Thank you so much to @Macmillanaudio for the advance ALC!
Thank you so much to @StMartinsPress & @WednesdayBooks for the advance copy!

This book will be out on May 6th.

First off, please make sure you check the trigger warnings for this.

Sigh. I am sorry Julie Soto and it pains me to say that this book didn't hit the way I wanted to. I have seen so many stellar reviews and I had such high hopes but it fell flat.

I am not even sure what didn't work for me. I think I was just waiting for more to happen. There were a lot of characters and I wished I had kept track of who was who. I kept getting people confused as I listened and had to rely on Google AI to help with the character names.

This book is essentially a ghost story. The ghost of Emily is surrounding these group of kids called The Thrashers. Emily wanted to be one so bad and over the course of the book we learn more about her and her desperation to join this clique. All the students who are in this group are unreliable and you don't know which one to point fingers at.

Jodi is our narrator and her background was interesting! I was fascinated by her character and how there were connections from her to things that were happening in things surrounding Emily (sorry I have to be vague for your own surprise). I felt bad for her! Her home life had not been a good and she has gone through things a young girl shouldn't have to have worried about.

Two of my favorite narrators are on this one - Eva Kaminsky and Jesse Vilinsky. Their voices are fairly similar so I'm not sure who took on Emily's journal and who did the rest. Honestly I think doing the audio was my saving grace while reading this. I feel like I would have struggled if I read with my eyes only (or perhaps reading with eyes would have been better for me?). Both of them have this natural voice that makes them sound young which fits the ages of the characters in the book.

I love that Julie is taking chances and doing things outside of romance (she has a romantasy coming out soon in addition to this YA thriller). Perhaps if I didn't have this preconceived notion going into it, it may have been different. Please review other reviews as I know they will be stellar!

I will say that I thought the end was pretty good. I know book friends in our buddy read are hoping with the way it end that we could potentially be getting a 2nd book. Will I read it? Probably!