s just say, she understood the assignment. Soto mixes thriller elements with a tinge of the paranormal in this story… and even if readers guess certain aspects of the plot before they happen, the epilogue will leave you speechless.

Overall, I enjoyed the story, though there were parts of the ending that, for selfish reasons, I wished had unfolded differently. This is also a book that relies on more of a slow unraveling of events, so be prepared for that pacing-wise! But I could see this easily being turned into a limited series, and think it would transfer amazingly from page to screen.

I went into Julie Soto’s The Thrashers with zero expectations. I hadn’t read any of her previous books, but the synopsis sounded interesting enough to give it a go. Well, I ended up finishing it at around 3:30 this morning. White not perfect, it was certainly engaging. Soto knows how to write believable characters, and the story was nicely complex while still feeling plausible. If you enjoy thrillers but YA isn’t typically your thing, fear not. You won’t be disappointed. This a thriller first and foremost, the cast just happens to be on the younger side. I’d like to thank St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an eARC of The Thrashers.

https://www.amazon.com/review/R1JJ2G8IMQCXWW/ref=pe_123899240_1043597390_SRTC0204BT_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

I just finished The Thrashers by Julie Soto and here are my thoughts.

Emily Mills wanted to be a thrasher so bad and it killed her….. Jodi, Julian, Paige, Lucy and Zack… Zack Thrasher…They are the elite friend group… Everyone wants to be in their orbit but when Emily’s journal surfaces.. The friend group comes under scrutiny and Jodi has to decide whether she is saving her friends… The people she isn’t the same as.. Or herself… But even as the police close in…. The weird occurrences are more frightening..

Firstly I got the ALC and ARC versions of this book. The narration was amazing! I switched back and forth between the two and they were both outstanding.

It was hard to really connect with the characters until closer to the end because you got the version of the characters they wanted you to see until you the real characters began to shine through and that for me, showed a real talent in the writing.

I really enjoyed the supernatural elements in the book. I would have loved more of that but I think it was done really well regardless. The focal point was the friend group and I loved the contrast of how the friends saw each other and then how outsiders saw them individually and as a collective. It was really clever and skillfully done.

It was well paced and all the mystery elements were executed really well. I enjoyed the heck out of it. I thought it was going to be a whiny teenage drama and it wasn’t that at all. The epilogue though.. OMFG! That just about slayed me.

Brilliant book!

4.5 stars

Thank you to @macmillanaudio, @netgalley and @wednesdaybooks for my gifted ALC and ARC.

#thethrashers #yanovel #wednesdaybooks #juliesoto #bookreview #bookishreview #bookishblog #readerblog #newrelease #bookreel #bookstoread #reelstagram #bookreviewblog #bookoftheday #mysterybookreader #readersofig

The Thrashers is a YA thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. From the very first chapter, the book gripped me with its tense atmosphere and intriguing mystery. I devoured the book within 48 hours!

Julie does an amazing job at making sure the characters are easy to follow and understand, as the story progresses. Each character feels distinct and well-developed, which makes it effortless to keep track of who's who. I thought Julian and Jodi were some of the more interesting ones. They stood out the most, especially with their developing complex relationship. Their connection was one of the emotional high points of the book and kept me invested in the story. There were moments between them that genuinely tugged at my heartstrings and made me root for them throughout the book.

One aspect that kind of threw me off, though, was the paranormal elements. Though it did add an unexpected layer to the story, it felt a bit jarring at times. I also felt the plot dragged on during the middle, but the intensity did pick back up quickly towards the end.

THAT epilogue though…. It left me speechless and honestly craving for more. I really hope there is some type of sequel to continue the story because it feels like there’s so much more that could be expanded from that ending. I’ll definitely be thinking about that ending for a while.

Thank you NetGalley & St. Martin's Press for the ARC!

The Thrashers is a mystery/thriller that catches your attention and holds it through the end.

At the center of the story is Jodi, a “regular” girl who is somehow part of the popular group, the so-called Thrashers. The Thrashers are a group of morally grey characters that you kind of hate but understand the intrigue, especially as you get to know them.

Author Julie Soto does an excellent job creating tension. Her settings are dynamic, and she balances creepy with a touch of hope.

Although it’s not the fastest read, The Thrashers is a book that holds interest — you want to know what happens. There are a lot of more mature themes throughout the book, and there’s lots of drinking and drug use. It’s not appropriate for readers under 14.

ARC REVIEW | The Thrashers

I have read and loved Julie Soto’s contemporary romances, so when I saw she was coming out with a book in a different genre I was intrigued. And honestly? This woman can do no wrong. This book was AMAZING. I was hooked from the start and could not put it down! I cannot recommend this one enough! It is a YA thriller that has a lot of depth to it, touching on a lot of important social issues while keeping the pace moving and the reading engaged. I was immediately sucked into the story, and it was so well paced and kept me hooked the whole time.

