| Title | : | Five Survive |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0755504402 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780755504404 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 391 |
| Publication | : | First published November 29, 2022 |
Eight hours.
Six friends.
One sniper . . .
Eighteen year old Red and her friends are on a road trip in an RV, heading to the beach for Spring Break. It’s a long drive but spirits are high. Until the RV breaks down in the middle of nowhere. There’s no mobile phone reception and nobody around to help. And as the wheels are shot out, one by one, the friends realise that this is no accident. There’s a sniper out there in the dark watching them and he knows exactly who they are. One of the group has a secret that the sniper is willing to kill for.
A game of cat-and-mouse plays out as the group desperately tries to get help and to work out which member of the group is the target. Buried secrets are forced to light in the cramped, claustrophobic setting of the RV, and tensions within the group will reach deadly levels. Not everyone will survive the night.
Five Survive Reviews
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(4.5 stars) Um. Wow. The ending has me kind of speechless. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
I will admit that it took me a littleeee bit to get into the book but once I did, it moved so. fast. The book is super fast paced and the ending is full of so many twists that I did not see coming.
We also follow six very different characters. It was so interesting to read about their dynamic with one another, their secrets, and how they all react under the pressure of a life-or-death situation. PLUS, the whole story takes place in less than 24 hours inside an RV which is such a unique concept, setting, and timeline.
I wasn't sure I could love a YA mystery as much as A Good Girls Guide to Murder, but Holly Jackson does it again 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 -
i have conflicting feelings about this one.
on one hand, the story is super fast-paced. the entire plot takes place over the span of 8 hours, so i guess it would have to be. the vast majority of the narrative (~80%) is dialogue, so that also contributes to the fast pacing. and these things are conducive for a good thriller, as nothing feels like its dragging. it definitely has a “keep you on the edge of your seat” kind of feel.
that being said, i still managed to get somewhat bored with this. none of the characters are likeable and i didnt care if any of them died, the one setting itself (RV on the side of the road) isnt exciting, and the “secret” is very predictable.
readers who enjoy a locked-in/cornered kind of scenario might enjoy this more than i did, but i personally dont think this is HJs best work.
thank you for the ARC, random house/delacorte press!
↠ 3 stars -
I’m not sure what exactly I was expecting from this YA thriller, but having tears stream down my face towards the end was NOT on my agenda. Could I be the victim of a sudden paper allergy? Was someone cutting onions nearby?? Either way, ‘Five Survive’ had me hooked to the page and more invested than I ever consciously realized. Leave it to Holly Jackson I guess!!
There must be some kind of magic in this book, because how in the world can you write 400 pages in the same setting, over just 8 hours, and somehow make it a page turner? A risk was taken, and the payoff was amazing! I think the secret and at least one of the reveals was a bit obvious, but I was shocked by the other plot twists and the balance between the two was incredibly enjoyable. I love solving something correctly to boost my ego a bit, while also having to scrape my jaw off the floor at times; it’s the perfect combination!
Jackson is quickly becoming a favorite YA author of mine; it’s so hard to find adults who can write realistic teenage minds and interactions, and she hits the nail on the head every time! This novel was such a fantastic exploration on trauma, guilt, and how people transform once they're in a life threatening situation. Loved every page!
SPOILERS
As far as characters go, I thought Red and Oliver in particular were very compelling and well developed; the latter especially was increasingly terrifying as the book went on, and I loved the juxtaposition between the him and the sniper as different kinds of antagonists. I do wish we got to see more of Arthur and Maddy’s personalities, but I understand that it was important for them to not be explored in depth until the end for the sake of the plot, and the reveals definitely made that worth it!
In the end, I’m still not exactly sure how I feel about Arthur; Arthur and Red together to be specific. If I were her, I’m not sure I’d ever be able to trust him again, but they were pretty cute together, I cannot lie!! One of my favorite aspects of the book was how the very end mirrored the finale of the A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder series, it was such a heartfelt nod to Pip and Ravi but still distinctly Arthur and Red, I absolutely adored it.
Overall, my expectations for ‘Five Survive’ were well exceeded; that scene with Red and her mother at the end?? I was crying like a baby, it was so beautifully done. Everything was tied up perfectly, while still leaving an open end for us to decide what happens, possibly my favorite way for a book to end.
