This high-stakes thriller is a masterful blend of sharp prose, relentless pacing, and jaw-dropping twists. Each chapter escalates the tension, making it nearly impossible to put down. The characters are richly drawn, their choices driving a plot full of surprises. A captivating, edge-of-your-seat experience from beginning to end.

I really enjoy the way Alexa Donne writes a YA Mystery-Thriller. Her novel, Pretty Dead Queens, is one of my favorites of all-time. It was like she wrote it for me. When I was first learning about this release, everything about it was working in its favor; the cover, the title and this incredible synopsis opener:

'When a winter storm traps eight teens in a remote ski cabin, they find themselves stranded with a killer...'

Happy to report, this gave me exactly what I was looking for!

The Bitter End is such a fun Teen Scream Thriller. We follow a group of high school students, who go on a school trip, and end up stranded in a posh Colorado ski chalet. As bodies start dropping one-by-one, and a blizzard has cut them off from outside contact, the remaining teens need to figure out who the killer is before it's too late.

This is a classic set-up and I loved it developed in Donne's capable hands. The characters are so messy and full of drama; it got intense. I was getting all the tea and drinking it up. These kids were bitter and a bit twisted. Alexa Donne has really found her lane with this type of juicy, drama-filled Teen Thrill-Ride and I hope she keeps them coming. I will be first in line to get my hands on any future releases, that's for sure.

I highly recommend this if you love YA Mystery-Thrillers, particularly if you enjoy inclement weather stories, or whodunits. The execution of this is great. It's claustrophic and a bit frantic. I couldn't put it down. Thank you to the publisher, Random House Books for Young Readers, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I can't wait to see what Donne comes up with next!

I recently read The Ivies by Alexa Donne and loved it, so I knew this had to be the next one I wanted to read. This one follows a group of students stranded on a mountain with a killer lurking.

The first thing I really liked was the array of characters. These were not all friends, so there were multiple personality types, which made it more interesting to guess who was behind the murders. Donne does a good job of showing personalities and giving you more and more throughout the book. You had a lot of your typical high school types, but some were different. I really enjoyed how Donne made these characters interact and kept you guessing on who was behind everything. Donne threw some curveballs that made me question my guesses. The intensity and suspense were high throughout the book and kept me flipping pages.

My only complaint is that at times it was a little unbelievable. Only in the sense that someone could get away with it without someone in that house noticing, but this was easily pushed aside by the suspense and intrigue I got from this story.

As I have before, I truly enjoyed The Bitter End by Alexa Donne and will definitely be reading the next book available by her. If you love suspense, this will be a must read for you! Add it to your list!

The Bitter End by Alexa Donne is a fast-paced, atmospheric thriller that expertly blends high school drama with classic whodunit suspense. The isolated ski retreat setting heightens the tension as secrets unravel and trust dissolves among the privileged cast. Donne keeps readers guessing with sharp twists and unreliable narrators.

I’ve read one other book by this author and they both had similar vibes. Rich teenagers who wind up murdering each other. Was it the best book? No. Did I love the ride? Absolutely. Twists and turns with some who done it mixed in between. 3.5 rounding to 4

I loved this thriller! It's fast paced and dual time line, as well as multi pov. 7 students are on a trip in the mountains, with no phones and no one to call for help when things start to go wrong. Can they figure out who's trying to take them out one by one? The twists and turns in this book are exciting and have you coming back for more. The ending is a bit ambiguous and has you questioning who was the real culprit, but if you love natasha preston, you will absolutely love this book. Will definitely be checking out the rest of this authors work.

Thank you so much to netgalley and the publisher for the arc of this one in exchange for an honest review!

Unfortunately, I was not a fan of this book. All of the characters were annoying and unlikeable. They also all blurred together. There were just too much going on and too many povs.

I hope others love this one.

The Bitter End is one of those books that isn't perfectly for me but is one I can really see the appeal of. It follows a bunch of bougie private school kids who go on a special senior trip to the snowy Colorado mountains and end up snowed in, and getting killed off one by one. This is a classic mystery premise; one I haven't seen explored nearly enough in YA lit. We follow several POVs in this, and at first, they may be hard to tell apart, but I think they become fairly distinct as the story goes on. Most of the characters are very unlikable and this is one of those books that makes you want to scream at the characters to make better choices. Only one of the narrators was really likable to me because she was so smart. I think this is kind of intentional. Still, it's fun and engaging and I get why teens would like it. I think fans of Jessica Goodman would like this, and it sort of reads like a more elevated, less problematic Pretty Little Liars. The final twist worked for me, and like I said, teens will probably eat this up.

The big issue with this is that two of the main characters are so hard to read from. I was outright annoyed with them. We weren't supposed to love Delaney, but Willa was kind of outright pathetic, and teen readers will totally pick up on that and won't really like her either. Still, this has potential for readers who are looking for something quick, easy and fun, and I think it could fit into our teen collection.

