You know that feeling when you're watching a good horror movie and your stomach is turning with anxiety and your heart is beating smile a minute because some stuff just got real? That is exactly how I felt reading this book.

A thriller/horror set in an RV spanning the course of eight hours? How could I not say no? When their spring break abruptly comes to a screeching halt in the middle of nowhere, six friends quickly fix their seemingly flat tire and turn back around to find their way out. But all thoughts of having a relaxing break suddenly come to a close when all four of their tires are shot out by someone lurking in the woods around them. The sniper in the woods wants something from the-a secret only they know-and the clock is ticking.

Holy moly, the tension in this book is off the rails. I have this thing about horror movies where anything involving real-life monsters (especially guns) truly gets to me. But I am a glutton for punishment and watch them anyway. This book scared the poop out of me. The red dot of the sniper rifle, not knowing who could be shot next had me gasping for breath. Not only that but the six protagonists slowly begin to turn on each other. With every reveal, the tension grew thicker and thicker.

I'm amazed at how Holly Jackson managed to put all my horror fears into one book and execute it with such finesse. I'm constantly on the lookout for books that scare me (those are few and far between), but I think I found the one in FIVE SURVIVE.

Edit (possible spoiler): I may have missed it (and need to reread) but did Red ever find out the characters on the curtains? HOLLY PM ME PLEASE.

3.5
Here's the thing. This was a super quick, enjoyable read. I definitely wanted to know what happened. However, I don't think it'll really stick with me. We follow a lot of different characters, and although we spend 400 pages with them, I never felt particularly attached. You definitely had to suspend your disbelief at times, and the dark tone paired with the young writing style often had me wondering who, exactly, this book's ideal reader would be.
If you fell in love with Holly Jackson for her GGGTM bubbly, humorous writing style, this is not a return to that. This felt very reminiscent of As Good As Dead, which was a bit of a let down for me (and many other people, I believe). We have a traumatized main character who has repetitive thoughts about a secret that we don't find out about for farrr too long.
I didn't guess the ending, but you also can't really guess the ending because we're left mainly in the dark.
I'm curious if this is going to be a series.
Thanks to the publishing and Netgalley for providing an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Holy plot twist! I did not expect anything that happened and the ending was insane, yet satisfying . I loved AGGGTM but I LOVED this one. A locked room (or better yet RV) mystery, high stakes, fast paced, YA thriller. I don't think I could ask for any more. I couldn't put this down and finished it in a day. It definitely did not feel YA besides the fact the main characters were all teenagers, this was a top tier thriller for me. I fully believe you should go in this one blind, it makes it so much more suspenseful.

Thanks to NetGalley and Delacorte Press/Random House for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for giving me a copy of this book to read and review. All of these thoughts are my own.

This is by far my favorite Holly Jackson book. I couldn’t put it down. I read it in one sitting and it kept me on my toes all the way until the end. I’m still trying to recover. All of the twist, like my lord. Just when I thought I had it figured out; Holly was like sike false alarm. This will seriously keep you guessing until the end.

I wish it was longer too because that ending left me unsatisfied. I have got to know what happens next between Red and Arthur.

Easiest 5 stars I’ve given in a while.

I ended up really liking this one! I couldn't help but compare it to AGGGTM in my mind and I feel like it held up but in a really different way. Five Survive struck me more as a traditional thriller and more of a departure from the YA vibe of AGGGTM, while I would still consider this YA. I think Red took me a while to get used to as a main character but as the book goes on I found her very endearing. This book honestly gripped me and was so fast paced I didn't want to put it down. Definitely recommend!

Eight hours. Six travelers. 1 red dot from a sniper rifle.
🔴
Red, her best friend, her best friend’s brother and his girlfriend, and two other friends are on their way to Gulf Shores for Senior Spring Break. They’re driving an RV, but reach a dead zone and struggle to get service for directions. When one of their tires blows out they pull over to change it when all four end up blowing out too. In the confusion they realize they’re being shot at by a sniper. Static from a walkie-talkie has their capture asking one question: what’s your secret? As night bleeds to dawn each person must tell the truth in hopes of figuring out what the killer wants and the ending will leave you speechless.
🚐
What a whirlwind this trip was! I read this YA thriller in one sitting—I was that invested. I love books that happen with a small cast in one time frame like No Exit. It read like a play, which I absolutely loved and could definitely see this one being made into a movie. Fans of HoJay’s A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder series will love her newest thriller book out Dec. 8!

CW: murder, blood, death of a parent, death, hospitalization, gun, alcohol use, physical assault, violence

4.5 ⭐️

This was absolutely incredible!! I struggle a lot with reading books on my phone because I just don’t comprehend it as well for whatever reason, but this one was so so good I could not put it down!