P.S. Maybe I just missed it, but did we ever find out the significance of the curtain pattern?
I need to know, ok bye -
five people survived this book but i sure as hell am not one of them. this was such an intense, emotional ride with lots of depth and nuance, and let me tell you: it broke me. holly jackson really said "never let them guess your next move" and all i can tell y'all is to BE. PREPARED.
(note: if you need a book with loveable characters you can get invested in (like in holly jackson's previous books), you will probably not like five survive. personally, i loved it, though!) -
I WOULD READ ANYTHING HOLLY JACKSON WRITES AND THAT IS A FACT
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2.5 stars, rounded up
The beginning of this book was fairly exciting and really captured my interest. A group of six young adults are in a motor home heading for a spring break trip. They take a series of wrong turns and end up stranded in the woods in the middle of nowhere with no cell service. Then someone shoots out all of their tires and their gas tank. They are given a walkie talkie and are given a short amount of time to come up with the answer to a secret or they will be killed. Who is holding the secret? Is there a mole in their midst?
This is told from the point of view of Red, a girl whose police officer mom was killed in the line of duty. Red drove me nuts--she can't remember anything, basically acts like a bumbling weirdo, and I never warmed to her at all even though I was supposed to like her. I also hated Oliver, the oldest and most annoying character.
There's a part through the middle that just drags and drags and finally when things start to happen they wrap up quickly. Obviously from the title someone dies, so I knew that most of them would make it through.
For a YA mystery, this one is just okay. Don't expect Good Girls Guide to Murder and you won't be too disappointed. I listened to the audiobook and I think Red was even more annoying having to listen to her weirdness. -
Yo-yo.
2.5⭐
I enjoyed "A Good Girl's Guide to Murder" but this one was mostly meh. I almost DNF after 1 hour but the story got very interesting.
The group's RV heading south for Spring Break broke down in nowhere S. Carolina. Red and her friends realized it was no mishap but the tires were shot by a sniper. The gas tank. No cell service!
There wasn't much progress but a lot of talking, arguing, and drama. [Annoying!] I'm not sure if this is due to the audiobook and my playback speed. Despite that, I felt so bored in the second half. I almost DNF the second time 😄. A YA thriller. Please check other reviews, many reviewers loved this one. -
✩ 4 stars
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holly jackson knows how to make me stress out & sob 😭
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(especially during the ending, i was heaving with sobs & hiccups)
~
btw fuck oliver <3 -
Welp.
This one will be tough to review without spoilers due to the nature of the story, so I’ll keep it brief and vague. As someone who, overall, loved the Good Girl’s Guide to Murder trilogy, I must say I’m shocked that this one didn’t work in my favor as well. There’s definitely a lack of character development in
Five Survive compared to the author’s previous trilogy, which could be due to the fact that this is a standalone novel, but I had trouble keeping each person separated as they all sounded exactly the same.
The resolution of the entire mystery is over the top and wild, which isn’t a deal breaker for me, but here it felt as if the author was attempting to reach a more adult audience while writing a YA novel, and it just clashed. Everything but the kitchen sink is thrown in, and I just kept asking myself why all of this happened this way and what the point was, because it didn’t click. Perhaps it’s just me, and if so I hope this is a more enjoyable read for everyone else. In the future, I may just stick to series from Jackson rather than standalones.
*Many thanks to the publisher for providing my review copy. -
What a ride. I was fully invested, if I had more time on my hands it would've been the perfect book to binge read in a day. Once one gets into it, there's no putting it down. You would want to theorize, to find out what really unfolded, the motives and who is the betrayer.
I saw a lot of reviews stating that the start is slow, that wasn't the case for me. From the first page to the last page, it was of a consistent pace. I did not struggle at all getting into the story. The plot twists were absolutely amazing, and unpredictable. I loved how it continued to surprise me right up till the end.
The complexities came with the characters-
1. Red- Such a complex character, there's depth to her. I liked how consistent she was with herself, but I would have liked her more had she been a bit more outspoken instead of a pushover.
2. Simon- Honestly, he was the best of them. The humor he brought to the story was so easy to like. He was balanced, never overdoing anything and keeps the reader sane.