The story begins with the death of Emily, who makes it clear that she blames her death on the group of other teens called The Thrashers. It then goes into the POV of one of the teens in that group named Jodi. We then experience the rest of the story through Jodi’s POV, with little clips from Emily’s journal throughout that give a little bit of insight into what she may or may not have gone through. If you like books with an unreliable narrator, this one is really intriguing in that aspect that you don’t really know if you can trust the information that is being presented. I don't want to say too much about the actual plot that happens because it really is good to just go in kind of blind but this one was so addicting! There was a ton of angst and tension, along with lots of mystery. I really enjoyed seeing something different from Julie and fully trust her to write any genre at this point!

Julie did such a good job in writing a group of teenagers who are friends and giving us a story about the pressures of being a teenager and the desire to be liked and included. She perfect encapsulated what it is like to be part of a clique and trying so hard to do everything to stay in that clique. Jodi feels like such an outsider with the group, but puts up with a lot of their behaviors as they are her only friends. As I mentioned, Emily is also not the most reliable source and she is also a pretty awful person. The characters in this story were so complex - none of them were really “good” or likeable, but you still found yourself drawn to them. I even found myself rooting for some of the characters, but mostly I wanted to know the truth of what happened.

The story is incredibly compelling and Julie ended it in SUCH a perfect way. It was realistic but infuriating! We also were given an epilogue that had me squealing in its perfection. I don’t think there could have been a better way to end it!

Thank you Wednesday Books for early copy of the book!

I mean, is there anything Julie Soto can't do????

After the hits of Forget Me Not and Just Another Love Song, this was an unexpected surprise. So glad I got the chance to read this because this is everything our readers want. Mystery/Thriller is our most popular genre in the library for the past two years, and I'm always on a lookout for hits to recommend. Happy to highlight this one for our voracious readers. There are trigger warnings (domestic violence, bullying, suicide, etc) so be warned. But this is a definite addition to our collection.

This is an extremely messy, hormone-fueled wild ride as we follow a friend group accused of criminal harassment, ending in the death of a classmate. Partway through, we wonder if they are being literally haunted by her demise. I definitely felt many of these feelings as a teen.

4.5 stars - Julie Soto can do it all!! After absolutely devouring both FORGET ME NOT and NOT ANOTHER LOVE SONG, I was both elated and intrigued to see that she was pivoting to a thriller. I had no doubts that I'd love the writing, but with it being such a change of pace I wasn't sure what I'd think of the rest of it - but I realize now I shouldn't have worried, she killed it! (no pun intended)

Jodi Dillon knows in her heart she doesn't really fit in with her friends - they're gorgeous, refined, and loaded - still, ever since second grade she's held a spot at Zack Thrasher's side, and she's determined to stay there. Yet Jodi's plans for senior year start to crumble when the body of Emily Mills is discovered on prom night, sparking whispers blaming the Thrashers for her death. Sure, Jodi remembers being friendly to Emily, but they weren't *friends* like people seem to think, and there's absolutely no way Zack, or any of them, were responsible for Emily's death. None. But when Emily's journal is found, and strange texts start to appear, Jodi realizes her friends might have been keeping secrets after all, and that Emily isn't ready to say goodbye.

Going into this I was convinced it was going to be another CLIQUE / GOSSIP GIRL situation, with the Thrashers as the clear villains and therefore deserving of the criticism and accusations. And while that can certainly be an entertaining concept, especially for a thriller like this, I was delighted to see that wasn't the case! I think what I loved the most was that Emily, Jodi, and the rest of the Thrashers all add something to the story, bringing their own messes and flaws, which I gave the book a delicious level of complexity. Perfectly paced, eerie, and heartwarming in its own way, I highly recommend THE THRASHERS for fans of Julie Soto's other works, but also for those who just love a little mystery and excitement in their reads!

Thank you to St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books, and NetGalley for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Julie Soto!! This is a freaking banger, amazing job on debut YA thriller!!

This book was a masterpiece being a thriller with a bit of romance that made me absolutely feral for the character like I was with Gossip Girl. lol While also having a very important message about consequences on how we treat people (bullying). Because what lengths would you go to feel you “belong”? By human nature we want to belong and fit in despite your age and is just a relatable topic.

Can we just take a moment for julian hollister. Why did I love him so much?! the way he was such an mean but had moments only for her where he soften. Swoon

I am not usually a big thriller person but the way The Thrashers grabbed me and wouldn't let go. It kept me guessing until the end and even 5 days later I'm still thinking about The Thrashers. Jodi, Lucy Paige, Zach, and Julian have such a dynamic friendship it was fun seeing how everyone was balanced. As for Jodi especially I feel like many high schoolers will be able to relate to her, especially her feeling on the outside at times. I savored every word of Julie's romances and was a little nervous about a YA thriller but now I'm convinced Julie could publish her grocery list and it would be an instant best seller.