This story was a perfect take on the closed-door-mystery. Set in Colorado at a fancy chalet, eight students from an elite private school are there on a senior trip that goes horribly awry. During a blizzard, they're snowed in with no power and no way to call for help. Nothing seems too bad at first. The counselor agrees to ski down the mountain to get help and the teens settle in to wait it out. But then one of them is found dead. Then another. Can they both be accidents?

Soon it becomes clear that one of them is a killer and the distrust and suspicions escalate.

The teens aren't nice people. They all have questionable morals and have behaved badly toward others in the class in the past, especially at an infamous party three years prior. Things that happened back then tie directly into what is happening now and provides motivations for any one of them to be the killer.

The author does a great job in teasing the reader with the true identity of the killer and keeping the level of suspense high. The tension builds as the story progresses and several failed attempts to help them get help leaves the teens frustrated.

When the actual murderer is revealed, I thought the motivation for killing all the classmates was pretty thin and the climax lacked some of the punch of earlier scenes of confrontation, but the story comes to a satisfactory conclusion.

Using the blizzard and the cold and the sense of being trapped to add more drama to the story is perfect. The setting played an important role in how the various teens found resilience within themselves and accepted a challenge to work together to help each other.

Overall, I enjoyed the story. It's a quick read for a rainy afternoon, and if you like closed door mysteries, I encourage you to read until The Bitter End.

I always love a good locked room thriller. Give me a snowy setting and I am even more sold!

I loved the premise of this book. EIght teens are stranded in a remote ski cabin with a killer. But who is it? Is it one of them? The pacing for this was fantastic. It kept me turning pages right until the very end. I enjoyed the characters and their development. I didn't see the twist coming at the end which took me by surprise in a good way.

I'm definitely looking forward to checking out more books by this author. This YA thriller is definitely one not to be missed!

Eight disgruntled Warner Prep students are on their way from their Los Angeles homes to a remote Colorado ski retreat for a digital detox. This trip was almost none of their first choices for their high school’s annual Senior Excursion. Their chaperone, the tough but respected school counselor Ms Silva, is adamant that this will be good for them though:

QUOTE
“This weekend is about stepping back and reflecting. Your generation is so used to being watched. Every move monitored by your teachers, your parents, your publicists”–she nods to Eden–”your peers, your coaches, or even yourselves as you curate your perfect images in person and online. This weekend you’re stuck with me, but in a few months you will graduate and enter the world, and you will have no chaperones at all. I challenge you to take a cold, hard look at who you are and who you want to be. Because so far, I’m not sure I am impressed with what I see.”

A chill fills the air.

My plans for this weekend are front of mind.

I know exactly who I’d be, unseen and consequence-free.

Not a good person at all.
END QUOTE

While the narrator in that chapter is Willa Hawley, her thoughts could apply to pretty much everyone else in their group. Willa herself isn’t really part of the other students’ world of wealth and privilege. The daughter of one of Warner Prep’s teachers, she’s used to being bumped from more desirable activities due to the peremptory natures (and deep pockets) of her classmates’ parents.

At least she’s not the least popular person on this trip. Hard-ass chaperone aside, that dubious honor goes to Piper Giambruno, the injured gymnast who is viewed by the other students as both a liar and a narc. Willa is at least allowed to hang out in the orbit of the other popular kids with minimal blowback, so long as she does what they tell her.

In keeping with her contrarian reputation, Piper actually signed up for this excursion, though finds herself rapidly regretting it as the trip progresses. The competitive gymnast has been plagued with injuries that have derailed her Olympic career, a fact that’s constantly thrown in her face by Camille Sutter, her archnemesis on the mat and in school. Neither girl is thrilled to be stuck in close proximity to one another, given their long history of animosity and the resentment already simmering under the group’s surface.

For all their chaperone’s best attempts at encouraging her charges to center themselves and really think about their futures – including by taking away all their electronic devices – the students quickly figure out how to circumvent her, and start on the inevitable drunken party games after she falls asleep. Given the scheming, back-biting nature of almost all of the kids involved though, the shenanigans soon take a cruel turn:

QUOTE
Whatever this is, it isn’t working. Piper is neither ashamed by not drinking, nor is she drinking with shame. We’re getting drunk, sure, but no one’s having fun.

