This was my first Jane Harper book ever and also the second audiobook I've read in my life. I read a lot of thrillers and mysteries, and have been eager to read a Harper book because I've heard so many great things about her writing.

I'm going to break this review up into two parts. First, I'll focus on the audiobook. Second, I'll focus on the plot and characters.

The audiobook was a very enjoyable listen. The narrator has an engaging and soothing voice. He was able to bring the characters to life in a way I don't think they would come through on the pages. I really got a sense of the emotions and feelings of the characters thanks to his narration and ability to emote. It was a keen listen and I am glad I chose to "read" this book via audio.

The story and characters were a mixed bag. At times, I had a hard time keeping track of all of the men involved in this story. I was definitely paying attention to the audiobook (I listen on my walks where I have no distractions), so I don't think that was the issue. The characters' names seemed similar to me for some reason, and the women in the book, with the exception of Verity, really didn't seem to stand out from one another. Perhaps it was due to the shifting timeline, as the book concerns two interrelated tragedies involving women/girls.

I think if I had read this as a book, I would have rated it three stars. However, since the narrator was fantastic, I gave it 4. The main reason I would have given this three stars is because the plot didn't have a lot of twists and turns. For me, this would make for a slow read.

Criticism aside, Harper is an incredible writer. She really has a gift for writing dialogue (not an easy thing to do) and for making the setting feel real. I loved that this book was set in a beach town, which felt very real in my head thanks to Harper's knack for describing her characters' environments. Because of this, I will definitely be reading more of Harper's books.

Thank you to Pan Macmillan (the publisher), Netgalley, and the author (Jane Harper) for an advanced review copy (audiobook) of The Survivors.

Kieran and his young family have returned to his hometown to visit his struggling parents, and to see old friends left behind. But when a body is found on the beach, questions are raised about a tragedy that took the life of Kieran’s brother years before.

Jane Harper writes fantastic character studies set in atmospheric Australian locales, and The Survivors is no different. Like the Outback in The Lost Man, the sea itself is crucial to the lives and attitudes of the characters, and to the mystery at hand. Excellent, compelling, slow-burn listening.

I love Jane Harper's other books, but this one kind of dragged for me. The story was good, and I enjoyed the main character. On the audio version, the Australian narrator was delightful. I enjoyed listening to it, although the narrator was a little quiet (also slow, but I find that with a lot of books). However, this was such a slow burn.

Harper does a great job with description. Readers of The Dry, especially, know how much detail she can give when writing a book. The scene is set so well that you can actually feel yourself there. I did enjoy the description, but the story felt like it moved so slowly. It was hard to get into and want to keep reading. When I was reading, I enjoyed it, but it wasn't something that I was dying to pick up each day.

The timelines also jumped a bit, which was confusing. There was a missing girl from 12 years ago and a missing girl in present day. You'd be reading a chapter in present day and then all of a sudden, the next one is talking about what happened in the past. It does intersect, and the same people of the small island community are involved, but it was a little confusing at times.

I also didn't love the end. I think I wanted a little more (especially after The Dry), but it was a good mystery.

This was so good. Wow. Harper really has a way of immersing you into this cozy-but-not-cozy setting, a small coastal town in Tasmania, just ending its peak summer season, a chill setting in the air, and a small town's secrets and trauma buried just under the sand.

Kieran Elliott reluctantly comes back to his hometown of Evelyn's Bay, Tasmania. His dad's dementia has progressed to a point where he needs to be moved into a care home, and Kieran, his girlfriend Mia (who also grew up in Evelyn's Bay), and their newborn daughter Audrey, return to help his parents move. Kieran doesn't want to come back to Evelyn's Bay, because ten years ago, his life changed forever after a once-in-a-lifetime storm killed his brother, his brother's best friend, Mia's best friend, and nearly Kieran himself. And although some could see it as a freak accident, it was basically Kieran's fault. He's had to live with that guilt and grief, along with so many other parents, friends, and family members in the town. Coming back dredges all of it up, fresh and painful. But things get worse for this little community of Evelyn's Bay. Just one day after Kieran and Mia arrive, a young art student from Canberra who came to Evelyn's Bay for the summer, is found dead on the beach. The shock of her death, compounded with the similarity of her death to the ten-year-old tragedy, sends the town into a tailspin. Kieran, a lovable, wounded protagonist, ends up digging into this mystery and uncovering some other truths about his past in the meantime.