3. Arthur- I went from like to dislike then to feeling bad for him. His morally grey character is a bit disturbing but his chemistry with Red is worth exploring.
4. Reyna- Yeah no. Wasn't a fan. She's forgettable. Her sob story had no effect on me, I don't like cheaters.
5. Maddy- She was there too. Pretty dumb tbh and she annoyed me at times.
6. Oliver- Oof, he's the most complex characters of all in my opinion. I hated him. But at the same time I appreciated how the author wrote him. Let me explain, you think you know someone all your life but things happen, life threatening ones, and the person you knew is no longer there and instead an absolute stranger and a selfish guy is in front of you. I liked how real and truly disturbing Oliver was. He is the typical Mr Know It All guy who can't do shit. Anyway, what am saying is that it's his crap that made other characters interesting and brought more life to the book as a whole. Tho, I hope I never meet someone like him in reality 👀😅
I wish the sniper could've been a little more attention but it's all good, the story was quite entertaining and the twists and turns make up for it.
This was my first Holly Jackson book and it did not disappoint. I cannot wait to check out A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, just have to pick it up from my shelf... someday 😂 So glad my cycle of bad reads is broken. See what I did with Bad Reads? 🤭 Y'all please just laugh. -
I tried to find a quote to put at the beginning of this review like I usually do, even having to go back into the book to find some, but the good quotes that I can find are all spoilers if you think too hard about them 😒
Geez, this book was a whole whirlwind. I hadn't expected to like it as much as I did because it started off rough: I hated Red because she was annoying me to no end and the plot was so confusing, but once they actually got stranded, things definitely began to take off.
I'm an extreme scaredy-cat when it comes to anything crime or anything that could possibly happen in real life, but I ended up reading this late into the night and I was honestly scared to go to sleep because I have extremely irrational fears.
But, this book is the definition of insane.
The Plot
As I said above, I have extremely irrational fears, so I was freaking out throughout the entire book, because I was so paranoid both for myself and the characters. I honestly got so freaked out one time that my eyes teared up, which never happens to me, no matter how scared I am while reading.
The plot twists were actually good- I heard people say that they found the book predictable, but I only guessed one thing right, though it was something really big:
I also am unsure how I feel about that ending, with the letter and all, considering how I feel about those characters. But the ending before that- oh my god, I almost started to cry in public, it was crazy.
I also loved how fast paced this is, because I really wanted a book that was fast and quick, which this was, though it was a little confusing at times, like with some of the plot twists I had to really think about what was happening.
The Characters
I didn't particularly care about the characters that much, which was a little disappointing.
Red annoyed me from the start, she came off as a little crazy, but I do feel bad for her, because she seems to have gone through so much, and I honestly feel bad for disliking her but I can't help it. She made extremely dumb decisions that had me staring at my book in shock, but at least she was an interesting character with depth, which is better than a cardboard cutout character.
Maddy and Simon were probably my favorites, I just liked them both a lot. Simon more so than Maddy, because I feel he had more personality and he made me laugh multiple times. Reyna used to be one of my favorites because she seemed nice and fun but then some things were revealed and let's just say, she isn't one of my favorites anymore.
Oliver is a complete psychopath, and I'm sure that he was acting out of fear, but still, that was crazy, and so is he.
Arthur was eh. I didn't really see much personality in him, but he was kind to Red, which was nice to see.
The Friendships/Romance
I liked how complex the relationships in this were, between all of the characters. Reyna and Oliver's relationship sure was interesting, I liked Maddy and Oliver's sibling relationship, though that got a little screwed up, and I also liked Red and Maddy's friendship.
There wasn't really a romance much in this, but thankfully, I didn't hate it when it was presented, I just felt indifferent towards it. Pip and Ravi are still, and always will be, my favorite couple in a murder mystery/thriller book because as I've said before, I HATE romance in mystery books, but I'm just glad that this wasn't the main focus in this, though that ending letter sure was....interesting.
But anyways, I'm glad I read this!! It was a fun read that gave me multiple thrills and freaked me out way too many times, and I loved it!!
4.5 stars
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oh my god. this was so good, actually. i was terrified the entire time and i guessed like one thing but the other stuff i was so shocked by
rtc -
ANOTHER HOLLY JACKSON BOOK?? NOW WITH A COVER ???