Camille goes for the big guns. “Never have I ever done drugs.”

Something ripples through the air. A current shifting. A rip in time, transporting us to the night three years ago. Snow flicks against the glass, and the fire crackles, almost analogous to deep bass vibrating the walls, the chatter of partygoers downstairs. That night and this night, colliding.

I’ll never forget that party and what it cost me.
END QUOTE

Memories of that party cast a long shadow, souring the trip even before one of the teenagers is found dead the next morning. Was it a tragic accident, or had someone set the victim up for a terrible demise? When more people start dying, the surviving students will have to accept that there’s a killer in their midst. Will they be able to figure out who it is and why, and stop the murderer from successfully preying on the rest of them too?

I do enjoy a juicy closed circle (or, as I like to think of them, isolated manor house) mystery. All of the kids have awful secrets festering behind their glossy, carefully curated facades. While it’s easy to blame social media for fueling young people’s obsessions with image, Alexa Donne makes it clear that their pressures are almost all spawned by parents who enable, if not outright encourage, questionable behavior.

I also appreciated how she exploded one of my least favorite tropes at the end of the novel: the “grateful to be the consolation prize” girl. Adolescence is a tough time for most people, and Ms Donne explores the murderous consequences of too much pressure on the young with aplomb, both in the main plot and in the book’s ominous denouement.

The Bitter End delivers a suspenseful, atmospheric thriller that plays well with classic tropes of isolation and mistrust. The setup—a group of privileged teens stranded in a remote ski chalet—creates immediate tension, especially once the first death hits. The mystery of the killer’s identity adds a satisfying layer of suspense as secrets unravel and alliances shift.

However, the pacing feels uneven at times, with some chapters dragging while others rush through key moments. The characters, while distinct, can lean into familiar stereotypes, making some of their actions predictable. The tension ramps up toward the end, but the final reveal may feel underwhelming for some readers expecting a bigger twist.

Despite these flaws, The Bitter End is an entertaining read for fans of YA thrillers. The stormy, claustrophobic setting and rising body count keep the pages turning, even if the story doesn’t break much new ground. It’s a solid, enjoyable mystery, even if it doesn’t fully capitalize on its potential.

I have really enjoyed this author. I (sort of) recently read a lot of their previous works, and I just like the way Donne writes. The plots and characters are always well balanced against the worlds/settings. The pacing is always solid, the twists and turns are good, and this story is no exception to that. I think this is probably my favorite of theirs because I love a good snowy setting (I lived in the UP for many years and I miss my 100s of inches of snow every winter). I definitely can't wait to make a winter YA display with this book, and I long for more from this author! Awesome story and a cool cover to boot!

I LOVED this book! It was so reminiscent of And Then There Were None, mixed with Pretty Little Liars! I was completely invested and the person who I thought was responsible actually surprised me very much. If you want a bone chilling crazy book for the winter you need to read this!

Thank you for the arc! I was very pumped to read this book. It was a highly anticipated for me, but honestly, it fell a bit flat :( An isolated murder mystery and a snowy cabin in Colorado with no cell service sounded like the perfect set up for a YA thriller. I couldn't really connect or even root for any character. I did like how it was a quick mystery which left me feeling like I was reading the game clue!

A bit too YA with a bunch of entitled, dumb, boring teens. Do kids actually talk like this in real life as mine did not!

Thank you, Random House Children's | Random House Books for Young Readers

I read that prom one by Donne, the one with the author grandmother, and I LOVED it. I thought it was going to be another one of those. Unfortunately, it was good, but the thrillingness wasn’t there for me. For some reason i wanted more.

I think the reason I didn’t care for this one as much was the many POVs. The voices were all different in sound (I listened to it via audio) but they sounded alike via the terms of voices in writing if that makes sense. Basically of they hadn’t been all different people I wouldn’t have known who said what. And I know that might be a me thing, but it was a lot to keep track of when you were reading it via audio. But because we had so many POVs, we never really got into the heads of all of them. And we never really got any back story for them because it was constantly changing.