It reminded me so much of Broadchurch in many ways, and I'm sure other stories about small towns with tight-knit but shady relationships could come to mind too. The characters are so endearing - they're not perfect, but they're human, and you come to understand the grief and pain that many of them have been through, and you admire the bond they still have through all of that. Kieran especially is a wonderful main character - he's just the right amount of brooding and caring and healing, unexpected for a character with his sort of past. The mystery unfolds quietly and calmly, almost a backdrop to the town reckoning with this new murder and still recovering from the tragic loss ten years ago. In some ways, that was what I disliked about Broadchurch - that the story focused far too much on grief and interpersonal relationships, almost too emotional and disconnected from the case at hand - but it really worked here. Perhaps it's because one wound was fresh, but the deeper wounds were much older, scabbed and healed over, but still painful. The community members are not overly emotional with recent grief. It's more of a portrait of the long-term effects of these losses on such a small town, especially when the most reasonable closure is not satisfying.

This book really puts you in Evelyn's Bay, so engrossing that you find it hard to put it down and look away. I haven't read any of Harper's other acclaimed novels, but her poignant writing, complex characters, and compelling plots certainly encourage me to pick up her other works. A note on the audiobook - I started the audio, but I didn't love the narration. The narrator had more of a newsy, matter-of-fact tone for Kieran than how I ended up picturing him when I could give him my own voice, so I opted for the ebook instead. Thank you to the publisher for the ARC via Netgalley!

i really loved the lost man by this author, and enjoyed the dry well enough. i love the australian-ness of her books, and how much she can do with so little (like in the case of the lost man, so few characters and such a deserted place) and i expected the same in this book.. instead, i had a lot of trouble keeping the numerous characters and storylines straight. in the end it all made sense, but it was also a very anticlimactic ending and i was kind of disappointed. i'll still read her next book, she's still an auto read for me. just wouldn't necessarily highly recommend this one.

This was a slow start and it was hard to understand the narrator at times due to his accent but it was an overall great listen and interesting mystery. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC.

Evelyn Bay is a small coastal town which has been greatly affected by the sea. Kieran’s brother died years ago in a storm, and he is still haunted by his death, believing his brother’s death is partly his fault. Kieran and his wife and daughter return to his hometown to help his mother move. A young art student is murdered, bringing up another murder from long time ago that still is unsolved. It is not long until Kieran finds out secrets were kept about his brother’s murder at sea. New evidence about the missing girl around that time has also surfaced. I enjoyed the community and the honest look at what can happen when feeling fester. I felt sorry for Kieran and his wife because of the hard feelings within the family and the community. I needed more action, I felt the story dragged on.

I have a hard time with mystery/thrillers. They usually disappoint me. This book was far from disappointing. It's about the messiness of grief and the damage secrets can do.

This is such an atmospheric read. You will feel the town, the sea, the storms rolling in, and of course the mystery of the survivors, and the missing.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my advanced copy in exchange for this audiobook.

Reviewing just the audiobook here. I'm an avid audiobook listener but for some reason I could not get into this. It might be a combination of reasons — slow story, boring narrator, accent — but I couldn't get past 10% in. Going to get my hands on a physical copy to see if it makes a difference but totally wasn't my jam.

I really enjoyed The Survivors. This is by far my favorite Jane Harper book thus far. She did a wonderful job developing the characters and laying the foundation. I was really drawn in and found myself transported into this story.
Secrets and suspense unravel as the story comes to an ending I just didn't see coming.

Jane Harper doesn’t disappoint. This book was a slow build but kept me guessing about what happened in this town a decade or so ago. The characters were intriguing and the author created a depth in each. You knew there were secrets that had previously never surfaced. Secrets with the characters, their parents, the local police and other random residents. You want the tragic incidents (past and present) to be committed by outsiders or truly be accidental but you know that isn’t how it will be. Highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a suspenseful story. I’m not one to repeat the cover description of a book but to give you a feel for the main character, Kieran Elliott, I will say he has known great trauma. Loss of an admired brother, distrust of the community, and uncertainty of the love of his parents. Kieran wants to put all of the trauma behind him. One last visit to help relocate his parents and leave the history behind unfortunately occurs at a pivotal moment that will cause the town to relive the past and confront the unknown circumstances of the deaths of two young women.