Maybe it's the warmer weather and my moody reading mood kicking in, but this book was so Boring. It started out interesting but quickly Plateaued and ended unsatisfactorily (in my opinion). It didn't help that all the characters were unlikeable and Basic as heck. I've read a lot of locked room mysteries, specifically ones where they're snowed in at a cabin/resort/what have you, and this one had no defining qualities.

I did buy this for my classroom library and my students continue to devour it. I have a group of kids who enjoy mysteries and they keep asking if the author has another novel available

The Bitter End is an intricately plotted YA thriller that's perfect for fans of isolated, locked-room mysteries like Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None and Knives Out, but make it YA. I thought I'd guessed the killer for sure, but I was wrong. It was a fun read, I flew through it in one day.

3.5/5 stars


I enjoyed "The Bitter End" for its dark and suspenseful take on the boarding school setting. The atmosphere was well-done, and the story kept me interested. Some of the characters where a little meh to me, but overall it was a solid read.


Worth checking out if you're a fan of dark academia.

The Bitter End is a twisty thriller about a group of privileged LA prep school seniors on a digital detox ski trip that turns deadly when they become snowed in with a murderer—who might be one of them. The novel blends classic isolated closed-circle mystery elements with a modern twist, including a remote mountain setting, a snowstorm, and the absence of cell phones. The characters are layered and unreliable, making nearly everyone a plausible suspect. As bodies pile up in gruesome and creative ways, flashbacks to a pivotal freshman year party reveal the dark secrets tying the group together. This book is tense, full of backstabbing and the perfect thriller with solid stakes and shocking twists.

The Bitter End is a Young Adult mystery/thriller book that falls into the "group of people trapped in a snowstorm with a killer on the loose" trope. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing if that's what you're looking for. And at the time of reading this book (during a snowstorm), it's exactly what I was looking for.

Overall I thought that the book was a pretty good example of the genre. Though there were multiple PoV characters I felt as though the author did a pretty decent job of making each narrator stand out enough that I could tell them apart, which isn't always the case with these types of books. I thought the suspenseful scenes were written pretty well and I liked how the ending wasn't entirely wrapped up with a pretty bow and that there were still questions left to be answered. (But in a way where I didn't feel cheated that they weren't.)

The only thing keeping me from giving it 5 stars are the plot holes. I felt that there were a couple of things that were missed that should have been explained and that a few of the characters did things that didn't make sense in the scheme of things. But those plot holes and discrepancies weren't enough to ruin the book for me.

I thought The Bitter End was a pretty good Young Adult thriller with a good cast of characters.

This book starts with a group of high school students on a school trip into the mountains. You slowly discover that none of them wanted to be on the mountain and someone(s) orchestrated their attendance.

As characters start dying, each of the remaining characters has their moment in the spotlight where it seems plausible they could be the killer. The flashbacks to reveal the history between the characters are well done and there are enough twists and turns to keep you reading.

The book was enjoyable and moved quickly. More importantly for me, there weren't moments where the plot was only driven by the stupidity of the characters. Their actions were reasonable given the situation, which isn't always the case in books of this genre.

Thank you to Netgalley for this free advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

When the students of Warner Prep are unexpectedly signed up for a different Senior Excursion, eight students find themselves isolated in a Colorado ski chalet for five days without technology. The students plan to make the most of this trip but are soon fighting for their lives as students start dying in suspicious deaths. The students must figure out why they were chosen for this trip and who is behind these deaths while trying to survive the snowstorm that rages outside.

The Bitter End was a fast-paced mystery thriller that was the perfect read during a snowstorm. This book was filled with so many unlikeable characters, each with their own reason for wanting someone dead. The chapters go back and forth from present day to a party that occurred three years prior, and it was intriguing to see each character's secrets reveled. Although I did enjoy the book overall, I wasn't a huge fan of the ending. I felt like some of the questions I had were never answered or rushed.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children's Publishing for the opportunity to review The Bitter End. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Oh, all the twists and turns! This is the perfect read for those wintery days by the fire to keep you guessing!

I enjoyed this suspenseful winter tale. I was pleasantly surprised at the twist reveal of the killer even if I found it slightly confusing. The shifting points of view really added to the story. Although I hated the way all of these girls were obsessed with the one lame guy. All in all it was the perfect snow day read.

This wasn't the book for me unfortunately. It started with a school trip where the students get stuck in a cabin due to a snowstorm. This isn't the trip they were expecting though and there is a killer amongst them. Some of the events that unfold were unrealistic to me so it made it a difficult read for me. I know that others will like it though. Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Bitter End by Alexa Donne is a perfect wintery read. It kept my interest from start to finish, though there were no really likeable characters. Getting to the resolution of the mystery was a little confusing with the back and forth timelines, but overall, it was a fun story that I would recommend to fans of YA Thrillers and, of course, anyone looking for a quick thriller good for the cold weather outside.