Now I can say I wasn’t able to guess the whodunit. But I didn’t know if that was because we never really get to the meat of the mystery, or if it was actually hard to solve. I don’t even remember trying to figure it out. Usually I even have a colored tab for predictions or red herrings that I have in mind. But I didn’t bookmark any in this one. I just didn’t fall into this one 100%.

I will say tho, the red herrings and the clues were crazy good! I’m not from a place where we have really bad winters or snow, so I didn’t know about most of the things that happened. I simply wouldn’t have known what a lot of that stuff was, so this really made me sit and think about the time we had that big freeze and the power went out. In a place where I wasn’t used to this, this was scary. I definitely had some flashbacks. This is a place I don’t want to experience again. Whether in real life or fiction.

The students of LA’s elite Warner Prep can’t wait for their Senior Excursion—five days of adventure in one of the world’s most exclusive locations. This is not your average field trip. The eight students can’t believe their bad luck when they end up in an isolated Colorado ski chalet. Their epic trip is panning out to be an epic bore. Until a winter storm traps them in this remote ski cabin. They will find themselves stranded with a killer—who may be one of their own or is it?

The author has written a fun and twisty mystery/thriller. The book is focused on three women who find themselves trapped in the stories that aren’t really theirs. I found the mystery of why the students were being killed off a true mystery as I didn’t know who the killer was. The author wrote an excellent book.

This one was good. My favorite? No.

They were a little too self involved for me. I get that it is supposed to be because influencers, private school kids etc but I think I just never felt a connect. The HS kids will love it though.

I did love the story line and the ending I just wish I connected with the characters more…

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for a chance to read and review.

Thank you Random House Children’s for my copy! All thoughts are my own

I am not a thriller reader by nature but I am always tempted by YA Thrillers. Maybe it’s the influence of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder or maybe it’s my love of Gossip Girl (the original), something always draws me in. Especially when it’s rich kids behaving badly…which The Bitter End has in abundance.

I was totally drawn to this book due to the mountain setting and the students being trapped in a blizzard. It kept me on my toes and I really couldn’t guess the ending. It made me feel adequately spooked but intrigued enough to keep reading. Overall, an enjoyable wintery thriller for fans of Pretty Little Liars, The Ivies, and even Euphoria.

Synopsis:

“The trip of a lifetime might be the death of them all.The students of LA’s elite Warner Prep can’t wait for their Senior Excursion—five days of Instagrammable adventure in one of the world’s most exclusive locations. This is not your average field trip.Which is why eight students can’t believe their bad luck when they end up on a digital detox in an isolated Colorado ski chalet. Their epic trip is panning out to be an epic bore . . . until their classmates start dropping in a series of disturbing deaths. The message is clear: this trip is no accident.And when a blizzard strikes, secrets are revealed, betrayals are exposed, and survival is at stake in a race to the bitter end.” —NetGalley

What I Liked:

The Setting—A ski chalet on top of a mountain in a blizzard! An epic setting for any mystery but really great for a high stakes YA revenge plot.

Couldn’t Predict the Ending—I really was on my toes the whole time and didn’t know who the culprit could be.

The Unsettling Feeling/Was Actually Scary—I haven’t felt “thrilled” but thrillers lately but this one definitely got me there. Some of the deaths were so gruesome! Which not to say I liked, but they were definitely scare-worthy.

What Didn’t Work:

Pacing—Things felt a little off pacing wise, especially with the jumps in time. I was hoping it would feel like something I couldn’t put down but there were definitely moments I needed to go back and read to fully understand.

So Many Characters to Keep Up With In First POV—With so many characters, I wish this book had been written in third person POV. It’s probably a reader flaw because I’ve been struggling to focus lately, but sometimes i’d forget who’s POV we were in and it was hard to keep track of them all.

