I listened to the audio of this YA-thriller. The depiction was of bullying was so intense, I really felt for the main character. The narrator did a great job telling the story. In this school it’s survival of the fittest.

Lia Setiawan wins track scholarship to the prestigious Draycott Academy. Her first day there is crazy. She is warned not to upstage the popular girl on the track team. Desperate to keeping her scholarship, Lia brushes it off and blows her out of the water. This is when the bullying begins. She is being blackmailed by someone determined to get her thrown out of school. But why?

Harassed by her classmates and working endlessly to pass her impassable classes, Lia begins to uncover the many secrets at Draycott Academy. Not everyone is thrilled about Lia’s inquiries. In this school it is survival of the fittest,

Thank you to Netgalley and Tantor Audio for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC
This book taking place from a fresh perspective was really lovely. Writing a perfect expression of identity is definitely one of Sutanto's greatest strengths and definitely welcome in this specific genre that is oversaturated from a certain (often White) perspective. However, I think this book moves at a strange pace, and in an attempt to be relatable to the target audience looses sight of authenticity within the narrative.

3.5 stars. I really did like this book. However, the extreme amount of stress and anxiety that Lla was experiencing sort of ruined it for me. Because Lia was so likable, you hate seeing a good protagonist go through all of that . Especially at such a young age.
Lia Setiawan is a track and field star who gets a scholarship to the prestigious Draycott Academy. Almost from day 1, after seeing a student dragged off campus kicking & screaming, Lia finds herself in an entirely different world and a whole heap of trouble. She’s gets caught up in a drug ring and a cheating scandal. She can trust no one. And then she accidentally murders her English lit teacher…
This novel definitely took teenage angst to a whole other level.

*Thank you to NetGalley & Sourcebooks Fire for the e-audio version of this book.*

Ummm, I have so many questions. Mostly in a good way tho. Excellent story: mean girls meets crazy rich Asians with a little cruel intentions kinda drug vibe. 🕵️‍♀️ Four stars

This is a story about the new girl at school.

If you love school based YA thrillers, this is a quick, twisty read! I think a lot of readers will enjoy it.

… but it wasn’t quite for me. I don’t mind an unlikable protagonist- but I’ve discovered in recent reading that I really don’t enjoy books that don’t seem to be aware of that central fact. The lead here makes consistent poor choices with minimal accountability, while commenting on the privilege of the youth around her who are spoiled… because they get to make poor choices with minimal accountability. No one here is the good guy, and there’s no justice for the one character who seems potentially guiltless.

Thank you so much Netgalley & Tantor audio for the Alc!

A twisty YA mystery/thriller set in a posh private academy. Lia is the new girl in school there on a track scholarship, feeling like the odd one out she stumbles on some dark secrets about both her teacher and classmates. The narration was great, the story kept me entertained and I liked the focus on Asian American characters/experiences. Recommended for fans of The firekeeper's daughter. Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my advance review copies in exchange for an honest review.

I thought this book was going to end at least 16 times. I am very unsure how I feel about it. It just felt like A LOT was going in

The New Girl Review

So after reading and loving The Obsession last year I couldn’t wait to read this book. Sadly this book didn’t pull me in the same way and honestly it was struggle to keep listening at first. About 40 percent into the story a major plot development happened and I had to see how it would play out. My issue is that Lia would come up with an idea that wasn’t the greatest, say it wasn’t good, proceed anyway and then when it went left she was like yeah not a good plan. Ya think? As the story progressed we have some over the top things that happened that was just too unbelievable for me and the ending in my opinion felt rushed and unfulfilling. The narrator was good and probably one the reasons I finished this story.

*3.5 stars*

I’d like to thank NetGallery and the publisher for giving an audio copy of the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

She’s a liar. A cheater. A murder. And it’s only her first semester.

Lia Setiawan has never fit in. She gets into Draycott Academy, a prestigious private school full of rich students, on a full scholarship and she’s determined that everything goes right. On her first day she witnesses, Sophie Tanaka, the girl who’s spot she had taken, being forcefully removed from the school kicking and screaming. Lia starts suspecting something is wrong after seeing how everyone reacts to Sophie being taken away. When Lia finally gets to her room, she finds something starting written on the wall. Soon, she finds herself wrapped in drama and secrets that has been going on long before she even started going there.

This was such a good story, I found myself anxiously waiting to see what Lia would do next. I do find at times things are predicable, but the way things happens is what kept me going. There was moments where I was mentally screaming at the main character not to do something she was about to do. I love the way the author portrays how guilt ridden Lia becomes and how it affects her decision making. The way that Draycott Dirt was used to make the story move along was amazing. I’ve actually seen apps similar to this anonymous secret app and it’s nice to have it brought to light how nasty they can turn.

It was nice reading about Lia’s Chinese-Indonesian culture and how it actually affects her actions and ways of thinking. I don’t know much about the struggles that was presented about the Asian community, but if it’s true, it could be good that it’s being brought to light in books. Though, maybe not in a book like this one.

The narrator took me a second to get used to. She was really good at changing her voice according to which character was speaking. The main thing that got to me was how breathy she was and when I sped up the audio, she started sound robotic which made it somewhat hard to follow along until I got used to it.

