This book was still a bit YA but fantastic in the sense of a thriller book. I feel like this was just enough twist for young readers but not enough for me.

I loved her Good Girl’s Guide to Murder series so I expected great things from this one. Unfortunately, I got to 28% and decided to give up. I needed more to help me understand why this odd thing is happening to this group of teens because I couldn’t stop my outbursts of “but why?!” I also disliked the way the main character, Red, was written. That’s a first for me and I’m not sure how to best describe why I feel that way. She felt forced and her thoughts were repetitive. I think she was trying to make the character feel real but it just felt strange. Fun fact: the RV is 31 feet long. We’re told so many times that it has to play out in the end but I couldn’t force myself to read from this character’s perspective anymore. I’m sad to say that I’d recommend this one be skipped or, if you’re a huge fan of the author, get the book for free.

Thank you to Holly Jackson, Random House, and NetGalley for the eARC of Five Survive!

Six friends load up in an RV to go on a road trip for spring break. They have planned a stop at a campsite in SC, but they lose service before they get to their destination safely. Just when they think they’ve figured out how to turn the RV around, the tires are punctured. It turns out 1 of the 6 has a secret that they’re keeping, and there’s a sniper outside who wants to figure it out. Will the sniper get to them all, or will someone spill their secret?

The first half of this book had me a little worried that this wouldn’t live up to the typical “Holly Jackson” hype. After being completely obsessed with the AGGGTM series, I was hoping I’d love her next book just as much as that series. Holly Jackson did not disappoint! This book kept me on the edge of my seat. Every time I thought I had it figured out, she threw another plot twist at me. Great read, and great for spooky season!

I can’t rave more then I am about this book. Holly Jackson impresses me more and more with each book. When I started and the kids were all from Philly, like me it was a win-win (IYKYK). I really felt I had this book all figured out but the bad guy just sometimes isn’t who you expect it to be. Such amazing twists and turns.

**Netgalley Arc***

(5 stars)


I have no words other than I loved every moment of this book. It was fantastic. Every character made me feel something even if it was hatred or annoyance. They were so well written. And while I saw the plot twist coming I didn’t mind it and I still loved the book.

The gist:

Red: a high school senior with at home problems who writes to do lists on her hands

Maddy: Red’s very neat and tidy best friend

Simon: irresponsible party kid, his uncle leant them the rv

Oliver: Maddy’s very bossy brother

Reyna: Oliver’s Girlfriend

Arthur: Red’s Love interest from another school

6 friends get trapped in the middle of nowhere on the way to a spring break vacation in an RV. There is a sniper outside and they just reveal a secret to survive.

Thank you to netgalley and publishers for an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This ARC was provided to me digitally from Random House and NetGalley. Thank you for the opportunity to preview and review.

This is the first Holly Jackson book I've had the pleasure of reading, and I went into it with high hopes after hearing so many good things about A Good Girl's Guide to Murder.

Five Survive follows a group of six high school students while on a spring break road trup. On the first day of their travels, they lose their way and end up with a flat tire on a small, deserted side road while trying to find their campground. They quickly find out that this didn't happen on accident, but that there is someone with malicious intentions who purposely trapped them. We quickly find out that the assailant wants a secret that one of the characters is keeping, but we don't know who the character with the secret is or what the secret itself is. During the next 8 hours, the students need to work together to figure out an escape plan and hope that they all get out alive.

I've spent lots of time thinking about this book since I finished it. I have many good things to say and also many not-so-good things, so I'll structure this review by listing what I didn't like first, and ending on a more positive note by explaining what I did love about it. I am not a big YA reader, so I understand that I do not fall into this book's target audience. I will remain conscious of this throughout my review and I'll try to be as objective as possible.

<b>What I didn't like:</b>
1. I am a very character-driven reader, so I found that this book lacked some character depth. I really wanted to have something in common with Red and her friends, but this was very difficult when their personalities were poorly developed. Red's main character trait was the fact that her mom died five years ago. Although this plays a major role in the overall story, it didn't give me much of a reason to care for Red or cheer her on.