Review~~
mind you i wrote a whole review already, it just got deleted but let's try this again, shall we!
FIRST REVIEW OF 2023 BABBYYYYYY
I liked this book. I liked Red's character development, and I liked how fast paced this book was. Regardless of how fast paced it was, it did however feel a little slow in some parts, leaving me to skim read over the descriptions of items like a mirror. I liked how it developed, I liked the ending and plot twists. I guessed 2 of them, which I was proud of myself for, however I did not see all the others coming!!
just be prepared to hate oliver. no spoilers in the sense of whether he is involved with being the actual perp in this book, he's just a terrible, terrible person from the first time he opens his big fat mouth.
anyways, SPOILER SECTIONNNN
okay i HATEDDDDDDDDDDDDDD OLIVER WITH SUCH A PASSION. it's been a hot second since I hated a character as much as him. I swear i clapped when that sorry excuse of a man died. he was the worst. He was he main villain when he thought he was the main character. I liked Arthur wayyyy more and we know what he did.
Speaking of Arthur, I am confused on how to feel about him. He did some messed up stuff, but when dealing with the mafia, he seems like he didn't have much of a choice. Not justifying what he did, but i still kind of liked him. he was sweet to ren and he helped her learn the truth. he seemed to care about her beyond the mafia stuff- he didn't have to do some of the things he did to "gain her trust". or it could be i HATE oliver so much everyone else looks amazing. what happened in that RV was awful. it shouldn't of happened. but of it didn't- it leaves you wondering whether the truth would've REALLY come out. i hope ren meets him at the pier. i hope she SLAPS him, and then i hope she kisses him. maybe i have been reading too many mafia wattpads... idk
reyna slayed, i felt bad for her the whole book. maddy i was unsure how to feel about- but in the end i guesss she was a good friend?? she was awful when oliver was around though. i think oliver brought out the worst in people. simon felt like he was in the book JUST enough to be considered a "main character"... i think homeboy deserved better tbh.
anywayyyssssss, i hope you enjoyed reading this book like i did!! thank you for reading this long jumbled review hahhah -
HOLLY JACKSON WHAT IS THIS
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Okay, so I don’t know if I’m getting better at this, but I pretty much guessed most of the plot twists in this book by about page 60. I promise this isn’t a humble-brag, I was actually a little disappointed that I turned out right on most things. I think at its worst this book is a 90’s action flick and at its best it’s The Thing (1982), which is one my favorite movies, so I’m torn on where I stand. Overall, I think this is a good book, and I can’t deny that after a certain point I couldn’t put it down. I think the story tries to be super serious and edgy but with some contrived plot points and ridiculous characters (okay, mostly just Oliver), the book as a whole came across as rather silly.
Speaking of characters, except for Red, I hated them all! Surprisingly, this actually wasn’t a detriment to the novel because when the characters are pointing fingers at each other and the tension builds and builds and builds… well that's just some of the best stuff. But that also means that I had to be with these characters in a confined space for 300 or so pages… and let me tell you, it did get exhausting after a while. Oliver is that one guy in the Socratic seminar who piggybacks off of other people’s ideas and pretends like they’re his own, and Simon still does “that’s what she said” jokes, like it’s 2008. I honestly didn't know which was worse. Final thought: I liked this book, it’s a bit all over the place, but I had a good time.
“Oliver managed to turn everything into a dick-measuring contest. Red snorted at that, giving the voice in her head a pat on the back.” -
3.5
when he kills for u 🙏 -
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS I HAVE READ THIS YEAR I AM SCREAMING
Five Survive is Holly Jackson’s new thriller and I have absolutely no idea how I managed to survive through it. This thriller is a fast-paced, nobody-is-safe and anything-can-happen type of book and I devoured it. I had no idea what was coming next and I didn’t predict one single thing that occurred, meaning I spent the book feeling shell-shocked at every reveal!!! There’s something special about a book where you can’t guess what is going to happen and that is EXACTLY Five Survive.