It was overall a super easy read but so suspenseful and exciting and amazingly well-written. I love Holly Jackson’s writing so so much. Some mysteries tend to get convoluted (like A Study in Charlotte) but none of Holly Jackson’s ever are. Clear writing and thrilling and terrifying with satisfying resolutions are her mysteries and I love them!! So much fun and so quick to read, I absolutely loved this book and I can’t wait for it to come out to get a physical copy!!

So I grabbed this just on instinct because I liked the first two books of Holly Jackson's Good Girl's Guide to Murder series so much (we do not speak of the third book). I didn't even read the description before requesting it, but once I did I was a little nervous about the premise - a group of six people in their teens and early twenties are taking an RV from Philly down south for Spring Break, when they get lost and then become the targets of a sniper who shoots out their tires and threatens them if they don't share the secret that one of them is carrying. The main character, Red, is the one you get to know best, and you see the entire terrifying night stuck in the RV through her eyes. Things unfold kind of how you would expect when people are stuck in close quarters being hunted by someone whose motives aren't actually all the clear. This was compelling enough that I read it all in one sitting, and the resolution was interesting if not completely believable, but it was so claustrophobic that I don't think I'd want to revisit it. Definitely more of a thriller than a mystery, and a really different tone and mood than the previous trilogy.

This one was mainly lows for me; it just didn’t deliver.

Red’s constant PTSD issues were so all-encompassing that it hindered the progression of the plot. Then, mixed with what I’d guess with ADD, it was almost painful to try to follow her throughout the story. Oliver and Maddy were incredibly unlikeable, beyond just providing obstacles to add drama. The naivety of 6 people failing to recognize the immediate implications of 4 simultaneously blown tires was also laughable.

Reyna’s intelligence and Simon’s humor were the strongest points. And, eventually, the story did pick up. It was nice to see some ingenuity as the crew worked to try to piece together how to survive.

Then the ending hit. The “let me just lay out every detail” monologue was lazy. The letter to “wrap up” loose ends was also lazy. And it all made me feel silly for WANTING to like the story.

This is YA. And maybe I’m being harsh looking at it with adult eyes, but I don’t think I’ll have students fight their way through the book AND be satisfied with the ending.

I’ll tell my students about: language, death of a parent, murder/violence/gore, mental health issues, trauma

**Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children’s for the free ARC prior to publication. All opinions expressed are my own.**

Wow! What an amazing thrill ride of a book! I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN! All the characters in this book are so different from one another and are so memorable in their own right. I usually have a tough time keeping track of who’s who when there is 4+ main characters but that wasn’t the case for FIVE SURVIVE. The whole premise of the book is terrifying, six friends are stranded in an RV while on a road-trip, but then it gets worse when they realize the RV didn’t break down on accident… I could go on and on about why this has become one of my top favorite books but first and foremost… THE ENDING! Now that’s how you end a book! Holly Jackson has truly done it again. She has brought readers another amazingly thrilling YA book!
Be sure to stop by your local bookstore on November 29th to pick up a copy of this future bestseller!

Thank you NetGalley for sending me a digital copy of this book.

In exchange for an honest review, I received an ARC from Netgalley & Listening Library. I held my breath through most of my reading of this book even though I figured out the mole fairly early on in the intense standoff. The biggest question through out my reading was which of the group would survive? We know from the title of the book that 5 will but which five was constantly on my mind. I was not surprised at the end which of the five did survive. For some reason, that campfire story of boyfriend and girlfriend's car breaking down on a desolate back country road and he leaves her in the car to get help only for her to start to hear scratches throughout the night. I think we all remember how that ghost story ends up. I kept waiting for one of our group to end up outside the RV and we would start to hear scratches on the roof of the RV. I guess for this story to ring a bit more true for myself. I would like to have had more of flashback episodes of them in Philly. It would have helped the revelations made at the end more impactful than kinda coincidental. While I would probably rate this read as a B/B-, I will always read a Holly Jackson book when it comes out.

I absolutely loved Holly Jackson’s A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder trilogy. I was so very excited to read this new book. It was a bit slow for me in the beginning, but once it picked up I was hooked. I did figure out what was going on early in the book, but I still enjoyed it. Holly Jackson is definitely becoming an automatic buy author for me!

Six friends leave on an RV trip for Spring Break, but only 5 survive the night. Someone in the group is hiding a secret. All they have to do is admit it. But can they trust each other?

This book is fast-paced. It takes place over the period of less than one day. It’s a definite thriller.

