Despite being YA, a category that certainly no longer includes me as the target audience, I really enjoyed Holly Jackson's A Good Girl's Guide to Murder series, so I was excited to get my hand on her new book Five Survive.
Unfortunately this book fell short of my expectations.
While the beginning intrigued me and promised a wild ride, I soon realized that if you are a smidge over 14 and have read more than 2 mystery/thriller/suspense novels in your life, it takes you about a handful of chapters to figure out the what, the who and the why. I only kept reading to confirm that I was in fact right about my predictions and didn't fall prey to a massive red herring after all. I did not. This was undoubtedly the most predictable book I have ever read, but to be fair, I am sure my 13 year old would have not figured the plot out as quickly, and thus surely enjoyed it more than I did. Teens would likely also be more forgiving about characters behaving in unlikely/unreasonable ways, than older readers.
Another issue for me was the characters not being exactly likeable, which made them all rather disposable. I didn't care if they lived or died. Not a good thing if your title is Five Survive... which five? Who cares...
I will say that it was extremely bingeable on audio as there was a lot of dialogue driving the story forward, and I was reasonably well entertained (despite having figured out the plot in its entirety at the very beginning).
I am actually not sure how to fairly rate this title, as this book wasn't written for 40+ year old me.
If you are not the target audience for YA literature, and you found Five Survive because you enjoyed Good Girl's Guide, you probably don't need to read it. If you are a younger reader, or someone fairly new to the mystery or suspense genre, you'll likely enjoy it more.

Unfortunately, this was disappointing for me. I love Good Girl's Guide to Murder, all three books, so I was expecting to enjoy this too but there were just too many things I wasn't a fan of. The overall plot was just silly and unrealistic. The same things just keep happening over and over again without any real progression. Like why doesn't everyone just tie up Oliver and gag him? Red's memory issues are never fully addressed, I assume we are supposed to take from it that she suffered from trauma, but I'm just guessing. So this was a bust for me, hopefully I like the next Holly Jackson book better.

Admittedly, I did not realize until it was too late that I requested an e-copy as opposed to an audiobook (I am, generally, an exclusive audiobook listener when it comes to NetGalley). So it took me a while to pick up this novel. on my Kindle. That said, I wish I hadn't waited! This is a quick-paced young adult that you could easily tear through in one sitting! I could definitely see how this book could pull someone out of a reading slump. I also LOVE these types of atmospheres, where the whole book exists in one location, within a very short timeline, because it makes the book feel more intimate when everything is happening in the here and now. I love Holly Jackson's writing style, and the twists hit hard. This would be perfect for an on-screen adaptation, and I will HIGHLY recommend this book to my my friends (even those that wouldn't typically reach for a YA thriller!) Also, fuck you, Oliver <3

Holly Jackson does it again! You rarely see books set over such a short period of time, but I think it really kept the pace for this story. I didn't necessarily find the characters likeable, but they didn't have to be. I appreciated the lack of info-dumping. So many thrillers are guilty of overexplaining, and the use of dialog made it feel more personal. I would definitely recommend this book.

Five Survive is a young adult thriller by Holly Jackson, author of The Good Girl's Guide to Murder series. In this stand-alone novel, a group of friends are in an RV and driving to a spring break destination when they have a flat tire in the middle of nowhere. When the group stops to work on the problem, things start to get weird . . . and scary. The friends quickly realize they were set up by an unknown sniper, one who needs a secret from one of the friends. And he will kill for it.

I am a big fan of Good Girl's Guide to Murder, but Five Survive does not live up to the former series. Five Survive , while appealing to fans of One of Us is Lying or The Agathas, is just too outlandish and angst-ridden for my personal tastes. The plot takes several wild leaps, and the main character is so full of guilt and misery that she is hard to root for. She also seems to have memory or processing issues that are not fully addressed. I think this is an attempt at an unreliable narrator, but really it just takes you out of the story.

I will still read Jackson's next work in hopes she can find the Good Girl's magic again.

The twists kept coming right up to the very last line ... every time I thought I had it figured out, I was wrong.

This is a fast paced story with the plot taking place over an eight hour period in an RV on the side of the road.

It’s a quick read and delivers in true Holly Jackson fashion. The characters weren’t really like-able though so it was hard at times to care.

If you like cornered, twisty thrillers then you will definitely enjoy.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review.

As a Holly Jackson fan, I continue to be amazed at her attention to detail. Five Survive was an intense thriller listed under YA but I wouldn't let it be defined by the genre. Six friends on their way to Florida for spring break are abruptly stopped in the middle of nowhere by a sniper taking shots leaving them stranded and helpless stuck inside an RV to fend for themselves. I love a good mystery and with the high stakes attached, I was hoping for a good read. I did enjoy this book and didn't see any of the twists coming. I did however think it was a little slow of a start for me so I had trouble following along. I can normally zoom through books especially ones described as intense thrillers but with this one, it took me a bit longer. I will continue to read Holly Jackson's work but this one wasn't my favorite.

Thank you to Net Galley and Random House for the ARC.

It's a locked room (RV) mystery with a deadly twist. When a group of six friends head out from Pennsylvania in a RV to spend Spring Break in Gulf Shores, AL, they can't even begin to imagine what awaits them out there on the open road. No spoilers for this novel because it tells you right there in the title ... only "five survive." But who will live and who will die?

Red, who is grieving the loss of her mother five years earlier, is harboring a momentous secret, not to mention a ton of guilt for the role she played in her mom's death. She is hoping to forget her troubles on this epic Spring Break trip, but when her traveling entourage loses phone service and takes a wrong turn down a deserted road, their RV breaks down and they find their Spring Break plans going bust.