2. I found the main character-based plot twist at the end of the story to be very predictable. The "big reveal" towards the end was extremely obvious and I was almost disappointed in the characters for not figuring it out sooner, especially since they are portrayed to be very clever and creative people.
Before bashing on this twist any further, I'd like to mention that I am a big mystery/thriller reader and I have read countless books within the genre. I feel that I predicted the ending primarily because of my experience with mystery/thriller stories. Although the twist was disappointing to me personally, I have no doubt that it will come as a shock to most YA readers.
After this twist, the rest of the story was concluded brilliantly. We didn't have enough information to piece together and predict the overall conclusion of the story, so this came as a pleasant surprise to me.

3. I want to avoid sharing any spoilers, so this next section will be a bit vague. If you are planning to read the book in the future (or if you have read it already), you'll understand exactly what this part is about as soon as you've gotten to it in the story.
Throughout the book, we never learn much about the characters. I believe the author did this intentionally in order to surprise us with the characters' secrets and identities.
The true identities of the characters were so far-fetched that it was almost laughable. Nothing about the characters' identities matched their personalities or how they acted, which unfortunately killed the realism of the story for me at the end. At the very end of the book, the letter that was written was also extremely cheesy and unbelievable, especially since we now know who the character who wrote it really is.

<b>Now, onto what I did like about the book:</b>
1. As much as those first three points make it seem like I hated the book, I didn't hate it in the least. From page one, the story was extremely engaging and there was always something new to think about. I was hooked from the first page and I stayed up until 2am to finish it. I LITERALLY couldn't put it down.

2. The story was consistently suspenseful. I mentioned that I found the big twist to be predictable, but the smaller details throughout the story were very nicely developed and extremely well-executed. The author did a wonderful job of laying out the plot points, and it was so engaging that I felt like I was personally involved. My heart was beating so fast during the most suspenseful parts.

3. I haven't read many books that take place in such a short period of time. This entire book spanned over a period of 8 hours. It really felt like I was living in this story with the characters and the short timeline was a very unique and interesting concept to me as a reader.

4. I was really happy with the way the story ended. The story paid off for the characters I liked and completely worked against the characters I hated. The ending was so satisfying and renewed my belief in karma.
<b>Be a good human and be nice to people. </b>

Overall, I really enjoyed this story and think it is very deserving of at least four stars. I had a great reading experience, and the only reasons why it is not 5 stars is because of the predictability and how unrealistic the characters felt to me in the end.
I'd recommend this book not only to YA readers, but to anybody who is interested in mystery/thrillers or books with lots of suspense. This book is marketed towards teens, but it's definitely a story that's engaging and can be enjoyed by people of any age.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Random House Children's!

Eight hours of a road trip with 6 friends. Only 5 make it out alive as the road trip turns deadly.

Holy %$#%! This was a thrilling ride. So unexpected. I've been bored with thrillers lately, and who knew it would take a YA novel to get me out of the rut. I don't want to give any of this away. I didn't see any of it happening. Looking back, there are a few small and subtle hints that I completely missed. This was fantastic! More please!

This book has everything a thriller should have. It’s fast paced to keep the adrenaline coming, twists to make your stomach drop, and a love interest for added depth.
The storyline was hard for me to get what was going on upfront but a few more pages in and I was hooked. I could not stop until I was through the entire book.
Holly Jackson gets you to love a character and then rips your heart out and makes you irate with them the next chapter. So amazing and just adds to the immersive experience of the book. Loved it so much. I can’t wait for everyone to enjoy this book as much as I did!

This book just didn’t interest me from the first few pages. I really like the synopsis, which is why I was so interested, but it just seemed to drag on. Plus, the characters felt flat for me. I appreciate the opportunity to read and review. Perhaps I’m too old for a YA :(

At the beginning I thought this book would be predictable but I was wrong! The book happens in the span of a couple of hours and you’re always wondering what’s going to happen next.
I would recommend this to anyone looking for a good mystery and thriller book!

Thank you Netgalley for the e-ARC!

Holy suspense!
Let me preface by saying, I’ve never read any of Holly Jackson’s other books and she really blew it out of the water with this one. Now I’m determined to read every thing she has ever written.

I’m usually pretty good at figuring out the big twist or “who’d done it” but man I was not prepared for the cornucopia of twists in this book. Just when you think the plot is all summed up, BAM! Another twist!

Who would think that six kids getting trapped in an RV for eight hours would turn out to be such an adventure? Just think lord of the flies meets wrong turn meets eagle eye. If you’re a fan of true crime, I highly recommend this book!

