I was completely hooked from the start, and I’m desperately hoping this will be a series (or at least have a sequel), because I NEED MORE! 😍

I’m also convinced Julie Soto could write absolutely anything and it would be fantastic 👌🏼

📖 The Thrashers by Julie Soto
☠️: YA thriller

📝 mini blurb:
The book starts with the suicide of Emily Mills, a teen desperate to be a part of the infamous “Thrashers” - an elite friend group at New Helvetia High.

We then follow Jodi Dillon, a member of this group who’s always felt like she’s on the outside. She feels like she’s only included since she’s Zack Thrashers’ childhood best friend, since she isn’t rich like the rest of them.

The story unfolds are the group is being investigating for bullying, and their involvement in Emily’s death.
Strange & dangerous things begin to happen, and it feels like she isn’t quite done with them.

⭐️: 5/5
📱🎧 tandem read audio + ebook
🎙 narrated by: Eva Kaminsky & Jesse Vilinsky

💭 what I loved about this one:
- this was incredibly addictive & fast-paced
- Jodi is such a compelling character, and I love how we learned more and more about her as the book went on
- a few little things I won’t spoil here 😉
- the romance subplot OF COURSE

🙃 what didn’t quite work for me:
- Literally nothing, this book was a perfect YA thriller!

🎧 audiobook thoughts:
The audio was fantastic, and chilling at times. Both narrators were great at portraying teenagers.

✦ tropes & stuff:
🔪 YA thriller - high school drama
👻 paranormal elements
👑 elite friend group
💬 mystery texts
🤫 secrets & lies
💜 romance subplot
🦋 single 3rd person POV

✨ books with similar vibes:
♡ So I haven’t read the books, but it gave me vibes from the TV shows of 13 Reasons Why (I was totally obsessed with this one!) & Riverdale.

Thank you to Wednesday Books (St. Martin’s Press), Macmillan Audio & NetGalley for advanced copies. All opinions are my own.

3.5 ⭐️

Pretty Little Liars meets 13 Reasons Why by Julie Soto.

It took me a REALLY long time to decide what to rate this book. On one hand I was highly invested, but on the other I wanted MORE from the book. There simply wasn’t enough drama, suspense, or romance for me. I was absolutely hooked, but I was also deeply disappointed by the end.

I would have absolutely loved this in 2010, but in 2025 it fell a little flat. I’m still a Julie Soto fan, and am looking forward to whatever she comes up with next.

An entertaining YA thriller that flies by at breakneck speed. It's been awhile since I stayed up late needing to know what happens next and Ms. Soto delivered! The tone is definitely different from her adult romance - the writing is less flowery and more punchy, and I enjoyed The Thrashers all the more because of it. My favourite of Julie Soto's work to date!

Love Julie Soto's work! This YA book was super nostalgic and full of fun twists. I loved every second of it and was constantly left guessing

i absolutely loved this!!! I was so so so intrigued by each of these characters, and was on the edge of my seat trying to figure out what was going to happen next. I thought the ending felt SO satisfying!!

even though we were in one POV the entire time, each character felt so profoundly unique and well-established. the uniqueness of each character while still only knowing a certain amount about each of them really allows the reader to speculate and come up with theories.

I adore Julie's writing and I think this is my favorite book of hers I've read yet!!

2.5 stars

I heard so much about this book, so I had very high hopes for it. Sadly, it missed the mark for me, perhaps because I'm outside the target audience.
It felt like the author was trying to do too much and throw together too many literary tropes, including the popular girls, a paranormal twist, a bit of romance, etc. Sadly, none of them were fully developed enough for it to pan out. I was never really able to connect with any of the characters. Some parts were just confusing, and I struggled to stay engaged through most of the book. It got to the point of where I didn't really care about the outcome. I was expecting more of a thriller, and that is not what this one delivered.

Loved this dark academia meets toxic friendship Pretty Little Liars vibes. Julie's writing is always top tier for me and this was no exception. I was hooked from page 1 and couldn't out it down. Great tension, addicting (I could not put it down and read it in 2 sittings). Definitely left me wanting more and I will be thinking about this book for weeks.

Loved this book! Loved the suspense and the paranormal aspect. Also the perfect ending to a great book!