Five Survive is set over eight hours and follows six teens as they travel across the country in an RV for spring break. Around 10pm, their RV comes to a halt as each of the tires are shot out. There’s an assassin somewhere around them and nobody is getting out alive unless they give him what he wants - a secret. Something that someone is holding onto in the RV. They know who they are and what he’s looking for - but what good is a secret if it’s told? With tensions in the RV at an all time high with even higher stakes, the six friends have a choice to turn on each other or air their dirty laundry in a desperate attempt to escape. And the REVEALS? The BETRAYALS? I screamed.
I LOVED this book. I wish I could say that I read it in eight hours for the challenge but I actually read it much faster than that because I could not put it down. Five Survive is a stand out amongst YA thrillers, coming at you full force with the grit and stakes of an adult thriller whilst simultaneously catering to its teen audience with scary realism.
Somehow, Holly Jackson managed to set a book over eight hours whilst fleshing out all six characters so well that I could sit and picture their home life, personality, past and future right after finishing the book. And the ENDING! THE ENDING! I could not picture a more perfect ending for this book that the one that we were given and the POSSIBILITIES of what could happen in the future are endless.
I loved our MC Red and her perspective was perfect for this book. Jackson’s inclusion of characters that you love mixed with characters you would want to throttle on any day of the week (you know who you are) was one of my favourite things about this book. At first, it seemed impossible that I would be able to connect with any characters that I would only meet for such a short amount of time but Holly Jackson proved me wrong again and again.
Five survive is a perfect thriller - fast-paced, high stakes and full of characters that you would die to save or die if they were saved. If you’re desperate for a book to become attached to whilst your heart drops at a turn of the page, Five Survive is 100% for you. I’m screaming. -
3.5 stars!
I have mixed feelings about this book. On one hand I really liked the mystery and the plot twists and turns. On the other hand I had a hard time connecting with the characters. The pacing was slow in the beginning, but then it quickly picked up. There were so many plot twists that I didn’t expect, I did guess one, but most of the plot twists were surprising. I really liked was Red, she is strong, kind, brave, loyal and helpful. I also liked Mandy, she is kind, smart, and brave, although I wished she stood up for herself and Red more against Oliver. I did not like Oliver, he is manipulative, mean, selfish and cunning. Simon was okay, on one side he is interesting, and funny, but he was also annoying at times. The character development was good, we saw both sides of the characters and learned about their secrets. I do wish that Simon developed more as a character, I wanted to learn more about his life and his thoughts. The ending was so good and shocking. -
i'm just glad Oliver died
-
Not up there with the ‘Good Girl’s Guide to Murder’ trilogy for me but entertaining enough.
A group of 5 teenagers travelling in an RV for spring break find themselves lost with their tyres blown.
Suddenly it becomes clear that their predicament was no accident, someone wants them there and was information. But what, and who?
Red is our main character and I liked her well enough. I hated Oliver, which I think was the point.
The secrets that came out were a bit far fetched and I’d actually argue happened too quickly.
It didn’t really go the way I expected I guess. But it was ok 🤷♀️
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Library copy available for pick up -
2.5 stars. reading vlog:
https://youtu.be/JyEGrOTljwY -
I loved the first two books in Holly Jackson's "A Good Gir's Guide to Murder" series, did not love the third book, but was still excited to read this one. Unfortunately, the only word I can think of to describe this book is...bad. Like really bad. The book makes almost no sense. Six teenagers take off for a week in Florida for high school spring break (do high school students do that??), make a wrong turn and find themselves trapped overnight on an old road as a sniper holds them hostage to try to get one of them to tell an important secret. That's the plot.
The characters are almost entirely without personality including the protagonist. The secondary characters are interchangeable with the exception of one being so awful that I kept hoping the rest of the characters would toss him out of the RV just so we didn't have to hear from him again.
Now let's talk about the completely nonsensical parts of the book
Thanks NetGalley for the ARC of this book. -
Oh wow, was this book a ride! First book of 2023 and Five Survive has already set my reading expectations to a high standard. I was nervous going into this thinking 'will this be as good as AGGTM' and yes it was, but for different reasons.
I was on the edge of my seat the whole time, and I never tend to cry at books but the end letter got me sobbing. The way Holly Jackson can create that inner conflict inside your head about whether a character is 'good' or 'evil' is outstanding.
