Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! No spoilers. Beyond amazing I enjoyed this book so very much. The characters and storyline were fantastic. The ending I did not see coming Could not put down nor did I want to. Truly Amazing and appreciated the whole story. This is going to be a must read for many many readers. Maybe even a book club pick.

An entire generation of people, both young and old, are experiencing shorter and shorter attention spans, largely due to the entertainment options available on phones. As such, a book that starts fast and moves rapidly toward a thrilling conclusion is perfect. Add award-wining author Holly Jackson to the mix and the Tik Tok book crowd will soon be going crazy.
A Spring Break trip. Six friends, One killer. You won't be able to put it down!

As an avid Holly Jackson fan ever since the popularity of her first YA thriller/mystery series, FIVE SURVIVE could not have come at a better time for me as a reader. I was hooked from the very beginning.

Following six different characters through such tense and suspenseful plot lines makes for a very intriguing and entertaining time. Their dynamics, their perspectives, and the way they all dealt with the impossible situations they were in throughout this book made it utterly compelling. I felt like I was on the road with this group staring straight into the action itself.

This is Holly Jackson's first novel outside of the Good Girl's Guide to Murder series and it did not disappoint.
6 friends are heading to the beach for Spring Break when their RV breaks down in the middle of nowhere. When trying to figure out how to get home, a snipe shoots the tires out. Now the group is stranded with no way out, no cell service, and someone is after them.
This was a twisty thriller that's perfect for fans of YA mysteries.

I love the way Holly Jackson writes! She makes me forget I’m reading a YA story and I become so invested. I think she writes character development so well and keeps you guessing. This book is the perfect example of that! I found it really exciting that we only got one setting with this story, I was more intrigued as the plot went on. The middle lost some of my attention, but it all came together well.

Five Survive by Holly Jackson. Pub Date: November 29, 2022. Rating: 3 stars. This YA thriller takes place during a spring break trip in which a group of friends end up stranded in the middle of nowhere in an RV. Pretty quickly, the characters realize they are trapped and someone on the outside is out to get them. The story is fast paced, happens over the course of 8 hours which allows for the story to keep moving along. At times, I felt it was repetitive and boring and none of the characters are likable. In my opinion, it is a decent YA thriller but forgettable. Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Children's for this e-arc in exchange for my honest review. #fivesurvive #netgalley

There were things I loved about this book and things that, well, I didn't love. First, I thought it was very fast-paced, which was interesting because it only takes place over the span of less than half a day. While some of the secrets were a bit obvious, I definitely didn't guess all of them, so that's always the sign of a good book. It didn't wrap up in a perfect little bow (it should be obvious from the title that at least one of the kids dies... when there are six on the trip and the title is five survive... no spoiler alert needed).

The character of Red, I just didn't quite get. Was she supposed to be autistic? There was a lot of repetition and hyper-focusing on things, so that was my assumption, but it wasn't clear. The pattern in the curtains was constantly brought up (and never resolved). The drifting away within conversations. The forgetting things. It all seemed a bit strange and wasn't explained in any way.

I also didn't understand a few plot points - why would one character speak through the walkie talkie about their potential secret... but no one else? That bothered me throughout as well.

I wanted to get to the end and see what happened, so that makes it definitely worth reading, but the plot points stuck with me.

I typically love Holly Jackson books and although I finished this one in one sitting, it lacked a sense of urgency. I didn't really care for any of the characters and thought it should have moved faster.

If anyone knows how to do a YA mystery/ thriller it's Holly Jackson. Five Survive takes a little while to situate you in the story and build up all the characters and why you should care about them vause everything unfolds in such a small period of time. But once it picks up, it definitely picks up.

Holly Jackson has done it yet again. There’s just something so captivating about her writing. She knows how to put just the right amount of suspense and tension that has you filled with anxiety and restlessness which makes it hard for you to put the book down unless you finish it. Even then her books leave you thinking long after you have read them and five survive was nothing different.
Five survive had me utterly hooked from the first chapter and dug it’s claws so deep I could not leave it until the last page.
I always look forward to Holly’s new books and they never dissapoint.
Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks so much to the publisher (and Netgalley) for the free book.

This is an hell of a novel and Holly Jackson confirms herself one of my favorite mystery/thriller authors.
Holly Jackson returns after Good Girl's Guide to Murder with a mystery that captures you and keeps you eagerly glued to its pages until the last sentence. I have to admit I wasn't expecting all the connections that emerged during the story, nor some of the events that happened, but we're talking about Holly Jackson, you can expect everything from her (and she has no mercy for her characters).
The claustrophobia and terror of the main figures seeped into me during the whole reading and it unsettled me in the right way. This is a powerful, disturbing story that really makes you consider how rotten, toxic and distorted our society can be. I was shocked at the end of it, and I still have to recover (and the exactly same thing happened to me with As good as dead).
That said, since the truth we discovered had and will have a very great impact on Red and, I believe, her future, I would have preferred a less open-ended epilogue and a concrete confrontation. That doesn't mean the last chapters weren't perfectly heartbreaking.

I enjoy Holly Jackson's books as they are fast paced and easy to get through but I think I've outgrown YA mysteries as they just don't hold my attention enough. They are fun and good palette cleansers and, as usual, she's got some good twists and turns that you don't see coming! The book was fun but I feel like I've read it before. I would pick up as a palette cleanser and I'd continue to recommend but I don't think I'd go out of my way to purchase this type of book.

