Wow! I almost don’t know what the say after the last third of the book. I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN. A perfect rollercoaster of a thriller!! Really hope the story continues!!

The book took a little bit to get into momentum but it was so worth it!

This book was INCREDIBLE I truly could not put it down. Finished it in one sitting it had me gripping my seat wondering what would happen next. This book follows The Thrashers, a group of best friends who are accused of bullying a girl into committing suicide on prom night. The twists at the end were so unexpected and the relationship that blossomed between the FMC and one of the other Thrashers was so good. I just wish they could have had a happy ending together.

I am a new Julie Soto fan. This is the second book of hers that I have read. The Thrashers was a very enjoyable read. She has officially become an autobuy author.

New Julie Soto book is an absolute masterpiece! Her writing is just beautiful! And how she changes genres! You never know what will be next.

I loved paranormal line in the plot very much. The book is so captivating, I couldn't put it down!
The characters are so well-thought, they have depth and I really enjoy the dynamics.

I think it is one of the best books of Julie Soto!

“Do you ever feel like you're not enough?”

Julie Soto’s writing is absolutely captivating. Whether it is her contemporary romance, fan-fiction, or now her YA thriller suspense - she compels the reader to immerse themselves in the story and not come up for air until the final page.
This book was truly outstanding. The delicate mix of suspense and paranormal plot with characters dealing with real life situations and heavy subject matter was so beautifully done. I can’t wait to read it again.

Please read it so we can discuss. I know who I love most and I want to know if you agree.
I hope there will be a second book because… gah!

Thank you to St Martin’s Publishing and Julie Soto for a digital advance reader copy.

I am usually not a fan of thrillers; I'm a romance/romantsy reader all the way, but The Thrashers was so good that I couldn't put it down. The Thrashers follows a group of five high school friends who are haunted by the death of a classmate. It has a lot of twists and turns that are delicious, I also enjoyed that paranormal element. It is my understanding currently that this is a standalone; however, if there ever was a sequel, I would be the first one reading it. It's just that good.

This is the third Julile Soto book I have read, and I have not been disappointed. She is easily becoming one of my favorite authors.

Thank you Wednesday Books, NetGalley and Julie for this eARC!!!

I really enjoyed this story and the way it was told. I will be honest I’m confused and I think will stay that way until Julie talks more about it. I read this in basically one sitting and was up late to read. What I thought was a summer vibe turned into a cool autumn vibe with lots of spooky supernatural vibes.

This is such a different genre for Julie to pivot to, but it proves that she is a master at writing because I could NOT put this book down. I have so many questions for her. I think this debut into YA is so strong and will be so interesting to see what else she writes in this genre. It’s also proof that I’ll read whatever Julie writes and cementing the fact that she is an auto-buy author for me.

I can understand if some readers may not like this book and rate low. The ending is well done in my opinion and definitely leads to even more questions. I’ll be thinking of this book for a while.

4.5 stars ✨
here is a link to my GR review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7358885214

Here are internal thoughts over characters- kinda unhinged

I like Julian - respectfully I’d love a book or snippet from his point of view because WOW. I don’t know how to feel about him. I did suspect he had feelings for Jodi but Jodi had feelings for Zack and who didn’t love Zack? Zack’s like the sun and everyone orbits around him, trying to stay in the light more. But Julian’s like cruel teasing towards Jodi scream elementary school crush, but the end of the book is like ??? oh you’re serious. His ARC was quite interesting and I mean despite his actions being the catalyst for Emily’s suicide, he was there for Jodi. Or was it Emily haunting him??? It’s so SHADY I can’t decipher where his true feelings were or his guilt from what happened to Emily.
Zack - I liked him at first, he was all sunshine and of course from Jodi’s perspective, how can you not love him? Talk about rose colored glass or whatever. He sucked at the end. Very self absorbed and wanted to be blameless and wouldn’t really accept that some of his actions were really not well thought out.

Emily is crazy - POOR VANESSA SHE DIDNT HAVE TO TIP JODI OFF TO HE WRITTEN OFF LIKE THAT. Emily was really obsessive and her prying into everyone’s secrets is wild and so intrusive. The glass bottle being Paige is crazy but like the parallel to Jodi and her father…I can’t believe she’s going to haunt Julian for a while. Can we get a book from his POV? How do we know his actions were his or if Emily was yelling at him in ghost form??