I absolutely love this! 5 stars! -
Me and Ms. Jackson are going to have a complicated relationship. I can already tell. I've read all four of her books at this point and she always gives me the most complex feelings about the decisions she makes with her books. I'm not even sure whether this book is a 3.5 or 4 star read.
Five Survive is the latest book from Holly Jackson and I honestly couldn't wait to get my hands on it. Readers follow 6 friends as they take a trip in an RV to Florida for their spring break trip. The trips starts off fine, but soon the tires of their RV are shot out in an area with no cell service. What ensues is a high stakes novel with secrets, lies, and drama with one of the six not making it out alive.
What Works: Listen, if you love fast paced thrillers this is the book for you. With it taking place over the course of 8 hours, Jackson has no choice but to move the story through dialogue. The secrets that these characters end up sharing with each other were mind blowing. I wasn't expecting it to get as dark as it did, but it definitely made sense for the context of the story. I was pleasantly surprised to find how emotional the story made me towards the end. I wasn't expecting that. I definitely felt a host of emotions while reading her other books, but this one was a little different. I'm not sure if it was the writing or because I'm a mother myself, but I ended up connecting with one of the characters in a way that I didn't expect which, for me, is the sign of a great writer. The ending also came with great surprise. As readers continue through each layer of the story, the way that the characters connect to each other outside of classmates/friends is intriguing. This was a great look at how humans and most importantly relationships fold in high pressures situations.
What Didn't Work: MOTHERFUCKING Oliver! I have never in my life wanted to do damage to a character the way I wanted to fight Oliver. Ya'll he is the most arrogant, pompous character that I have encountered in a long time. If I was trapped on that RV, I would have shot him my damn self and been done with the situation. Oliver, honestly, is enough to ruin the story and I wouldn't be surprised if some individuals have a difficult time making it through the book because of him. His arrogance isn't just something that happens on the side, it's glaringly apparent on almost every page which grated every single nerve in my body. By the end of the book I understood his purpose, but it was hard at some points fighting through to get to that purpose. The ending was also rushed. While it did make me emotional, we get such a complex ending in such a short amount of pages. I honestly wished that this book was just a tad longer to make the story feel more complete.
Overall, this was good. I can't lie about that. It has it's issues, but I definitely feel like Holly Jackson is going to be one of those authors that I'm going to read whenever she releases a book and that alone says quite a lot. -
Red and her friends are taking an old RV on a road trip for Spring Break, driving from Philadelphia to the southern coast. But when they get lost on the way to a campsite in South Carolina and break down well after dark, things take a turn for the worse. With no cell service and no one to help, they begin to realize that their tire didn’t just pop – it was shot. As things escalate, they realize that the sniper is after a secret and won’t release them until the truth is revealed.
This was a well-paced suspense that kept me frantically flipping the pages until the very end. The characters were very well written with unique personalities, and I enjoyed seeing how they each handled the stress differently. The story was told from Red’s POV, and the hints and pieces of her history that were scattered throughout really added to her character.
There were a few things that weren’t very well explained (one example was Red’s memory issues), but they didn’t detract much from my enjoyment of the work. I really loved how the author chose to leave the ending a bit open-ended as well as the article/report that were included at the end. Also, I couldn’t believe that the vast majority of a book this great took place during eight hours – this was a fun and intense way to write this book that I highly enjoyed.
I don’t recommend starting this book right before bedtime (like I did), but I absolutely DO recommend reading it! Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Children’s for allowing me to read and review this work, which will be published on November 29, 2022. -
[10. 7. 22] im sorry but that cover is kinda ugly.
haven’t even read a good girls guide to murder but i already know this is gonna be good 😫
(also i need a brown character in this book like ravi cause we need more rep <3 ) -
Red and her friends are on a road trip in an RV for spring break. Red has already faced tragedy in her life when her law enforcement officer mother was killed execution-style five years ago. After that, she effectively lost her father to alcoholism. Thankfully she has her good friend Maddie and newer friends like Arthur.
When they get lost in the middle of the night and the middle of nowhere, their phones don’t get any reception, so they can’t call for help. All of their tires get shot out and they realize they are being ambushed. The sniper tells them via a two-way radio (walkie talkie) that one of them has a secret, and until they reveal the secret, they’re trapped and won’t be getting out alive.
