Thank you to #netgalley for the ARC. This is a young adult thriller. I did not care for this book. It was pretty slow. I was half way into and still nothing really had happened. Nobody had died or was gravely injured nothing. I quit at the middle.

Five Survive creeped me out in the best way. I got flashbacks from the slasher type movies I was into in high school thanks to the chilling vibe this book puts off.

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.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children's, Delacorte Press for allowing me to read this book. This was scary good and also just scary! I usually read before bed but could not do that with this book because it was so immersive it terrified me to even read it. It keep me guessing, I liked some characters, hated others, and connected well with the plot. Holly Jackson is an amazing writer! 4.5 ⭐️.

I am a HUGE fan of a good girls guide to murder so I was thrilled to read this one! Holly Jackson can do YA so well and I had very high expectations going into this one! While Holly Jackson is an auto buy another for me I am sad to report the this one fell a little short for me.

I was hooked from the beginning but I quickly got lost while trying to keep the characters straight (6 was just a lot for me) and having it in 3rd POV isn't my favorite as I don't usually connect with the characters. I am glad I stuck through because the ending was good and the twists were fun while I was able to guess them. I also thought this was a really long book and could have used less in places where I felt were drawn out.

All things considered following up the huge hit of AGGGTM, this one was done tastefully and is still a look i liked! Thanks again for allowing me to read this book!

Such a great one from Holly Jackson! This book will be amazing for my thriller readers in the high school library. Need to buy multiple copies of this one!

Thank you to Netgalley and Delacorte Press for providing me with a digital ARC of this book!

Once the action finally kicks in after a lengthy stint of character expositions and building the backdrop to this young adult thriller, Five Survive manages to create a compellingly tense story rife with mystery, murder, and aching wound of grief.

I think thrillers live or die by two things: character and setting. Five Survive generally succeeds on both fronts.

The first comes down to how Red Kenny grew on me over the course of the book. She’s a character whose internal monologue was, at times, mildly annoying. (Take a shot every time she says something along the lines, “It can’t be my secret. No one knows about the plan. That’s the whole point.” You’ll be drunker than Simon by the halfway point.) However, there’s something genuine about her…. not in terms of candor, but rather Red’s heart. There's the searing guilt at her core from years of her blaming herself for her mother's death, but the walls she tries and fails to put up to block those thoughts and emotions don't stop her from caring and loving in a deep way. Also, the more she started to buck up against Oliver’s domineering plans for the group, the more I liked her.

The second is how the setting of the RV elevates the thriller from an otherwise 'we're trapped in the middle of nowhere with a killer' story to one where the setting is almost a character in itself. The way they have to utilize items in the RV to protect themselves and attempt to escape--the flimsy mattress and ripped up suitcase for covering the windows--to the way it slowly builds a sense of claustrophobia in the narrative, the characters becoming more and more on top of each other as the night goes on. It forces the author and the characters to be smarter with their limited choices.

Final mildly-spoiler notes: I felt like there where a number of plot twists that were relatively easy to predict, I will give Miss Holly Jackson credit where it's due... THE DOORBELL REVEAL???!?? Even though I already had the inkling about who killed Red’s mother, I literally pushed back my chair and stood up to shout.

As someone who doesn’t typically reach for thrillers when choosing their next read, I definitely enjoyed this book!

3.5 stars; that last half had me so gripped wow i was zooming. the plot twist is definitely a bit predictable but i never really care about that to be honest. overall really liked this, i don't think it particularly stands out as a ya mystery so if you want something that's super different and unique maybe this won't be for you, but it was quick & fun & had me !!!ing so it did what it needed to do (for me)

This is the last book that I read last year and I’m so disappointed to say that it didn’t work for me. The premise sounds so intriguing. A group of six friends (a mixture of high school and college aged) are taking an RV to get to their Spring Break destination. Along the way they get lost in a remote area where they are then forced into a situation with a sniper. This entire book takes place in eight hours as the group of friends need to figure out who has the secret that the sniper wants.

This book dragged on so long that the less than four hundred page book felt like it was never-ending. In 2022 I feel like I perfected the art of putting down books pretty early on that I knew I wasn’t going to like. However, I decided to keep forcing myself through this one because it’s Holly Jackson and I enjoyed the first two books in the A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder trilogy (I haven’t read the third yet). But that was a mistake and I should have trusted my instincts.

One of my biggest issues with the story is that so much of it just doesn’t make sense. There is a character in this friend group who is so over the top angry and volatile but because he’s the oldest everyone just does what he says for absolutely no reason. Jackson tried to make the main character, Red, unreliable but she really isn’t and it was bizarre how much time was spent trying to make us question her memory because she didn’t know the pattern of the curtains. Also, it was fairly obvious the entire time who was behind everything and what the secrets were.

This book does have over a four star rating on Goodreads though so I’m definitely in the minority of this one. I could rant further about more issues I had but I do still have a lot of respect for Jackson as an author and I hope that I fall in love with her next story.

I adored Holly Jackson's Good Girls Guide to Murder series so I was thrilled to receive a copy of Five Survive. Holly is so good at keeping her readers engaged through fast-paced dialogue. This was a page turner and the end--holy cow the tears. How the heck does she know it? I don't know. RECOMMEND THIS ONE.

This was a solid 3.5 (ALMOST a 4 but I rounded down just because reflecting, I did find myself annoyed for 90% of the book due to one specific character). However, if you're looking for a good thriller that isn't TOO scary or gory, then this may be the book for you!