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley.

Jackson writes a face paced thriller that covers 8 hours. Six friends inside an RV on their way from Philadelphia to Gulf Shores for spring break. A wrong turn in the dark has them broken down in the woods. A flat tire, which they successfully change, has them back on the road. But then, pop, pop, pop, pop. All four are now flat. What is going on? No cell signal and confusion reign. Then they hear someone saying Hello - over and over again. Someone in the RV has a secret and the sniper outside the the RV wants it revealed.

Over the next few hours, secrets that were not meant to be shared come to light as the sniper reveals that is not the secret he wants. Tensions are high, decisions made, and not all will survive.

This was a fascinating read. I devoured this book in a day - more please!!!

4.25 Holly Jackson, you have done it again.
 
Five Survive is a fast-paced thriller, all taking place in just a few hours. It’s definitely an anything-can-happen book.
 
The author, Holly, is great at pacing. I didn’t really feel bored at any point, it’s very eventful, and things were always happening. Omg, the tension... The tense atmosphere was very much there, and it intensified the more you read. Which is exactly what you want in a thriller.
 
The characters didn't feel two-dimensional, but I did wish we could have gotten to know them more because, for me, most of them were forgettable.
 
There is a flake of romance, nothing crazy; it’s basically just crumbs. I honestly don’t remember much about the romance, nor did I really care necessary.
 
If you are looking for a fast-paced thriller with a few twists, this is the perfect read. You will have a good time. I highly recommend it.
 
I will read anything Holly Jackson writes; she just has that magic.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed a lot about this book - the pace, the closed-door setting, the constant tension and anticipation, and Red's narration. I also did NOT enjoy some things about this book - Oliver and the ending being the two main things.

Holly Jackson is masterful at the art of creating suspense, and she does it here. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time!!! I love how she writes. I love how she creates mystery when the setting never moves and the story takes place over 6 hours.

I just wish things had ended differently.

Overall, highly recommend, especially if you enjoyed AGGGTM.

3.5 stars. Thank you @netgalley and @randomhouse!

Holly Jackson does it again. A group of kids get stuck in the woods overnight in an RV with a sniper demanding to know a secret from them. The twists and turns had me questioning who I could trust until the very last page.

This story is a good example of how one person’s choices affect so many others.
There’s so much tension and mystery. Even when you think you know everything…🤯.
Like with most life or 💀 situations, you start to discover everyone’s true character rather quickly. I will not spoil anything with names, but I found myself yelling at the book multiple times (especially to one certain someone - ugh!)
I loved this one, but I will say it had a rough start for me. Luckily, by the fourth chapter the story starts to pick up. Which, I know, maybe that doesn’t sound like a very long wait, but it was a long three chapters IMO 😆. (I devoured this one in one sitting after I got over that bump though.)
There is a cliffhanger-ish ending. You get a little closer though so it helps with the sting.

I hate that I am writing this - as I love all of Holly Jacksons books, but this was not it for me. I was going to push through, but I just couldn't. I read four chapters and closed it forever. It felt dragged to me. I wasn't into the cast and the writing just didn't draw me in as her other books.

I loved A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, so I knew I had to read this one as soon as I first saw the cover. This was an extremely fast-paced read; this would be a great title for getting out of a reading slump. One place where I really struggled with this book was that I had trouble truly connecting to any of the characters. While we see everything from Red's POV, her character felt distant throughout the story. Additionally, since the stakes were raised so early, it had trouble maintaining the same level of energy. As a result, the middle section sagged quite a bit. That being said, the ending was unexpectedly emotional and really gave me the connection to Red that I had been wanting the entire time. Overall, this book was an enjoyable read despite some pacing troubles and a main character that was a bit hard to reach.

Holly Jackson has done it again!

This book had me on the edge of my seat and needing to know who the person was that was trying to harm them and why. I had several theories throughout this book, and I suspected everyone, but I was still shocked by the ending because of how it all went in the end.

Our main character is Red who along with her friends Maddy, Arthur, and Simon, along with Maddy's older brother Oliver and his girlfriend Reyna are road-tripping to Florida for spring break. Now going into this situation it sounds like it could be rough since no one has ever driven an RV before and that many people in one RV can only lead to them getting on each other's nerves after a while. At first, everything is going smoothly, but then they lose the GPS signal, and then somehow their tires get popped on a small back road leaving them stuck. From here on out things go from bad to worse quickly.

There is a sniper hiding in the woods, who has cut them off from all outside resources and won't let them go until one of them tells a secret by morning or it will be bad for all of them. This of course leads to chaos and all of them trying to find a way to get away from this sniper and to safety, while also trying to figure out who the person is with the secret.

Overall I loved this book. Red is a great main character whose skills with the walkie-talkie are vital since it becomes clear pretty quickly that one of the people in the RV will do anything to save themselves. As the time in the book started to get closer to morning and things got more chaotic we see Red start to put the pieces together, while also finding out things that about the others that she would have never suspected. When she puts it all together in the end it is heartbreaking and extremely chaotic still.
Jackson did such a good job of keeping that chaotic and stressed feeling going throughout the book, while also putting in little bits of hope that maybe just maybe they'll be able to find a way out.

This book is perfect for the spooky season and any season really. If you like putting together a mystery and attempting to solve it then this is the book for you because of how many secrets there are.

(I read both the arc and a finished copy from the library.)