Confessions among the group start pouring out. Oliver, Maddie’s older brother, and his girlfriend Reyna have a secret. The RV belongs to Simon’s cousin, who isn’t always on the right side of the law. Oliver and Maddie’s mother is about to argue a case against the mafia that could ensure her election to DA. All of their schemes to get away safe, at the behest of Oliver, who takes control of things in an increasingly Lord-of-the-Flies manner, go wrong.
This is tense and requires a little stretching of the imagination to make it work, but it’s a fun, quick read.
NetGalley provided an advance reader copy. The book will be RELEASED NOVEMBER 29, 2022. -
“Pretending was half the game. And she should know. Her life depended on it”
Rating: 4 stars
Cover: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Writing: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Storyline: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Main character(s): 🌟🌟🌟.5
Secondary characters: 🌟🌟🌟
Romance: 🌟🌟🌟.5
Narration & Audio: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
RTC @
Bookerification -
4,25/5⭐️
I was on the edge of my seat throughout this whole book. I literally couldn’t put it down, not even for a second. It had me hooked since page 1 and I‘m absolutely amazed. I couldn’t even put it down to post an update on goodreads because I just needed to know what’ll happen next.
Holly Jackson did it once again.
I find it in general fucking amazing and interesting how people can actually write about a whole ass case and make up so many plot-twists. It always impresses me when authors write thrillers because I personally would’ve never come up with such an amazing plot that connects so many different aspects of it and it resulting to such a huge outcome. Which is why I find thrillers and murder mysteries even more intriguing than other genres. Because you honestly can never know what might happen next and the suspense to it, is just wow…
And the fact that Holly Jackson did it once again with this book is just so freaking incredible.
She created a masterpiece with AGGTM but five survive is also so so so so good and I honestly still can’t process how someone can come up with something this amazing.
This book had me on the edge of my seat throughout the whole story. The characters were all individually fucked up and so freaking well written. Even though this novel was only 370 pages long, you really felt for each of the characters and you just couldn’t get enough of the story.
Also the secrets that were revealed? Had me all flabbergasted.
I also love how each character handled this critical and scary situation differently and how things got so messed up at the end, that it had your eyes jumping out of their sockets.
It was in general a very eventful ride.
Sadly, the final twist of the book didn’t shock me at all. It was kind of predictable. The way it was written… you could’ve easily seen the way it built up to this point. Yet, it was still amazing and I‘m definitely not disappointed, even though this last twist wasn’t as mind blowing as you hope it would be.
Overall, this was an amazing and suspenseful thriller and I highly recommend this to anyone who has read the AGGTM series! Holly Jackson just never misses and we love her for that! -
Holly Jackson...what the hell, dude. Seriously. This book was so fast-paced that we didn't even get a chance to know most of the characters. The one character who wasn't one-dimensional was Red, and I'm not even sure that's a good thing. I get it, she blamed herself for her mother's death and that eats at you. But for the love of all that is holy, did she have to be such a passive person? I felt nothing from this girl, even when she was grieving--she was borderline catatonic 'til the very last moment, and by then it was a little too late to feel a connection.
The book overall managed to be both a quick read, and a chore to get through because it was just dull despite the plot. And the ending was wholly unsatisfying and implausible. Romances don't need to be shoved down our throats in every single YA book--it's very much okay if there's no romance, especially when a romance makes no damn sense. -
this was sadly a big miss for me :( absolutely loved the A GOOD GIRLS GUIDE TO MURDER series and was hoping for another addictive thriller but this took me nearly 10 days to finish.
i did like the ending and was surprised by the twists, however by the time we got to them i was sooooo checked out and over it that i probably said “nice” and moved on. it was far too long—nearly 400 pages, which NO thriller should ever be—and the middle was really lacking in content. it was also a locked door thriller trope which is by far my least favorite, so that was working against me from the start.
it did have a few shocking elements and the plot was creative and entertaining for me to keep going vs. DNF, but it just didn’t work like AGGGTM did :( there was also a majorrrr cringe character that screamed toxic male masculinity and it was super annoying.
i’m seeing a lot of reviews saying positive things though, so if you think these things i mentioned won’t bother you, then pick it up and check it out for yourself!!
thank you Delcaorte and Get Underlined for the gifted early finished copy in exchange for my honest review!
