First--Julie is an autobuy author for me. I love her. And I love that this book is set in Sacramento, our hometown. Sac gets very little representation in modern literature, so it's heartwarming to see us in a book that's not about the Golden State Killer.

Second--thank you to Netgalley for this ARC. I am even more excited to see Julie on tour in May and get my signed copy.

The first few chapters took me a bit to read, but once I hit about 20%, it was nonstop. I stayed up until 2 AM to finish the whole thing. That ending left my jaw on the floor, and if I didn't have sleeping people in my house, I would've screamed. I don't want to spoil anything, so I shan't say more.

Julie can write romance like it's nobody's business, and with this book, she proves that she can write a YA thriller as well.

This book isn't even out yet! But my palms are itching to get ahold of the sequel. T__T

4.5 stars! I am a huge Julie Soto fan, so I was so excited to get an ARC of "The Thrashers." This was sooo different from her other books, but I loved it just the same! The storyline was very unique in my opinion, and I could not put this book down! In addition to the main story that revolved around Emily, there were so many other side stories that kept you wanting to learn more and made me want to figure it all out! There were quite a few heavy topics included, so be sure to read the TW before jumping into this book! I love how the book ended with the reader still asking a few questions!

A close knit group of friends dubbed “the Thrashers” by classmates are the center of a police investigation involving a sophomore who passed away.

THE THRASHERS is a fast paced, twisty YA thriller filled with unraveling secrets, unreliable narrators, and shifting loyalties. There’s PRETTY LITTLE LIARS vibes: an unseen presence threatening the group and picking at the seams of “the Thrashers” friendships. The pressure builds with every chapter as Jodi is pinned against her friends by the detectives, heightening her long held insecurities of not being enough, of being the one on the outside looking in. It’s a gut punch portrayal of what it feels like to be a teen and to question your place with the people you love most. I binged this book in 24 hours, and just sat in silence processing the epilogue.

I read this book in an immersive way, pairing the ARC with the ALC. The audiobook performance is exceptional. Eva Kaminsky voices Jodi, channeling a blend of teenage vulnerability, confusion, and self doubt. She also captures Jodi’s quiet strength as she learns to stand firmly on her own. Jessie Vilinsky embodies Emily’s journal entries, nailing the immature, tumultuous inner musings of a young teenage girl. Her slightly unhinged tone provides a counterbalance Jodi’s more grounded present day narrative. This dual performance elevates the entire story and I highly recommend the this book in all formats!

Thank you Macmillan Audio & Wednesday Books for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

The Thrashers is a thrilling young adult book by Julie Soto. It is such a bingeable read! This book has mystery, drama, and twist and turns that will leave you guessing until the very last page.

You will love and hate these characters all at the same time. Soto writes characters that you will become so invested in, by the end of the book, if you are like me, you’ll be hoping for a follow up to this book to see what these characters are up to next.

It’s overall, so well written. It will keep you entertained until the very end. A YA thriller done right!

Julie Soto can honestly write any genre. She has quickly become one of my favorite authors!

Thank you to Netgalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Wednesday Books for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

The Thrashers follows Jodi whose best friend Zack is one of the most popular kids in school. Zack has a click known has the Thrashers. One day a girl named Emily wants to join but she dies. At first it is ruled a suicide, but then her journal comes out. Which changes everything and makes it seem like the Thrashers are responsible for her death.

I will say this was a great YA thriller attempt from an author who hasn’t written a YA thriller before. I am a Julie Soto fan but this was my least favorite book I have read by her. I have read so many YA thrillers like this so I was left a little bored. The just seemed like a very run-of-the-mill book. If you have never read a YA thriller before I think you would find this a five star read. But for someone like me who loves YA thrillers it was just fine. I felt like there was a little too much drama in this one for me. But I did not think this was bad. I just have come to expect more from the thrillers I read. Also I will still read Julie Soto’s books because most of them I love.

Thank you so much Julie Soto and Wednesday Books, this comes out May 6!

As someone who is a fan of Julie’s adult romance novels, I knew I would like whatever she writes. But hooooly smokes. I didn’t expect to DEVOUR this book the way I did.
Im not a big thriller reader but I feel like this is a great introduction into the genre that a lot of people across a great span of ages could enjoy.
I really liked Jodi as our main character, and I think a lot of people can relate to her feelings around her friends. If you don’t keep reaching out to them, will they even bother to reach out to you? That feeling of being included but also excluded by the people that are YOU’RE best friends but maybe you’re not their best friend.
Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this book early. I’ll be first in line to buy my physical copy on May 5.