I’m giving this one 4.5 stars!

Thanks to @netgalley for letting me review this one!

- This book was not as good as AGGGTM but I still enjoyed it a lot! It was a berry quick read for me. The main character Red was definitely on the sketchy side for me because of her secret that she only exposed at the end. The plot twist was unexpected because I was thinking of something waaaaay different from what it was. I hated Oliver with a passion and he just kept getting worse till the end. Simon wasn’t really a big part of this story so he was just in the background as well as Maddy up until the end. *Thank you to Netgalley & Random House Children’s for sending me this arc in exchange for an honest review*

Let me just say... Holly Jackson knows how to keep a reader on their toes. I absolutely loved this one! I loved how this book was written, as Holly Jackson gave each character a unique personality with their own hidden secrets. I felt like I was truly able to connect with all of these different characters, which was something I truly loved. The evolution of the story and the plot twists were great and added so much to the book. This is such a perfect thriller for the winter! I would absolutely recommend reading this one.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Children's for this free arc in exchange for my honest review.

Unfortunately this book fell flat for me. I love a good thriller but this one just seemed to drag on a bit for me personally.

The premise of the book seemed great but it did not grip me in the way I want a thriller to do. The “surprise twist” just felt very anti-climactic.

I was not a fan of the ending and how it left everything so open ended with Red and Arthur. I honestly felt like I read the whole book for nothing.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children's for giving me a chance to read and review this book.

Holly Jackson is one of my favorite authors and I was beyond excited to see she wrote a new book. This book was everything I wanted, needed, and hoped it would be. Hands down one of my top favorites this year AND I will be recommending this book to a lot of people. I'm excited to see if maybe a sequel will come out, fingers crossed!

Wow, just wow. I need to start off with a concern before I go into this book. I understand it is listed as Teen and YA, but I'm concerned that the younger YA group is going to read this. I guess the author has built a rep surrounding murder cases. That would deter the younger minds, but I'm worried what this will do to minds even in high school. I'll leave my thoughts on that there, and actually get to the feedback part.
I loved it. I mean the tension was there throughout the whole book. It had the same creepy, twisty vibes of AGGGTM trilogy. It was exactly what I was hoping to find. Holly Jackson does not disappoint, and I will forever be buying her books.
Thank you for the opportunity and taking me on another great adventure. I cannot wait to share my thoughts with my readership and watch their minds explode as they find out the truth behind this size friends trapped inside a thirty-one foot RV.
I hope this review helps! Happy Reading and Blessed Be.
Lily Ashtree

WOW! Let me start with, Holly Jackson knows how to write thrillers. I particularly enjoyed this one because it is set in South Carolina, which is where I’m from. It made the book even more intense thinking about this happening just up the street.

The characters were crazy, all with their hidden secrets. I truly felt scared and stressed in ways that I have never felt while reading this book. The way Jackson builds out suspense is unreal!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of Five Survive.

I was so excited to receive this! I really love the Good Girl’s Guide to Murder series and I was so happy to be reading something else from this author.

Unfortunately, this didn’t work for me. I think my expectations were a little too high. I really liked the setup of the characters being stuck in an RV with a shooter outside but the characters felt really one dimensional. We spent a lot of time with them but I didn’t feel like we got to really know them. I wasn’t rooting for any of them so nothing felt very high stakes to me. Oliver honestly ruined a lot of this book for me. He was such an annoying, in your face character and I realize this may be on purpose but it got to be too much. I also didn’t enjoy the plot twist or the reasoning behind what was happening. It was too repetitive for me.

Overall, I wish it had worked for me but it didn’t.

I was so excited to receive this advance reader copy of a Holly Jackson book! I have heard nothing but wonderful things from my GoodReads buddies and this book was clearly NO EXCEPTION. Five Survive was such a fun thriller with so many twists and turns! A perfect spooky book for this winter!

This book was absolutely insane!!! My heart was literally racing till the end, I’m surprised I haven’t gone into cardiac arrest!!
For real though, I’ve read Holly Jackson’s other books so my expectations were pretty high going in, but I thankfully wasn’t disappointed! Five Survive was SUCH a page turner. Like, once I got involved in the story, there was no prying it from my hands until I knew what was going to happen next.