Red, dealing with the traumatic death of her mom from 5 years ago, has to live through another night of horror when she and 5 others are trapped in an RV by a rogue sniper. The premise alone had me jumping at the chance to read this, and I really enjoyed Holly Jackson's AGGGTM series, so I was super pumped for this one. And this didn't really disappoint, though there were a few instances that fell flat for me (won't go into detail on most of them because they would be very spoilery). The one thing I will say is that had I been in that RV, Oliver would have been thrown out immediately due to his attitude NO SIR.

I probably won't grab for this one again, but I do recommend it for others!

Thank you to Random House children's for the review copy of Five Survive by Holly Jackson. This book was incredibly propulsive. Red is on a road trip with five friends. Along the way, they become stranded without cell service when a sniper shoots out their tires. All they know is that someone on board has a secret. What we know, is that only five of them will survive.

There was so much suspense in this book. I loved the twists and was absolutely there for all of it. I would struggle to put this in the hands of a young YA reader (which my students are...) I would need to be incredibly selective. However, if you are looking for edge of your seat suspense, it is right here.

Five Survive was definitely a page turner and I devoured it in 2 days. I am a huge fan of her previous series and I was not disappointed with this stand alone. She is an author that an make you want to read anything. Thoroughly enjoyed it though and the rollercoaster of emotions and emotions events that it took us on as readers. Holly Jackson will from now on always be a ‘go to author’ for me I can’t wait for her next read. Get them all!

Where do I even begin with this book? This is the story of six young adults who go on a road trip and get stranded in the woods. When things go wrong, secrets begin to spill. As predictable as I believed this plot was, it did not prepare me for the twists and turns toward the end. This is a slow build and Jackson does a phenomenal job of bringing the characters to life. Readers are able to experience their emotions and watch the story unfold. I rate this as a 10/10.

It was okay. The blandness of this review reflects the reviewer's feelings about this title. I'm sure it was hard to start afresh after completing her previous series, but this was such a letdown.

The story starts out with 6 friends going on spring break when the unthinkable happens. They get lost, the RV gets a flat tire and they are stuck in the middle of nowhere. They come to find out this was not an accident but someone deliberately blew out the tires because one of them has a secret. What is this secret and where does it lead them?

Thank you to Random House/Delacorte, Holly Jackson and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest
review*

Previously published at https://www.mysteryandsuspense.com/five-survive/

Having not read the lauded A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, I was not sure what to expect with Five Survive but I was pleasantly surprised. Holly Jackson’s latest thriller follows six teenagers as they drive to Florida instead of flying. Packed into a 31 foot RV, Red (short for Redford) is our highly unreliable narrator, along with her best friend Maddy, Maddy’s brother Oliver, his girlfriend Reyna, their friend Simon and Arthur, the only one who doesn’t go to school with them.

Maddy is very protective of Red, and she is the reason they are driving rather than flying, as Red does not have the money to fly and wouldn’t be able to go on the trip. Maddy also makes sure that no one mentions Red’s Mother, who was murdered five years ago. But this may be one trip that Red wishes she had missed.

As the crew of six edge closer to their destination, a campground in South Carolina, they lose cell service and as darkness descends; they get lost. What begins as a terrible night, they also have a flat tire, and must change the tire in complete darkness. With no cell service and a donut replacing the tire, they drive back towards the main road when all four tires blow out. Someone is out there and has shot at all of their tires. Even worse, the stalker knows the full names of every person inside the RV. While using a Walkie Talkie found outside of their RV, the stalker tells them that one of them has a secret and until it is revealed, no one will make it out of the RV alive. In true Lord of the Rings fashion, one becomes a leader and everyone except Red will blindly follow.

There are several well-done multi-layered characters that are truly compelling and interesting and then others we did not get to know very well, such as Simon, who is the drunk teenager with the wicked sense of humor, but didn’t play a strong part in the book. Or Reyna, who is Oliver’s girlfriend, but we never understand why, as he is a horrible, gut-wrenchingly awful person. We don’t find out a lot about Reyna, except she is Mexican and has been cheating on Oliver for a long time. I found it difficult to connect with Red. She clearly has some sort of issue with memory, or as one reader said, ADHD. The curtains in the RV are one of the random things that she focuses on. She can’t remember where she has seen the pattern before and it becomes a focal point for her several times throughout the book randomly. Red seems to have no short-term memory though it is not said in the book, the reader could make a connection to the murder of her mom and the trauma she is still experiencing. Jackson did a great job exploring trauma and guilt and the long term effects of a traumatic situation.

Ultimately, I am disappointed with the secret. The book is fantastic with a fast pace, excitement and that sense of fear readers love when reading a “horror” book. But the secret felt convoluted and a little too out there for a young girl, poor and living with her alcoholic father. Though I will say, I never saw it coming, so the author did manage to surprise me. The ending was beautifully done and I can’t imagine any other conclusion for this book. It was perfect!.

This was a fast paced page turner for me. It did not feel like I was reading something that was 400 pages long.
In fact I love that one of the big reveals was so obvious that it over shadowed the other plots. Thanks to that I was not prepared for the twists and turns this book took me on.

I did struggle with finding the characters like able. I didnt really have one that I was rooting for more then the other. I did not have a Final Girl picked out so to speak. Honestly I could have cared less who died. I was just focused on how this was gonna get wrapped up.

And beautifully wrapped it was.

Thank You Netgalley and the publishers for sending me and allowing me to read this E-ARC.
This novel is amazing! I love AGGGTM and this just proved that this author is amazing. I will be reading everything this author comes out with in future years.

I was very disappointed in As Good as Dead but wanted to give this a fair shot. It was also very disappointing. I don’t understand the need for pages upon pages of detail of the characters building something or working up to a conversation. I understand that there’s only so much you can write over the course of a few hours and one setting, but this book dragged. Oliver was so horrifically unlikeable that I almost DNFed.