Ps. Justice for Julian Hollister. I’m obsessed with him

Julie Soto is trying something new with a delve into YA and suspense. It was entertaining enough to keep me reading, but the character development was lacking. YA does not mean the book needs to be simplified and basic. Although the premise was interesting enough to keep me reading the characters just did not feel authentic. Julie Soto is a great writer, and if she wants to go into Y a I would suggest using the same guide and true methods she uses for adult novels and just making characters teenagers.

I was hooked from the moment I opened the first page of the book, and I constantly found myself making time to sit down and read this. Julie Soto masterfully knows how to keep a readers attention hooked no matter the genre she does. It was fast passed and addictive and I just wish I could see this as the next teen thriller on TV! The Thrashers are five teens at the top of the social food chain, led by the magnetic Zach Thrasher. Jodi is the outsider, brought in by her lifelong friendship with Zach. But when a classmate, Emily, dies under tragic circumstances, the spotlight turns on them. Whispers of bullying grow louder. Could this perfect group be hiding something darker? After reading that ending I need t know if there will be a sequel, I need to keep reading the rest of this story!

I couldn’t get into this book at all and was immediately triggered by the prologue and suicide description. Plus they’re all in high school. My fault for going in blind.

Wow. I haven't encountered such an "un-put-down-able" read for quite a while.

There's this group of extremely popular and chic kids in one of Sacramento's high schools - the Thrashers. Everyone wants to be them and be with them. But there's a sad history that those who try to hang out with the core group of five friends - Zack, Julian, Paige, Lucy, and Jodi - are eventually toyed with and forgotten, or "thrashed," as the school came to call it. Was this what happened to Emily, a girl a year younger than them, who recently took her own life? Was the Thrashers' unkindness the reason for this radical step? At least, that's the version the police begin to investigate as we follow the group through their senior year of high school - the year after Emily's death. Jodi, who is the narrative center, observed by the close third-person narrator, must consider whether she has any reason to believe what she believes about her friends. She's always felt like the fifth wheel in the group: not rich, not modelling-grade conventionally beautiful, not Ivy League-bound, not a party animal like the others. She is also the one who was closer to Emily and kinder to her when her friends didn't hesitate to hint that they didn't want the other girl around. Why are they keeping Jodi in the group at all - will she be painfully "thrashed" as well?

The book description and the reviews I looked at before grabbing the ARC emphasized that this book was about the desperate need to belong, to be part of the group, that drives people to do crazy and unkind and outwardly terrible things. Which this book definitely is, and brilliantly so.

But another theme that I really appreciated here is the uncanny feeling that the world is a completely different thing to the person next to you, and the encounters you both participated in are part of a completely different story to them. Everything is not what it seems, Soto emphasizes repeatedly, or at least it doesn't seem the same to the other person as it does to you. I really like this kind of storytelling, and here I think the story is made even more powerful by choosing a close third-person narrative for Jodi, with the conventional perception of objectivity that comes with it, over a first-person narrative, which we tend to suspect of being unreliable for malicious reasons. This third-person narrative is unreliable, but not because Jodi is deceiving us (the convention is that the third-person narrator should have mentioned that, right?), but because Jodi is wrong about the meaning of the things she believes about life. Now, I don't want to emphasize the "Jodi is wrong" aspect in this review, because this is not about one person's tragic misunderstanding of the world (if anyone, that would be Emily, who is portrayed as clearly having some mental health issues that get in the way of correctly "reading" social situations); it's about each and every one of us having a very selective understanding of the world.

The genre? It's like a detective story, but instead of figuring out a "whodunnit," we have to figure out what might be going on in someone else's head while you're not paying attention to your words and their consequences.

Highly recommended. Publication date May 6, 2025.

I am grateful to the publisher for providing me with the eARC through NetGalley. The opinion above is entirely my own.

holy moly this book was so freaking good. i literally cannot get over how quickly i devoured it. grateful to have received an advanced copy! this book was for sure a top read for me so far this year and i loved every minute of it. the whole story kept me on the edge of my seat and so many times i didn’t know what was going to happen. i really loved jo and thought her character was amazing, that ending was wild and i can’t believe it. i did not want this book to end, 10/10.