Hannah is also extremely complex to think about - hacker and stalking and then planting a fake diary??? lowkey genius but also girl ??????

Jodi ?????
Jodi is the main character and we read 98% of the book through her perspective. So I’m sus she’s so quiet like girl speak up😭

I liked Julian at the end but the epilogue has me fucked

A great book that my students in the upper grades would love. It was a thrilling read that kept me up late turning pages and I believe it would grip not only young people but also adults. I enjoyed the touch of romance and it was my favorite Julie Soto book.

“Get too close, and you’ll get Thrashed.”
I had so much trouble putting this book down, it was that good! This was such a great YA thriller, with a little bit extra surprise in there.
The Thrashers follows Jodi Dillon, who’s about to start her senior year at New Helvetia High, and her friend group, the “Thrashers”. After the death of Emily Mills, suspicions about the friends’ relationships with her start to be questioned.
Jodi was a character that I really related to. She questions her place in the group a lot, especially after secrets begin to come to light. All while trying to navigate school and future college/career decisions.
And that epilogue? I need more ASAP!

whoa.

Julie Soto has been an Insta-buy author since I got my grubby hands on her first published book and I will never look back. This book though is not romance and I am first and foremost a romance reader, BUT...BUT...I could not put it down. I think once I hit the 50-60% mark it was game over - I stayed up until 1:00 am to finish it and then proceeded to re-think and dream about the book the rest of the night.

This book is YA, paranormal, thriller/mystery and I devoured it. I reread the end 3 times and now want to force this book on all my friends so we can gab about it perpetually.

Thanks, NetGalley + St. Martin's press for the ARC.

my first julie soto book and it was amazing. she needs to keep on writing these types of books because she literally killed it with this one. the pacing, storyline and characters were incredible and it was easy to follow through. 5 well deserving stars.

This was such a fun, unexpected book. I went in expecting a mystery, and it definitely fits that bill, but what will stick with me about this book are the small nuances and social commentary that Soto is able to weave into a teenage mystery. There are moments in this book where Soto brilliantly (and sometimes brutally) captures what it feels like to always be the person who put others first but who no one else thinks of first. That feeling of being an afterthought is so tragically portrayed through Jodi’s relationship and journey in this group. But what is so haunting about this book is how even the people who feel like an afterthought in their own lives can unknowingly treat others the same way. It’s a hard and real look at what it means to really know and care for people in the modern world where so much is curated and focused on appearance. What is most realistic in this story is there is very little black and white. The victims are not always completely innocent and the villains are not always completely guilty. No one is all Good or all Bad… as in the real world, everyone is a little of both. And I absolutely adore the splashes (and flickers…iykyk) of the supernatural. The epilogue was especially spooky and fun! This is one of my favorite YA books I have read in a while!

I genuinely don’t know how I feel about this book. I think I’ll be staring at the wall for weeks.

The ending of the book made me so mad but Julie Soto did take me by surprise. I’m not happy about it but she did.

The entire book I was tense, on the edge of my seat, trying to put the pieces together to figure out what was a lie and what was true. I connected with the characters, then they switched up on me. And by the end, the character I hated, then loved, ended up in the worst possible position and I’m so mad about it. What may be shocking is that I don’t feel bad for the girl that died. But once you read it, you’ll understand.

If you feel like reading a book that will have you tense, on the edge of your seat, and give you a newfound fear of ghosts, while simultaneously leaving you so mad at the end of it, I highly recommend this one. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book like this one, that made me feel the way this did.