Holly Jackson does it again! The suspense, the secrets, the lies!! If this wasn’t on your TBR list, it should be now. I didn’t see the twist coming, and I feel like I usually can spot the mystery from a mile away. If you want something that will rack your brain AND leave you on the edge of your seat the whole time, this is the book for you.

The characters and the drama were amazing! I wanted to stand up and yell at half of the characters the whole time I was reading this. I was so engrossed and I loved every minute of it! Definitely one of my new favorite books.

five survive is another nail-biting thriller from the queen of plot twists, holly jackson! demolished this one in less than 24 hours as i did with each installment of the a good girl’s guide to murder series

six teens in an rv on a spring break road trip, what could go wrong!? set over eight hours, things quickly start to go awry as all four tires on their rv get shot out in the middle of nowhere. no cell service and a sniper hiding in the woods willing to kill for information from someone on that rv. somebody’s got a secret, well everybody’s got secrets. you’ll just have to read to find out what they are 😉

this book had me on the FLOOR!!!!!fighting for my LIFE!!!! not gonna lie the beginning was a little sluggish for me but once the action starts you better strap in. fans of agggtm will love this and i can’t wait to see all the hype it gets when it comes out later this year.

a very solid 4.5 for me. thank you netgalley and random house for the e-arc!

I am so grateful to Random House & NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this wonderful ARC. I recently read the A Good Girl's Guide To Murder series and loved it. I was so pumped when Holly Jackson announced this new Thriller, Five Survive. This book is about six friends who head out in an RV for spring break. While on their way, their tires go flat and they realize someone has done this to trap them. These friends must learn how to survive the night. There are secrets, bullet holes, lies, twists and turns, deaths, and so much more!

This book was very fast paced which I loved. The book takes place over one single night which makes you fly through it. While reading this, I was at the edge of my seat the entire time. The characters are all so very different which makes the book super entertaining. I applaud Holly Jackson for writing such an encapsulating book. I was worried it would not be as good as A Good Girl's Guide To Murder series but somehow it was even better. This book felt more of a Thriller, not just for YA. I think anyone will enjoy this book and they will be gripping the pages the whole time.

5 star read for sure. Thanks again!

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

A new book from the author of the A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder series, which is a favorite of mine.

Six friends leave on an RV trip for Spring Break, but only 5 survive the night. Someone in the group is hiding a secret. All they have to do is admit it. But can they trust each other?

This book is fast-paced. It takes place over the period of less than one day. It’s a definite thriller.

I only stopped reading when I was too tired to keep my eyes open and had to go to sleep. This book would make a good movie!

5/5 Stars

The Good Girls Guide to Murder is hands down one of my favorite thrillers of all time and also just one of my favorite series of all time in general. I will read literally anything Holly Jackson writes.

I do not give out 5 stars lightly, the book has to be nearly perfect for that miracle to happen.

What else can you expect from a Holly Jackson book other than fast-paced, high stakes and being at the edge of your seat from the very first page. I had no idea what was coming and this was one of the very few thrillers that my guess was wrong. In these classic who-dun-it kind of stories you can usually guess who the killer is or who betrayed who half way through the book. But not in this. I had no idea what to expect next and for the most part what was going, and that is what a thriller a good one. THE ENDING, she’s done it again. After the As Good As Dead ending I did not think I could take another ending like that again. But here we are and honestly I am mad about it. It fit the books perfectly.

In Five Survive you have 6 friends aboard an RV on a roadtrip to the Gulf Shores for their spring break. What they thought would be a fun trip turned out to be quite the opposite. The tensions are high, the betrayal! The Reveal! You will be shook.


Thank you NetGalley and Holly Jackson for providing me an ARC!

Holly Jackson has done it again! I am such a huge fan of her writing style. I was worried that this book would read too closely to the voice in AGGGTM, but this felt like an elevated move further into the thriller space. Jackson will stay one of the only YA thriller authors that I can not only tolerate as an adult, but enjoy. The plot twists were unguessable and the book held a pace that felt unputdownable! I’m so excited to see what’s next from Holly Jackson after experiencing a new side to her writing. 5 stars! Would recommend to fans of AGGGTM, Truly Devious and the work of Tiffany D Jackson.

I'm going to be pretty brief here. I was ridiculously excited to receive an ARC of this book. Sadly, this wasn't for me. I suspect Holly Jackson's legion of devoted readers will adore this book. However, between her last book and this one I feel like I am reading a completely different author than the one who wrote AGGGTM and GGBB. I won't list everything I didn't like BUT special mention of her new love of the word 'sniff' has to be made....It's everywhere. Everywhere. What -is- that? Do her characters need tissues? An allergy pill? I really have only one question, is Holly Jackson okay?