Julie Soto’s The Thrashers was such a fun and thrilling read! It follows a group of high school students, nicknamed “The Thrashers,” who find themselves targeted by threatening messages after a tragic suicide. As strange and frightening events unfold, the question arises: is it the ghost of Emily—the girl they allegedly “thrashed” into taking her own life—seeking revenge? The story is full of twists and kept me guessing until the very end. Each member of the friend group harbors their own dark secret, adding layers of drama and mystery that made the book absolutely unputdownable.

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Julie Soto for the eARC.

The Trashers is a super fast paced, bingeable, ya thriller that will keep you reading just so you can figure out the truth behind everything.

Following a group of high school friends who are now feeling haunted by a classmate who has died right before prom. Jodi, our main character, is faced with the decision to turn her life upside down and testify against her friends who are being charged with Emily’s death or continue living life the way it was. As more information about Emily’s death comes forward, including a journal implicating all of her friends, what will Jodi do?

While this was a super fast book and really easy to binge, it felt like if someone made a Walmart brand Gone Girl and then aged it down. Also the random internalized fatphobia was crazy why was that necessary actually. I did in fact eat up the sub plot of romance and wish we could’ve explored that more. Also I didn’t like the epilogue justice for my fave character!!!!!

Excuse me, Ms Soto... I just want to have a word with you!

First of all, yes, I am writing this at 4am after I stayed up reading until I finished the book. Second, thank you to Netgalley for the e-arc, your contributions to ruining my life will be addressed after I talk to Julie. Third of all, that potential cliffhanger?? How dare!! Who do we have to talk to at the publishers to get book 2 in motion? Because I have a mighty need.

Thrillers aren't my genre, but after this it's pretty safe to say that Julie Soto is my genre. Whatever words and how many of them she wants to put on the page, I will read them.

I had to literally step aside after finishing this book just to get my thoughts in order. The Trashers is that good. The fact that this is Julie Soto’s debut YA thriller is insane! I’d give the book a solid 4 stars—with the epilogue alone earning 5. It’s gripping, fast-paced, and I devoured it in one sitting. Just when I thought I had everything figured out—boom, plot twist!

Side note: can we please get more of Jodi and Julian? Their banter was sooo good from the beginning, and I was desperately hoping something would happen between them. Julian showed up for her over and over again, and I seriously need more of them.

I absolutely loved Jodi as the main protagonist. The story follows her and her close group of friends—Zack Thrasher and their crew of five, dubbed “The Thrashers” by the rest of the school. It all starts with the suicide of 17-year-old Emily Mills, and from there, everything unravels. The group starts getting creepy texts, lights start flickering, and some weird paranormal stuff starts happening. Then, everyone—except Jodi—is suddenly a suspect or facing charges connected to her death.

Jodi isn’t rich like her friends—she lives with her alcoholic dad—and she’s always afraid of being the next one humiliated or thrown out. As the story unfolds, she uncovers dark truths that make her question everything she thought she knew.

And that epilogue? Left my head spinning. I seriously hope there’s more coming. I’m absolutely not ready to let go of this story yet.

The Thrashers features Jodi, who is part of a friend group known as The Thrashers. They are the popular and rich kids of the school… plus Jodi. When a tragedy happens, Jodi finds out that she knows nothing about the friend group she’s a part of.

This was written incredibly well. I was hooked and just wanted to finish the book. It was so readable, I just love Julie Soto’s writing style.

The plot was good. I’m not a huge thriller/mystery person, I often want to shout at the book/characters to stop lying and just TALK and that is what happened here. That’s not a negative to the book, that’s me with thrillers. But! I can say that, even as a non thriller reader, I wanted to keep going and was completely enthralled.

The pacing of the book started slow, but once I was about 20% in, I couldn’t put it down and read the last 80% in one sitting.

Overall, a good YA thriller that appealed to a non thriller reader!

Everyone at New Helvetia High wants to be in with The Thrashers - the coolest, most elite five kids on campus. When Emily Mills tries desperately to be part of the group but gets Thrashed out, she takes her own life. She makes sure that everyone knows that The Thrashers are responsible, though, and as secrets unravel the whole group realizes that they might now know their friends as well as they thought.