Thank you NetGalley for an early copy! This book had me on the edge of my seat, plus I had to out the lights on at home because it did keep me freaked. The book follows one characters POV but involves a group of five friends. I need book two or a little more of what happens to Julian. I will definitely be recommending this book to my friends!

First things first. I'm a sucker for Julie Soto's work and I was SO excited to receive the e-galley for her new YA book! She is an instant-buy author for me and I can't wait for others to read this when it is released!

Jodi, our strong female lead was such a interesting character! I related SO much to her character, it really felt like I was right back in high school again. Friends with the "popular" kids but not popular myself and kind of in the background as a wallflower. Just known enough to part of a social group but never really feeling like I fit in. It definitely brought back memories (good and bad) and Julie Soto did an AMAZING job setting just the perfect atmosphere.

I absolutely devoured this book and was drawn in right away from the first few chapters! The mysterious circumstances behind Emily's death had me on an emotional rollercoaster and when it felt like I had the story figured out, she pulled the rug out from under me!!

Highly, highly recommend and I wish there was more!

This had major I Know What You Did Last Summer energy, and I was into it. Tight friend group, something terrible happens, everyone’s got secrets, and things start spiraling. Classic setup, and it works.

I didn’t expect the supernatural twist, but it fit. What surprised me more was how much emotional depth it had. The main character’s relationship with her parents hit harder than I expected. I also liked that she was allowed to be messy and flawed, and had to actually sit with that instead of getting a free pass. It gave the whole story more weight than I thought it would have.

Fast-paced, compelling, and just spooky enough without going full horror. Solid read.

I wasn’t sure I’d like this one (teen books are hit or miss for me), but… I did! Super fast-paced, creepy, and a touch of teenage angst. Could do without the mean girl energy.

That ending though??? There has to be a sequel, right??? I’m so conflicted!!!!

(Thank you, St. Martin's Press, Macmillan Audio, and Netgalley, for the ARC and audiobook ARC in exchange for my honest review.)

One big suspenseful mystery surrounded by drama, secret and lies. High school cliques and truths told in such a way that will keep you up at night finishing because you “need to know”…what really happened to Emily, who the Thrashers really are and what they are capable of doing. And can I take a moment for the epilogue?! Kudos to the author for leaving me both in awe and with chills. This was a bingable, gripping YA thriller with exceptionally well written characters and an equally impressive, immersive and dynamic plot.

"It wasn’t that they didn’t want one, it’s that they didn’t think of it. She was an afterthought. She wondered how long she’d been an afterthought."

What the fuck just happened?

What the fuck am I supposed to do with my life after this book? ESPECIALLY after that epilogue!? That was just rude, I need more. How dare this book.

“That’s your problem, Jodi. You’ve always thought there’s someone more special, more deserving. Zack Thrasher’s life, his comfort, his happiness— it’s always been more important to you than anyone else’s.”

I did not finish this book. It finished me. I am changed. Found the light. Etc, etc. Okay, I'm done lmao

"She felt so foolish. What would she even say if anyone asked why she was crying? My friends’ lives don’t revolve around me? I got sad, and getting sad got me sadder?"

I was so hesitant going into this because I do not like thrillers but for some unknown reason the last few books I've read have had a thriller component and I've loved them so who am I am?

“Jodi, I knew what I was doing when I gave you that USB.”

This exceeded my expectations. I was confused the entire time. I was livid. I was living the little romance that was happening. I was hating Emily. I was feeling bad for Emily. I was hating the Thrashers. Loving the Thrashers. Everything. Jodi was such a raw character. I've had so many thoughts like she did throughout the book that I had to stop and not cry because I was like, I know what you're feeling and it hurts.

“The only person you’d take the fall for. Who we’d all take the fall for.”

Pretty sure I never liked Zach tho, that guy…wow.

I'm not sure what to even say? I don't want to spoil anything for you guys since it is mYsTeRiOuS but we have Emily, the girl who didn't fit. We have the unattainable Thrashers, the ones everyone wants to fit in with. And then, we have questions.

Emily kills herself, and her journal surfaces, blaming the Thrashers for bullying her.

What's real?

What's fake?

Is there a paranormal aspect??

You'll just have to read to find out *winky wink*

Thank you so much to Wednesday Books and the author for this eARC! Please write a sequel. I am begging you. I want to reread this already.