All and all, this was a fun story. Despite its predictability, I’d recommend it.

Overall, this is a pretty standard 2010s “boarding school thriller.” Mean girls, the super rich, and stress over grades dominate the storyline, which I didn’t mind. However, I did kind the outdated cringe teen references.

This book was very suspenseful. Even though I kept getting frustrated at the main characters very poor decisions, I had to keep reading. It wasn’t exactly satisfying, because I feel like there were some loose ends that weren’t perfectly explained. Also the “villains” in this were very caricature-ish.

I did enjoy the references to Indonesian culture, racism within the Asian community, and toxicity at boarding schools. As a character, Lia was very relatable (even if she was a dumb hothead).

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy of this book. I got approved for the audiobook. The narrator does a good job and I enjoyed the recording.
See I just saw Jesse W Sutanto and clicked request. I am terrible about asking for books without knowing what they are about. Definitely not my best choice here because I usually end up not liking YA books. Putting my dislike for YA aside, this was a decent read. The story was so wild, the things rich kids get up to at private school. Very much Gossip Girl vibes. If you like a good YA mystery/thriller you would enjoy this.

The New Girl is a dark academia/horror story about Lia as she starts the new school year at Draycott Academy. But The Academy turns out to be a nightmare as problems arise for Lia with an awful bullying app, a cheating ring, and drugs.

One thing I think this book did really well is representation. The main character Lia is Indonesia/Chinese which I think is a super unrepresented population in YA.

However, this book just did not mesh well with me for a lot of reasons. First of all, I hate reading about mean girls in YA books. It's such an old overused trope, and in this book it seems like everyone hates Lia for no reason. The bullying app is really unsettling and might be triggering for some kids. Lia's self-talk is incredibly self-deprecating, and it didn't sit well with me that every time she found herself in a difficult situation, she'd call herself names to try and talk herself out of it. I didn't like that at all. Another thing that's a personal preference is that this book has a lot of swearing. I don't mind swearing in adult books and when used sparingly in YA books, but it was a bit overkill for me. I wanted to like this book. I really did, but unfortunately, this wasn't for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ALC. Eunice Wong was a good narrator.

Wow - I loved The Obsession, so The New Girl was highly anticipated the second I heard Jesse Q. Sutanto was coming out with a new book. I've been on a prep-school reading kick and this has been my favorite in a long time. The main character Lia is a new student on a track scholarship at a prestigious Draycott Academy - and it is full of privileged rich kids. Except everything is not as nice as it seems. Scandalous teachers, a cheating ring, gossip-girl-esque app, and more.

On Lia's first day of school, she sees another student getting aggressively escorted out of the school. The students seem unphased, but Lia knows something is up. The closer she gets to uncovering the truth, the more people want to shut her up. And when a dead body shows up....all bets are off.

This book was so good! And it took such a different turn than I was expecting in the best possible way. This book is perfect for fans of Maureen Johnson, Karen McManus, Kara Thomas and Holly Jackson.

TW: Racism, assault, drug abuse

Thank you, NetGalley for the early look at the book - absolutely devoured it.

***Thanks to NetGalley for providing me a complimentary audiobook of THE NEW GIRL by Jesse Q Sutanto and narrated by Eunice Wong in exchange for my honest review.***

Lia on a track scholarship at her new boarding school, encounters an unfriendly atmosphere in this fast paced dark academia thriller that will have readers rooting for, while at the same time wanting to yell at Lia to use some common sense.

I never knew which characters I could trust, including narrator Lia. She saw herself more of a victim than I did as and didn’t seem to recognize her contribution to the bad situations she encountered. Lia never tried to fit into the school atmosphere.

Jesse Stutanto has a way of stringing together words that’s both unique and inspired. I loved her writing style. I don’t think I would have enjoyed the story of THE NEW GIRL as much with a lesser writer.

Eunice Wong expertly narrates male and female and adult and teen voices in a manner that differentiates the characters. Her edgy voice elevates THE NEW GIRL and allowed me to overlook some of the more preposterous elements of the multiple crimes in the story.

THR NEW GIRL will appear to a number younger and older YA readers. I’ll probably listen a second time at some point to look for clues I missed.

Holy action-packed! I flew through this within just a few hours of gaining access to it. Initially, it felt too young for something I would enjoy, but with the amount of actions and twists thrown in, it was easy to fly through this. Every time I felt like we were somehow already at the end, another twist was through in, and off we went again. This was so fast-paced, I just had to finish it. I did genuinely enjoy it and I can foresee a lot of other YA readers loving it as well. The beginning had a few cringe moments, but I definitely recommend this novel. This is a great young dark academia thriller!

Lia has been awarded a track scholarship to Draycott Academy, a prestigious private school full of rich kids. She sticks out like a sore thumb but she is determined to make the best of it. But on day one, she sees a student being dragged away forcefully from campus. Nobody but her seems to be concerned by it. As classes start-up and she starts to get negative attention from the other students, Lia starts to notice things aren't quite right at her fancy new school. She has to decide how much she is willing to put up with and how much she is willing to dig. But it doesn't just seem like shady things are going on, it seems she may actually be putting herself in danger...

I think the narrator did a good job at differentiating characters and molding her voice to fit a younger character.