This book is a slow burn, small town drama set in Australia. When a young woman turns up dead, past tragedies are dredged up - 3 other deaths of young people in the community - and secrets are revealed. If you were a fan of Harper’s other book, The Dry, I think you’ll like this one as well because I found them both to be of a similarly slow pace. I almost gave up on The Survivors but because I was listening on audio, I trudged along listening during my commute to work each day. I did have to take some days off from the audio because I just wasn’t in the mood and felt nothing substantial was happening. The pace and events reminded me a bit of the show Bloodline. I’m pretty certain that if I was reading a physical copy I wouldn’t have finished.

Kieran's life has never been the same since the day when a tsunami of unfortunate events capsized his old life. All it took was one mistake, and the guilt has followed him even as he built a new life away from home. Upon returning to his home town, the guilt weighs heavily upon him, and he wishes his brother Finn were still here. It's not only because he misses him, but because his parents are falling on hard times in this seaside town where the tides can bring in fortune and fish, or dash the dream of a good life upon the harsh faces of the smooth, sea rocks. Then, a body washes up on the beach, questions are asked, and there are secrets beneath the ripples of the water that are now ready to bubble up to the surface. The only question, then, is whether Kieran can stay afloat now that this reckoning from the past has arrived.

With a name like The Survivors, you know you're in for a bit of guilt, right? Make that a lot of guilt, survivor's guilt to be sure, with a large heaping of remorse, anger, and resentment to boot. Kieran received a lot of blame for what happened years ago, so on coming back home, well, many people won't let it go even now. Despite the blame he's received, and the guilt he heaps upon himself, the body by the beach starts to dig up truth from the past, and maybe Kieran isn't as guilty as he's thought he was, and as others blamed him for. The story is told primarily from his perspective, which I liked, though that does mean revelations take some time, and this is a slow burn of a book. I listened to this story as an audiobook, and I do think that the narrator elevated the tale beyond its prose. If you enjoy character dramas mixed with mystery, dolloped with heaping spoonfuls of guilt, then sit down with The Survivors, and let the waves of its unresolved anguish wash over you.

⭐⭐⭐.5/5⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣ - Story ⁣
⁣⭐⭐⭐⭐/5⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣ - Narrator

If you plan on reading this book, I highly recommend reading it along with the audiobook. The narrator (Stephen Shanahan) adds an extra eerie aspect to the storytelling. I felt like I was there in the story. One thing that was a little confusing at the beginning was that they story switches back and forth in time. The further along I got, the more I was able to understand what was happening. Overall, this was an enjoyable read and recommend the audiobook to add some extra depth to the story.

Thank you NetGalley and Jane Harper for giving me the this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I am a huge fan of Jane Harper. Forces of Nature is one of my favorites. However, this time I had a really hard time getting into the book. it was very difficult to care about any of the characters. Also the beginning was so slow that I got really bored. Nothing really happens until Chapter 7, but by that time I had gotten to the point of no return and DF'd the book a chapter later.

Thank you @netgalley for an advanced copy of this audiobook
The Survivors is now my favorite Jane Harper book! It kept my interest from the very first page.
In this book, Kieran returns as an adult to his small coastal hometown in Tasmania, Australia. While there, the body of a local waitress is found on the beach. During the investigation of her death, memories of a tragedy Kieran was involved with years before resurface and secrets are revealed. The coastal setting with its sea caves plays an important role in the mystery.
The narrator, with his Australian accent, does an amazing job and made me feel like I was right there watching the story unfold.
I highly recommended this book to anyone who loves a good mystery.

In typical Jane Harper fashion The Survivors makes you feel like you are in Australia, fighting the elements along with the characters. This is a slow-burn thriller, as most of Harper's books are, that ends up fusing together multiple mysteries. The book deals with true friend and family relationships, holding nothing back. The narrator really contributed to the feel and telling of the story!

I thought the setting and atmosphere of this book was amazing. However, I found the story to move a little too slow for me and I didn't feel invested in the characters. I've heard great things about the author though, so I will have to try another book.

The Survivors by Jane Harper had an interesting premise and was a well written story with an immersive setting. I enjoyed the audiobook and thought the narrator did a nice job with the story. This book was definitely a slow burn for me and it didn’t quite grab me the way I had hoped. I most enjoyed the way the setting came to life and the depth of the characters.

I received an advanced listening copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley which did not affect the contents of my review. All opinions are honest and my own.