Red thinks things couldn't possibly get worse than being stranded in the middle of nowhere with no way to call for help, but then her group realizes that they are being shot at. A sniper has a target on their backs, and he won't let them go until one of them gives up the colossal secret they are hiding. But everyone is hiding something, right? So whose secret does the sniper want and why?

Holly Jackson has another hit on her hands with her new YA thriller Five Survive. Admittedly, I had a little difficulty getting into this book at the beginning, but once the plot picked up, this novel moved at breakneck speed toward its terrifying ending! I haven't experienced feeling so tense while reading a book in a long time - my stomach was in knots by the end. Jackson masterfully plays on the locked room plot device, trapping her characters in an RV, and pitting them against each other while not knowing if the real threat is outdoors or inside among them.

I love how quickly things began to unravel after everyone realized that they were going to have to give up their deepest, darkest secrets in order to survive the night. It soon becomes apparent that no one can be trusted. I never knew what was coming while reading this book, and so enjoyed the wild ride.

Recommended to fans of Karen McManus.

Five Survive reads like a movie. If the movie were Saw for Teens. Seriously, though, Five Survive was awesome. The pacing was great. The plot was propulsive. The suspense was real. The mystery, top notch. It's a slow-build to the end, but I loved watching Red piece it all together. Those last several chapters were TENSE.

Thrillers that are limited to one room, or in this case, an RV, create a unique challenge for authors--how to keep things interesting and moving forward with such a limited setting. But Holly Jackson takes this concept and makes it WORK SO WELL. As the six kids (teens and early twenties are kids, right?) work to figure out what the sniper wants before someone gets killed, we see them slowly start to unravel.

Basically, Five Survive was great. If you love thrillers and YA books, this one will be a hit.

Five survive was an interesting read that kept me intrigued, but I didn't like ay of the characters so while I was intrigued I also didn't care much.

After falling in love with Jackson’s storytelling with her A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, I was beyond excited to learn that she had a new book out. A standalone featuring a group of six friends on their way to spring break who find themselves lost in the middle of nowhere with a gunman shooting at their RV demanding one of them reveal a secret in order to save the rest from death.

With Red and her friends finding themselves lost rather quickly into the start of the book, the action quickly picks up as the group realizes that they’re trapped with no way to signal for help. Jackson did a wonderful job of creating an environment filled with tension and fear as the group finds themselves questioning who holds the secret that the sniper wants and what various members of the group will do in order to unravel the truth while saving themselves in the end. The paranoia and the ever increasing madness that is created by the situation is made most apparent with Oliver, the older brother to Red’s best friend. From the moment the group finds themselves initially down the wrong road with a flat, Oliver first starts to show his true colors by yelling at his girlfriend for getting the flat tire and not paying attention to the road. It was with this initial outburst that I immediately knew I didn’t like Oliver and began to secretly hope that he was the one with the secret and subsequently the one who would die.

As the events of the evening continue to ratchet up and the group realize just how much danger they’re in that the secret they initially think is what’s wanted isn’t, the friends quickly learn which of them really have one another’s backs and which will do anything to save their own hides, even going so far as to become a threat to the others.

This is a story that is fast paced told mostly through dialogue with very few instances where the story slows down, which made it so that it never became boring and I never felt that it dragged on. While I was surprised by some of the revelations that came out in the end, especially what the real secret was, I will say I was happy with the eventual outcome and what happens with each character. Five Survive just helps to reaffirm my initial thoughts about Jackson as an author after reading her previous series, and that is that she is a favorite author who I will eagerly devour new books from.

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!

Another thrilling mystery from Holly Jackson! I was eager to see what other universe she'd create outside of AGGG2M and I was NOT disappointed. Had me on the edge of my seat the entire time!

Holly Jackson is a favorite and an auto buy author of mine and I was incredibly excited for this book! I think Holly is one of the best YA thriller authors out there and this book did not disappoint. You can read this book hour by hour to match up with the story and that was such a fun way to read it.

Thank you #netgalley for an early read of #fivesurvive

I was lucky to receive an advance copy of Five Survive by Holly Jackson from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review and opinion. Holy cow - buckle up as this book is going to take you for the ride of your life. It is so fast paced that your head will spin trying to figure out what is going to happen. I absolutely loved this book and can't wait to read more by Holly!

What could be more fun than spending Spring Break with five of your friends, traveling in an RV? The open road ahead of you, the anticipation of what’s to come building, and plenty of alcohol. Their plans go bust, literally, when all four tires go flat, trapping them on a deserted backroad without cell signal. A sniper further complicates their predicament, a sniper that wants one of them to come clean about a secret they are keeping. It’s simple really: come clean and the rest will be allowed to leave, unharmed. Who’s secret is the sniper looking for, what other secrets will come unburied, and how will they all react to the building tensions inside the RV?

Oh what a tangled web we weave, especially when all involved are trying to deceive. Five Survive is a twisted novel that I enjoyed untangling as I read. While there were some things that I found easy to figure out, I was still pleasantly surprised along the way. I really liked the characters; watching them change as they faced adversity, in both positive and negative ways, drew me into their lives and the story. It is a fast-paced, to the point story; it doesn’t describe things that are basically unimportant to the narrative and mystery and instead focus on the action and events, making it into an on-the-edge-of-my-seat read.

Bought the book so we had it ready for circulation the second it came out - students love this author. It's edgy, but I think it has a place in our school library because the students are obsessed with crime.

Holly Jackson did not disappoint me! The suspense in this book is palpable! What starts off as a fun cross country spring break road trip in an RV turns into an active shooter situation with a group of friends stuck together full of accusations. I mean, look at the title–there are 6 kids, but you know only 5 survive!

Once again Holly Jackson has me hooked from the beginning. I loved Five Survive and give it 4.5 stars. It is a quick read, keeps you guessing, and then SHOCKS you in the end. Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC.