Happy pub week to We Won’t All Survive by Kate Alice Marshall, and thank you to @prhaudio for an ALC and to @vikingbooks for an e-arc. This YA survival thriller had me on the edge of my seat!

Two years ago, Mercy Gray was hailed as a hero after saving people, including her sister, at a mall shooting. But she doesn’t feel like a hero. She carries a lot from that day—a bullet in her back, a ton of medical debt, and guilt for not believing her sister about the seemingly nice boy who was hanging around too much. When Mercy is recruited for a new reality survival show hosted by billionaire Damien Dare, she jumps at the chance to bring home a huge cash prize that could help pay for her sister to go to college. But when she gets to the location of the shoot and meets the other contestants, something doesn’t seem right. No one from production is there, but, before they can leave, the gates close trapping the contestants into a survival nightmare that they may not come out of alive.

This book felt very different than Marshall’s adult mysteries that have become some of my absolute favorite books, but it is just as well written. She assembles a really interesting, diverse cast of characters that each have reasons for being on the show and despite the ensemble nature of the book, I ended up feeling really attached to a lot of them (to be fair, some are around for much longer than others!). One theme explored in the book is toxic masculinity which couldn’t come at a better time, and I loved how the author handled the messaging. While there are popcorn elements to this book and the reality-show-gone-wrong tropes I’ve seen in other thrillers, I also loved the message about what it really takes to survive which is equally timely right now. I don’t honestly know that I can think of another book like this that does it so well. I’d definitely recommend We Won’t All Survive to anyone looking for a looked room survival thriller.

3.5 ⭐️

I really enjoyed the last Kate Alice Marshall book I read so when I saw her new book was YA I couldn’t hit request fast enough. And I was thrilled to get an arc.

I have to say, the characters were great. Everyone was well fleshed out and had an interesting backstory. The plot was fun and most of the twists were unexpected.

It was a good read but unfortunately not a fun one. It was LITERALLY a headache to read. This isn’t on the author AT ALL, she’s awesome.

The publisher and Netgalley decided in their infinite wisdom to make the arc available only as a PDF. That means, instead of comfortably reading on my kindle it was only available to be read in the netgalley app. Picture this: a trade size paperback page shrunk to fit a phone screen. No way to make the words bigger. Just squinting and eye pain.

I tell you this because it may have affected my rating. It’s hard to enjoy reading under these circumstances. And I definitely won’t be requesting any other arcs that only come as a pdf.

I absolutely loved this and highly recommend it for purchase. This exciting page-turner is part survival and part mystery/thriller. The teen and young adult characters all have survived a trauma and that is why they were picked (or lured???) to participate in a survival reality show by billionaire Damien Dare. The action kicks off immediately when the contestants discover that there is no production crew and they are locked in to a creepy ghost town. Their focus soon shifts to actual survival when contestants die and no one is sure who to trust. Is the killer someone hiding in the town or is it one of them...?
Themes include obsession and control and the dangers of not believing women and girls when they are getting unwanted attention.

3 out of 5 Stars!

Mercy Gray was praised as a hero for saving lives during a mall shooting that took place two years ago. Even today, she carries souvenirs from that incident, including a fragment of a bullet lodged in her back and a mountain of medical debt. But most importantly, she carries guilt for ignoring her sister’s warnings about the sweet door next door. So when billionaire-turned-TV-host Damien Dare recruits Mercy to compete on his new show, she cannot turn it down. She needs the cash prize to send her sister to college, to make up for what she ignored. But when she and the other contestants arrive at the off-grid location, things aren’t adding up. Nobody is there. They are locked in. Then one of them turns up dead. Maybe it was an accident, but when it happens again they don’t know what to think. As resources are running low, surviving this show takes on a new meaning.

I was so excited to see that Kate Alice Marshall was releasing not just one, but two books in 2025! Earlier this year, “A Killing Cold” was released along with being a Book of the Month pick. I instantly jumped at making that book my pick, as I had read “No One Can Know” and “What Lies in the Woods” by Marshall. When Marshall was releasing a young adult thriller this summer, “We Won’t All Survive”, I was ecstatic, knowing I wouldn’t have to wait till 2026 to read another book by her. Marshall does an amazing job at writing twisty thrillers with complex layers that make me scared to turn the page.

“We Won’t All Survive” was a fast-paced, psychological thriller with intriguing characters. I really enjoyed hearing from Mercy, our main character. I thought she was very smart, driven to figure out what was going on, and had great character development throughout the book. I wish we could have gotten perspectives from other characters, even if they were sporadically done, because I think it would have given the book another layer of mystery and doubt.

Unfortunately, I was able to figure out who the culprit was and the twist in the end. I thought it was clearly laid out, but I also feel like I have an eye on figuring out a mystery. I don’t think it completely ruined my reading experience, because there were smaller mysteries that I still had to read to uncover, but it made the ending really drag out.

Overall, if you are a fan of Kate Alice Marshall and are waiting for her 2026 book to release, I would highly recommend reading this young adult thriller to get your fix! “We Won’t All Survive" was published on July 29th, 2025, so go check it out at your nearest bookstore!

Thank you to Penguin Group, Penguin Young Readers Group, Vikings Books for Young Readers, Kate Alice Marshall, and Netgalley for a digital ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

First off, I want to say thank you to @netgalley and @vikingbooks for the advanced copy!

Kate Alice Marshall delivers another gripping and chilling survival thriller in We Won’t All Survive, blending psychological suspense, brutal realism, and teen emotion into a fast-paced, gut-wrenching read. The story follows a group of teens navigating a post-apocalyptic world where survival comes with devastating moral costs. Each teen brings their own trauma, fear, and motivations to the group, making the tension feel personal and dangerous. No one feels entirely safe, and that raw unpredictability keeps the pages turning. The book plays with trust, loyalty, and the question: who do you become when civilization falls apart?

The pacing and atmosphere of this book completely pulled me in. The concept of a survivalist reality show set in an abandoned ghost town was instantly gripping, and the eerie, isolated setting added so much tension. Each character came with their own compelling backstory, making the group dynamic unpredictable and rich with conflict. Mercy was a standout—easy to connect with and thoughtfully developed. Her inner voice felt authentic, and watching her grow over the course of the story added real emotional depth. She was the perfect anchor for a plot this intense. While it’s marketed as a YA thriller, the themes and situations feel much more mature. I’d actually recommend it more to adult readers who don’t mind that the main characters are teens. If you're usually hesitant about YA, this book might just change your mind.

Marshall does a great job with creating suspense. The game show survival idea is one that works really well for this book. The ending, however, ruined the whole thing for me. It just did not feel right.

A Hunger Games meets Survivor reality show where the contestants are actually fighting to stay alive.

I loved the opening of this book right from the start. Mercy is a great character, I found her very likable. Her complex persona and past trauma ride the passenger seat throughout the story. All the characters were chosen for the show based on their Crossroads event, in Mercy’s case, saving dozens of lives from a mall shooting.

The YA angle of this novel is very on trend with current events. A lone shooter combined with incel ideology (if I can’t have her, no one will) created a gripping plot. It was tastefully done, taking inspiration from the final girl trope, adding found family and a podcast twist, I really liked this overall.

The middle of the book was a bit slow but the twisty ending was worth the read!

Thanks to NetGalley and Viking Books for the review copy.

4.5⭐️

I think Kate Alice Marshall may have changed my mind about survival thrillers. 🤭🤭🤭.

So. For about two years now, I have been eyeing all of Kate Alice Marshall’s YA novels. While the book covers for each book look very pretty, it’s the synopsis of each one that hasn’t really motivated me to add them to my TBR List. It wasn’t until the beginning of this year that I discovered We Won’t All Survive on a YA Novel List on Goodreads that I decided to give Kate Alice Marshall an honest try. And yes. It was both the book cover and the synopsis behind my motivation. Plus, NetGalley made the ARC available for free for 48 hours (during the month of June) and I WAS DONE FOR!!!

Essentially, I was going to wait until Spooky Season to read this (because a survival thriller mixed with a whodunnit plot just seems like a read for Halloween Season) but, being that I am currently in my murder mystery/thriller era, my heart grew just little bit impatient and the need to read this ASAP intensified. Add the fact that my public library ordered the Audiobook on Libby and it was a wrap for me. Given that this book turned out to be a 4.5⭐️ read, I am even more proud of myself for following my gut and choosing to read this ARC during its month of release (July 29, 2025). And now, I have become more motivated to read more of my ARCs that feature a murder mystery/thriller storyline. 🤭🤭🤭.

As I mentioned previously, Kate Alice Marshall may have just changed my mind about survival thrillers. Typically, what happened in my case is that I find the idea of a survival story more interesting than the story itself. And, as I write that sentence, I find it kind of weird before I ABSOLUTELY love The Yellow Jackets TV show. When I sit here and think more about that sentence, I think my issue is that I tend find watching someone fight their way through survival and exercise heavy amounts of strength more appealing than reading about it. But, now that I have finished We Won’t All Survive (and I have a feeling that this book is going to stick with me for a while), I can totally see myself adding survival thrillers to my future TBR Lists (2026 and beyond).

Now. Let’s talk about We Won’t All Survive shall we. In all of my previous ARC reviews, I have managed to avoid discussing any spoilers and I shall be doing the same here. However, what I will say about this 4.5⭐️ read is this:

(1) This book was definitely written for both individuals who enjoy survival thrillers/YA murder mysteries as well as those individuals new to both sub genres.

(2) This book was very fast paced and jump off right from the beginning. I mean, Chapter 1 literally starts with us meeting all 8 characters (Mercedes Gray; Milo Hampton; Harrison Hane; Eli Burgess; Alethea Baptiste; Colby Morris; Piper Yoon; Spencer Hall) and them starting their survival journey. No wait required.

(3) Reading this book with its audiobook counterpart is beneficial. It becomes quite hard after Chapter 2 to tell the male characters a part (Reason #1 for my 4.5 ⭐️ rating) .

(4) Speaking of these 8 characters, none of them have a personality but they do have loads of trauma, which this book spends A LOT of time focusing on. For many readers, the way both their trauma is discussed, dealt with, and practically exploited might become a problem. And yes. I am one of those readers (Reason #2 for my 4.5 ⭐️ rating).

(5) And while we hardly get to know some of these characters (Reason #3 for my 4.5 ⭐️ rating), a reader will find themselves rooting for all of them to not only survive but to develop a friendship and find love amongst one another.

I still believe that this book will work well during Halloween Season. But, I also have my fingers crossed and hope that many readers will stumble upon this book during these final weeks of the Summer season and become just as motivated to read it now as I was. And Kate Alice Marshall, I truly look forward to reading your next YA Novel.

Thank you NetGalley and Viking Books for Young Readers for granting my request of an Advance Reader’s Copy in exchange for my honest and personal opinion!!!

This new release is a survival game show gone wrong. Mercy is determined to win at the newest game show run by Damien Dare - a man who thinks that society is sheltered and not reaching their full potential. Right from the beginning it is obvious the contestants are in over their heads. What will they do with no car and no phones to call for help?

Wow this book was intense. I was invested from the beginning trying to figure out what was going wrong with the show and how they could escape it. I really liked all of the twists, they were both well foreshadowed and surprising.

The characters were interesting and unique enough I could tell them apart pretty quickly despite the large cast. I also really enjoyed Mercy’s personal journey. She struggles to trust people and in a game where you’re both relying on each other and pretty sure that there’s a killer on the loose - trust would be incredibly hard but necessary. The way she learns to trust her own instincts and then others is portrayed really well throughout this book.

If you like fast paced thrillers with an interesting twist - this one is for you!

4⭐️

wow, this one really had me hooked from the start! i was not expecting to be so intrigued, but the short chapters and compelling story really made it easy to read along. i really enjoyed learning about mercy's backstory as well as the other characters. each character had been through so much tragic situations which all lead them to competing on this survival game-show, with so much at stake right from the beginning.
i found only a few things to be predictable, but nevertheless it was still a really fun time to keep reading. kate alice marshall does such a great job at writing her twists and hooking you in.

thank you PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group for the ARC.

This book reminds me so much of the creepy books I read as a teen. It was very well done! The characters were well written and so was the setting. It was a unique idea and I enjoyed how it all played out. There were definitely twists and there was never a time when things felt relaxed.

There are a few things that were somewhat confusing about a character as they were only sort of discussed, but I’m not sure if it matters in the overall outcome of the book. Even so, it brings my rating down from 5 to 4 stars.

I would like to provide a trigger warning in my review. The main character, Mercy, experienced a shooting and she has frequent flashbacks to it. This may make it difficult to read for some.

Mercy Gray is no stranger to surviving the unknown. This is especially true after the life altering mall event that left her with fragmented reminders deep within her back. When a sudden invitation from a billionaire to a ghost town arrives offering a chance at a large sum of money she easily says yes.
However this cash comes with catch, Mercy must compete in the billionaire’s survival reality show and win to get the large sum prize. As all the contestants converge to the abandoned town they quickly realize tho that this “reality show” will be testing their true survival as contestants start dying.

Firstly could anything be more relevant than a billionaire behaving badly and in doing so costing individuals their lives… yep sadly pretty on brand for 2025 if you ask me. This YA thriller with its reality show backdrop set in an abandoned mining town was a fairly quick and easy read. One thing I’ve come to enjoy with all of Katie Alice Marshall’s books that I’ve read is that they always deliver atmospheric settings. Now despite enjoying the location of the said “reality show” and the almost locked room aspect to the books plot I did feel a few aspects of this thriller to not work for me. Mostly my main issues lies in the amount of characters that are just throw all at once upon the reader. Now understandably I see the need to have all these characters considering the plot centers around a show. However, I personally feel they could have been introduced in a more smooth and less jarring disconnecting manner. And while this YA thriller wasn’t necessarily my favorite of Marshall’s books that I have read it was a quick summer read that will most definitely be a hit for its targeted market of YA readers.

We Won’t All Survive is out now. Thank you NetGalley and Viking Books for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I am a fan of the author’s previous novels and was not disappointed by this one. A great YA thriller with a strong main character and great cast of fellow participants trying to escape from a game show gone horribly wrong.

KAM is always such a fun time! I don't want to say too much, as I think it is best for you to go in with limited knowledge. If you have liked previous works by her, you will also enjoy this one!

Thank you to Netgalley & the publisher for my early e-arc.

QUICK GLANCE-
My format: ebook (ARC)
Other formats:🎧Audio (9 hours and 42 minutes) and📖Physical (336 pages)
Spice: 🚫
Language: 🤐mild
Publication Date: July 29, 2025
⚠️I’d recommend checking trigger warnings before reading this one.

MY THOUGHTS-
Just bumped my rating for this one because... I still can’t stop thinking about it! Originally a 4⭐️ read, but the vibes lingered long after I finished — so it’s getting a little upgrade.

Was the ending perfect? Not quite. I had a few lingering questions and some plot points that didn’t fully add up. But honestly? I flew through this book. Couldn’t put it down.

As a longtime fan of Kate Alice Marshall, I knew I was signing up for a twisty, high-stakes ride — and she delivered. The pacing and setting of this book really drew me in. A survivalist reality show set in a deserted ghost town? Yes please. Every character had a layered, messy backstory that kept me hooked.

If you love YA thrillers with a locked room vibe, a cast of morally questionable, flawed characters, detailed backstories, and that edge-of-your-seat race against time feel — this one needs to be on your list. Another solid, stressful, can’t-stop-reading win from Kate Alice Marshall!

READ IF YOU LIKE-
👻Ghost town settings
💨Bingable books
🤑Evil billionaire pulling strings
🔪📖 YA Thrillers (⚠️ definitely has some adult themes & content
🏕️📺Survivalist reality show settings
🔄Lots of twists

🙏 Thank you to @vikingbooks, @netgalley and the author for an advanced digital copy of We Won’t All Survive. All opinions are my own.

We Won’t All Survive delivers a suspenseful and engaging story that keeps readers turning the pages with its unexpected twists and solid pacing. Kate Alice Marshall does a great job with character development—each teen feels distinct, with motivations and flaws that make them more than just archetypes.

The plot is gripping and packed with tension, and while some of the drama feels a bit melodramatic or cheesy at times, that’s part of its charm for fans of the young adult genre. It definitely reads like a YA thriller, which may feel a little light for adult readers, but it's still an entertaining ride with enough mystery and emotional weight to make it memorable.

If you enjoy high-stakes survival stories with moral gray areas and layered characters, this one’s worth the read.

We Won't All Survive tells us a story about a reality survival show for teenagers who have been through and survived horrific traumatic experiences, with most bearing physical scars, and all bearing emotional scars. The prize is $100,000, and our MC, Mercy Gray, really needs that money to pay for her little sister's college education since her college fund was used to pay for all of Mercy's medical bills following a shooting at a mall that she and her sister, Jamie, survived. She is actually still dealing with the guilt she carries around at not being able to save everybody that day, but this amount of money is too good to pass up, so she makes the decision to go even though she has her reservations. Unfortunately, when Mercy and the other contestants arrive at the shoot location, nobody is there to ,meet them, which feels weird, but then when one of them dies, and still nobody comes to help them, they are on their own with a murderer on the loose. They're going to have to work together to try to survive and find a way out of the camp in which they are trapped.

This is the first book I've read by Kate Alice Marshall so I didn't have anything to compare her writing to, which made it easier for me to enjoy and get into. I loved the premise, and I think it was executed very well. The characters were all unique, with great backstories, and the pacing was spot on for the most part. I did guess who the murderer was before the end, but it was still suspenseful letting the story play out.

All in all, I enjoyed this book very much and look forward to reading more of Kate Alice Marshall's work.

4.5/5 stars

*** I would like to thank NetGalley, Penguin Young Readers Group, and Kate Alice Marshall for the opportunity to read and review We Won't All Survive.

I am a fan of Kate Alice Marshall’s books so I felt certain I would really like this one and I absolutely did. This whodunit mystery set as a survival reality show was full of surprises and kept me guessing. With cliffhanging chapters, it was a page turner. I love the bonding of the characters and the found family trope. They were all survivors who needed to survive yet again. Kate Alice Marshall wrote these characters in a way that I cared about them. I got to know their background and I was rooting for them. This author is an auto read author for me. I loved this book so much. Thank you NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group | Viking Books for Young Readers for the eARC.

2 years after Mercy is hailed a hero for saving lives in a mall shooting, she is still saddled with huge medical bills she has no idea how to pay off. So when she is invited to a survivalist reality show, she jumps at the chance, hoping to win the $100k cash prize. However, once she arrives to set to find it empty, she feels something is wrong. Soon, the gates suddenly close trapping them inside and one of the members ends up dead. Can Mercy survive this too?

I liked this book, but it was more YA than I am used to reading from her. I thought the pacing was perfect and I enjoyed the main character, but the end did feel a little predictable to me.

Thank you NetGalley for an arc of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Eight teenagers, all marked by traumatic experiences, are selected to take part in a survival reality show created by an eccentric billionaire and digital influencer. Among them is Mercy Gray, who survived a mass shooting at a shopping mall and carries not only the physical aftermath but also the emotional and financial weight of that event. The group is taken to Landry’s Gap, an isolated ghost town, where they quickly realize they’re completely alone and that the game is far more dangerous than any of them expected. What begins as an extreme challenge quickly turns into a real fight for survival, as the contestants start dying one by one.

The book hooked me from the very first page. The writing is straightforward, the pacing steady, and the tension is well maintained throughout the story. The setting, especially Landry’s Gap, adds to the claustrophobic atmosphere that keeps the suspense alive until the end. However, despite being constantly engaged with the action, I felt emotionally detached from everything that was happening. I couldn’t connect with any of the characters not even with Mercy, who, despite her tragic past and determination, always felt a bit hollow to me. Each contestant’s backstory had potential, and there’s meaningful representation throughout, but it lacked emotional depth and humanity. Everything felt mechanical, as if the characters were there only to serve the plot.

The twists weren’t truly surprising, and while the ending ties everything together in a functional way, it didn’t evoke any real emotion in me. It was a story that, although entertaining, didn’t move me. I finished it feeling indifferent. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it either it just didn’t leave a mark.