This was a super fun, twisty YA thriller debut from Julie Soto! I am more convinced than ever that there is nothing Julie cannot write and keep me on the edge of my seat with. The range is just impeccable.

I read this book start to finish in a day because I couldn’t put it down. I had to know what really happened between The Thrashers and Emily Mills. It was thrilling and twisty and right up there with the best YA thrillers I’ve read! This is a must-read for any fans of the genre and especially for fans of Holly Jackson and Karen McManus.

4.25 stars

This definitely reminded me of Pretty Little Liars in the best way. Reading this book was nostalgic for me in that regard. It was a bit darker than I might have expected for YA (this was my first YA thriller). But, I still think it is appropriate for an high school / college audience (thinking back to being in high school and college myself watching Pretty Little Liars). I found some of the characters not completely likable but I still wanted to keep going with the book. It was very fast paced and made you want to keep reading. I read this as part of a buddy read which also helped make reading this even more fun!

I will definitely be reading more books from Julie Soto!

The Thrashers feels like the treat one would get if they took Pretty Little Liars and Veronica Mars, threw them in a bowl, added a dash of early seasons Buffy, mixed it up, and baked it. There was mystery, scheming, and plenty of the emotional melodrama you anticipate from something about high schoolers. The story and the characters were engaging and once I started, it was a struggle to put it down.

The book is told mainly from the POV of Jodi Dillion. It follows her as she tries to make sense of the circumstances surrounding a girl from her schools unexpected death, while navigating high school drama, teenage pressures, and strained familial relationships. I think keeping the scope narrowed helped make this book so difficult to put down because as a reader I could only learn what was happening as fast as Jodi was. I’m already ready for another book in this world.

Finally, I won’t include CW in my review in order to keep it spoiler free but Julie Soto has provided a helpful list of CW’s for The Thrashers on her website.

Thank you Julie Soto and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read and review an early reader copy of The Thrashers. Reading it solidifies for me that if Julie Soto writes it, I will read it.

4.5 stars. I thought this was SO fun. It's got dark themes without being too dark overall (bless YA thrillers for that). I was excited to keep reading and it kept me guessing until the very end. Very satisfying! I need to read more YA thrillers. I mostly read physically but did listen to a few chapters via audio, as I had a gifted copy from Macmillan Audio (thank you!) and the audio was great too.

Literally SO MUCH happened in this. Start assigning this as required reading for teenagers honestly.

The plot was so engaging, the themes were important, AND a cheeky lil romance that made me want to scream????????

The dynamics of this friendship were so interesting and I was so curious about what would happen next every single time.

I was really rooting for my boy Julian. His and Jodi’s little relationship was so precious and I knew from the start it was going to happen. I was kicking my feet like crazy. He knows what he did and he owned up to it so I can’t blame him TOO harshly. I mean we can only expect so much from these 17 year olds.

I’m not super familiar with the ya thriller genre but I’d love to read a million more books like this I was HOOKED.

ARC from NetGalley

This book was a lot of fun to read and kept me hooked to find out what happens next. We’re in a high school setting where one girl has committed suicide and five students who make up a tight-knit popular friend group are accused of bullying. We get the whole story from Jodi’s perspective, one of the five, but who often feels like the odd one out. It was super interesting to see the friend group dynamics change over the timeframe of the criminal investigation for these teens. Add in some possible haunting and we’ve got some eerie things happening.

Thank you Netgalley for an advanced read of this book.

4.5/5 Stars

The good:
- The twists were top tier. I really could predict absolutely nothing.
- Jodi is such a unique perspective for a main character, where she is so self aware yet just continuously ignores her gut instinct? She is just a character I thought was so interesting.
- The cast of The Thrashers all had their own individual voices that kept me on my toes.
- The prologue was one of the best I've read in a while that kept me guessing, but makes so much sense once you finish reading the book.

The loss of a half star:
- I feel like there was just one plot point that didn't fully wrap up and it's been bugging me a bit, but maybe that means there's going to be more in this world going forward? I'd definitely read it.

Overall, for a YA thriller debut, exceeded my general expectations and I'd highly recommend it if you like YA Thrillers.