Character Authenticity: 4/5 Spice Rating: N/A Overall Rating: 4/5

Content Warnings:

death, gore, murder, revenge plots, mentions of sexual assault, grief

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of this story.
SPOILERS TO FOLLOW

Well that was certainly interesting! The killer was a stone cold sociopath! It was really hard to like any of the main characters, Willa, Piper, and Delaney are the ones I consider main since it's all from their POV's, but if I picked someone it would be Piper. She really was just there because of bad luck and I felt bad for her throughout the whole novel because the killer orchestrated this whole plot and then didn't factor her into it and she nearly died for it anyways!!! Willa I couldn't get behind either for her actions. I found her rather annoying actually that all she really cared about was Liam the entire time. Delaney I didn't like at all, especially after what was revealed about the video done of her.

Wow!! The Bitter End was such a great, immersive YA thriller, that to me is like Scream meets Cabin In The Woods!! I loved being able to see the different POVs and the jumps in timeline were so conducive to good storytelling, but didn't get confusing at all, as is sometimes a trap that these types of stories can fall into. The book, while written for a young adult audience is mature and well-written and doesn't feel like you are reading a book for kids. The plot twists were so well thought out and executed and I was on the edge of my seat from the first chapter to the very last page!!

Thank you to Random House Books for Young Readers & NetGalley for the chance to read and review this book before publication in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Random House Books for Young Readers for access to an eARC in exchange for my honest review!!

what's it about? ⬇️

When a group of eight high school seniors and their guidance counselor find their planned senior trips suddenly changed to a new location, tensions are naturally high. Where they were expecting weeks in castles learning about gothic literature or dogsledding in Alaska or any number of other fun opportunities, they are no headed to a cabin at the top of a lonely mountain for a technology-free week of self-reflection, which for a group teenagers might just be their worst nightmare. Especially when a snow storm rolls in to strand them on the mountain and one of their classmates mysteriously turns up dead the morning after their first night there.

Told between the points of view of each different student and flashing between the stressful hours of their present predicament and a party three years before that may just be the reason they've all become targets, will they make it off the mountain alive? And when it becomes more and more likely that the killer is actually one of them, will they solve the mystery and unmask their attacker before it's too late?

my thoughts? ⬇️

The number of red herrings in this book were enough to make your head spin, and I mean that in the best way possible. Even trying to figure out who was responsible for the murders as I read, I was suspicious of someone new every few pages, and the twist ending--while making me feel very validated--was also such a crazy fun spin on the rest of the violence twisted throughout the book.

Each of these characters were so flawed and so interesting, and getting a glimpse into their past relationships and the way they've twisted in the present added so much depth to the story. I loved the use of a Cards Against Humanity-type party game to add tension from the first night of the trip, and each beat of this story was paced perfectly.

Also, the inclusion of a character who is on the Asexual spectrum and also has Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome was so refreshing and incredible to see, and I loved seeing the way those things had effected the character and the opinions of others' on her. Love, love, love, love, so many piles of love for this book.

based on your likes? ⬇️

If you enjoyed any of the following, I think this one will be great for you (and vice versa)!

🥶 They Wish They Were US by Jessica Goodman - prep school seniors with dangerous secrets to protect, who can you trust?
🥶 Summer's Edge by Dana Mele - a group of friends in peril, everyone has secrets, what's going on at the lake?
🥶 Heads Will Roll by Josh Winning - a social-media cleansing retreat goes wrong +murders, everyone is hiding something.
🥶 Silent Sister by Megan Davidhizar - a senior trip for self reflection takes a scary turn, unreliable narrator, who can you trust?

trigger warnings ⬇️

death, murder, blood, violence, anaphylaxis, allergy related death, drug use, drug abuse, drugging others, toxic relationship, toxic friendship, infidelity, emotional abuse, bullying, classism, ostracism, gaslighting, chronic illness, child death (mentioned repeatedly, happened off page), confinement, sexual content, sexual harassment, sexual assault, multiple near-death experiences, injury/injury detail.

If you love books with wintry vibes, you must put this one on your TBR!!! Such a fun, fast-paced whodunit!