February 27, 2025
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Julie Soto is a force to be reckoned with. To be fair I will read anything she writes, but The Thrashers proves that she really has the chops to write for any genre 👑 First of all, thank you to the publishers for an ARC through NetGalley! I completely devoured this YA thriller that drops you right back into high school. If I had to describe the premise in one sentence, it would be ‘a modern take on The OC and the fallout after a classmate’s suicide’. Let’s be real—who doesn’t want to read about wealthy teens behaving badly? The plot gripped me from the start and has so many twists and turns as the mystery is unraveled. Julie Soto always writes tension so well and this book is no exception. She also is able to strike a balance between writing an entertaining story and likable main character while also writing some very haunting and disturbing scenes. She really transports the reader back into the headspace of being a teenager while exploring themes like popularity, bullying, and identity. Also, I know this is a thriller but can we please take a moment for the way Julie Soto writes yearning men? Phewww. 😅 Lastly the ending packs a punch that leaves you so unsettled 💀 Overall, for her first foray into the thriller genre this is masterfully done! I do recommended checking trigger warnings because there are several very heavy issues explored in this story (e.g. suicide, alcoholism, domestic violence, statutory rape, underage drinking/drug use just to name a few).

This YA thriller about a popular group in high school that faces scrutiny after the suicide of a classmate might sound like a story you've heard before, but this book takes you to entirely new places. Julie Soto perfectly captures the desire to belong, to be included, as well as the idiocy of teenagers, while still humanizing many of their mistakes. It's a fun ride, despite some unevenness in the storytelling, with a shock ending that is worth every minute of read time.

I’m gonna be completely honest that I don’t even know where to begin with my review of this book. I spent some majority of the book trying to figure out what was going on and what was happening, but that same confusion is what kept me turning the pages and determined to figure it out. So in that sense, the book was completely engaging. The story about a young girl who has taken her own life because she is bullied by the group of popular kids is a tale as old as time. What makes this different is that one of the members of the popular group has a conscience and finally has her eyes opened to what the rest of the world already sees. It has an interesting supernatural element that you’re never really sure if it is real or not and as the true colors of the various characters, come out, you realize that not any of them are people you’d want to be friends with or would want your child to be friends with. As someone who teaches high school students the meanness of teenagers is never far out of my world and this book really drives home how mean kids can be to others. I definitely felt like the book was a little too long, but that seems to be the standard with YA books these days, it seems that there has been a recent trend of adults, reading these books, and so I think the authors have changed their writing to do that, and I wish that they would not, because my students who are reluctant readers who might really enjoy this book are not going to sit down to read a 400 page book. I definitely will be buying this one for my classroom if only because I want some students to read it so I can talk to them about it.

I’m sure this book will be for others, but it was not for me.

What I liked:

It was a quick read

What didn’t work for me:

To be honest, I was so bored for this entire book. I didn’t care about the characters, the mystery, the plot - all of it was not for me.

I was not shocked at all by the ending, which is odd for me. I never see twists coming, but I saw this one from a mile away.

The pacing felt a bit off at times

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Wednesday Books for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are entirely my own.

First, Julie Soto, the author that you are…once again, another fantastic read!!

This is pretty different from my normal reads and I almost wasn’t sure if I would even enjoy it before I picked it up. I was promptly proven wrong and all preconceived notions of this book went out the window. I was incredibly addicted to this and I finished it within 24 hours!

The writing flowed very well and the dialogue felt incredibly natural. It truly felt like a real group of friends interacting and incredibly well-written in the perspective of teenagers in high school. The dynamics were perfect and the drama felt incredibly realistic. Some parts of the relationships felt frustrating and annoying to read but, this honestly added to the plot as it felt true to how a teenager would reason through things if in a similar situation.

There was about 1% of a romantic subplot and I am already banging my head against a wall for there not having any more. I needed more of the chemistry and relationship than I got and I’m pretty sad about there only being that tiny part of it within the book.

Also, the ending is superb. I was not expecting it and I felt I just got whiplash reading it. I think there absolutely needs a sequel because I have so many questions I need answers to.

Conclusion: everyone should run and preorder this so we can get a sequel!

Another 5 star read!

I consider this book an absolute must read. Once the plot got going it had me feeling all kinds of ways and wanting to know what would happen next. Think Veronica Mars level of teen drama and mystery. The best part - you won't be able to predict the ending! I still have chills thinking about it. My only wish now is that there is a sequel. Enjoy!

Thank you St Martins Press, Wednesday Books, and Net Galley for this ARC.
Very high 4 stars for this read! It was so spooky and reminded me of Pretty Little Liars in all the best ways. I truly did not know where it was going and the supernatural elements kept me guessing.