"One of them couldn’t breathe, one of them couldn’t think, and one of them couldn’t swim."

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing me with an egalley of this book to read and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
Julie Soto is a new found author for me. I read Not Another Love Song and liked it so much I immediately requested this title without even reading the blurb! I can say, I was not disappointed at all. It may be my favorite by her so far. Usually YA is hit or miss with me, depending on the topic. This one was a hit. I didn't want to put it down. I wanted to call out sick from work just so I could finish it!
Jodi Dillion is part of The Thrashers, an elite group of teens who everyone would love to be "in" with. She was never meant to be part of their group but since Zack Thrasher is her best childhood friend, she was automatically in with them. But their group has been tainted by the suicide of a Emily Mills, who tried hard to befriend them and become a part of their group. When the group becomes the center of an investigation to see if their actions lead to Emily's death, Jodi begins to find out she may not be as privy to the inner goings of her group as she thinks she is.
I love a good mystery/thriller. Add in some paranormal elements, which I was not expecting, and it makes it even more fun. Soto kept me intrigued the entire time. She slowly leaked snippets of what truly happened and Jodi was collecting those clues to figure it all out. The pacing was fast and the plot was unusual. I loved the idea of there potentially being a ghost or spirit haunting the group and how they dealt with it.
The book is narrated from Jodi's POV. She definitely doesn't fit with her group of friends. She's the outsider who has infiltrated due to her association with their "leader". Her family is broke, she lives on the wrong side of town, and she isn't sophisticated. And she knows it. She's also been in love with her best friend Zack for as long as she can remember. But everyone wants a piece of him, including the two other girls that make up The Thrashers: Lucy and Paige. Plus she doesn't get along with Julian, Zack's best friend. I liked learning about all the characters from Jodi's POV and it was interesting to see how her idea of each of them changed as the story unfolded. There was so much toxicity with the friendships being portrayed, and a look into bullying that will make your head spin. And the romance was unexpected but I loved it. It is not the center of the book but it definitely has it's place and made for more interesting interactions with the characters. It's a slow burn that involves chemistry and banter with small gestures that build on each other.
I will say this, that ending leaves a ton of room for another book! I literally had goosebumps when I read the epilogue! Will there be another book? I cannot see that Julie won't write it. In any case, I really hope so because I need more. I need a conclusion that is satisfying for one particular character's plot line!
If you're looking for a YA mystery with Heather's/Pretty Little Liar's (think high school hierarchy) vibes, tons of secrets, light romance, and a bit of the paranormal (did someone say ghosts/spirits?), do yourself a favor and pick this one up. You will not be disappointed.

JULIE SOTO. Thank you for writing a YA mystery/thriller that I LOVE. I wouldn’t say I’ve been searching for a book in this genre, but I have not had any luck with what I have read UNTIL NOW.

A group of friends, who the students of their school have dubbed The Thrashers (named after their “leader”, Zach Thrasher), find themselves at the center of an investigation. Emily Mills, who was desperate to be part of the group, died by suicide, but her journal entries and statements from fellow students lead the detectives to believe The Thrashers played a hand in her death. Jodi Dillon, a friend in the group who most of the time felt she didn’t belong, is forced to make impossible decisions regarding her and her friends as events occur that can only be attributed to the supernatural.

Like I said, I haven’t had great luck with YA mysteries/thrillers, but this one had me hooked from the beginning! It was so well written (which, let’s be honest, Julie Soto is one of my favorite authors at this point), but I think what really solidified this as a great novel for the genre is that any reveals were not chalked up to some insane twist that didn’t fit the narrative (that’s an issue I tend to have with the genre). My heart also broke on more than one occasion for various characters. I really want this to see this on screen!

Thank you Wednesday Books and NetGalley for an advance copy!!

The Thrashers follows a close-knit friend group after one of their acquaintances commits suicide on their prom night. But now strange things are happening, and the police are very interested in the events surrounding the death.

I was extremely excited about this book when Julie Soto announced it as I loved her previous writings. But I did struggle a bit with this one. The beginning was strong; I was instantly hooked and needed to know what happened to Emily and if Jodi/her friends had anything to do with it. Some of the secrets were interesting, but I was expecting something more. Overall, I enjoyed it and would still recommend this book to young adult thriller readers. I believe I just may not have been the target audience for this book.