A group of seniors from an elite prep school are assigned to a Colorado ski cabin for a tech-free weekend. What starts as a weekend of self-discovery, meditation, and connection takes a deadly turn.

I absolutely loved the And Then There Were None vibe of this book. As the story unfolds, people start dying in mysterious ways - accidents? Maybe, but everyone is suspicious. I found myself guessing and second-guessing as secrets were revealed and motives uncovered. Donne includes lots of red herrings and enough clues that, in hindsight, I could definitely see who was responsible.

I read and listened to the book and found both experiences equally enjoyable. If you enjoy audiobooks, I definitely recommend it. The full-cast narration makes it easy to follow the multiple POVs and highlights the devious and backstabbing nature of the teens in the story. Surprisingly, you may cheer on at least a few of them.

Read this if you love: :
🔐Locked room mystery
❄️Wintey scene - blizzard causes isolation
🤥Unreliable narrators

Alexa Donne's The Bitter End is a gripping YA thriller that delivers both suspense and intrigue. The story revolves around eight privileged teens from LA’s Warner Prep, trapped in a remote ski cabin amidst a deadly winter storm. What starts as an uneventful digital detox quickly turns into a nightmare as their classmates begin to die one by one, hinting that the killer could be among them.

Donne does a fantastic job creating a claustrophobic atmosphere, where every character's secrets and motives are called into question. The tension builds steadily, and the twists keep readers on their toes. The combination of high school drama, betrayal, and survival stakes gives the plot an edge that will appeal to fans of the genre.

However, at times, the characterization felt a bit thin, with some personalities blending into the background. Despite this, the fast-paced narrative and the mystery at the heart of the story make it a thrilling read. The chilling backdrop of a snowstorm and the looming sense of danger add to the story’s intensity, making this a book hard to put down.

A solid four-star read for fans of Alexa Donne’s work and anyone looking for a good page-turner!

I'm not going to lie—I wasn't expecting much from this book, as YA thrillers rarely wow me, but wow, this one was UH-MAZING.

The students of LA’s elite Warner Prep are about to go on the trip of a lifetime to one of the world’s most exclusive locations. However, eight students mysteriously end up at a digital detox retreat with their guidance counselor—what a bore, right? It’s just a bunch of pre-college kids doing typical teenage things, until one of their classmates drops dead, and a blizzard conveniently traps them in their B&B.

At first, I thought it was just some petty, juvenile story, as the characters seem like your typical high schoolers—eager for excitement, mildly horny, and a little backstabby.

However, the story picks up very quickly once the people in the cabin start dying one after the other. Who’s behind it, and what’s their motive? The closed-room setting added to the tension, making it a high-stakes thriller. Since everyone has a motive, I couldn’t trust anyone until the very end.

The audiobook also features a full cast, so I recommend checking it out if you're an audiobook fan.

I really enjoyed this multi-POV, non-linear narrative. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys unreliable narrators and is looking for a good winter thriller, full of drama and suspense, but without much gore.

5 Reasons to read The Bitter End

1. Multiple POV

This alone will keep you intrigued. There were 8 different characters and thanks to that you get 8 different POV. Luckily most of the narration is only told from 3 of the characters so it doesn’t get at all confusing!

2. TWO different timelines

You get the present and what is currently happening and then you also get a party that was attended by all 8 of our characters three years prior.

3. If you’re a fan of YellowJackets and eagerly awaiting season 3 this may help with that anticipation. These 8 characters end up being snowed in this cabin and murder ensues. Who is murdering only one way to find out. I can tell you I wasn’t right at any point.

4. Digital Detox

As if being snowed in with a murderer wasn’t bad enough. The idea of this retreat was to be a digital detox. So not only do the kids not have access to any of their electronics, thanks to Mother Nature, they wouldn’t work even if they did.

5. Murder Mystery

What’s better than a mystery that keeps you on your toes? You’ll be guessing until the very on what exactly is happening!

This was definitely a fun and fast paced YA thriller. There was a lot going on and never a dull moment. There was just something missing for me to make it more, I enjoyed it but I did loose interest sometimes. I do think a lot of people will love it !