This book grabbed my interest right away. I enjoyed the setting and premise, so many things could happen and many possibilities of who did it. Kept me guessing for most of the book.
This is labeled as young adult but it didn’t read like that. As a “ mature” adult, I really enjoyed this book.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book! The premise was pretty unique in a market in which a lot of thrillers are pretty similar, and that made this book a lot more memorable to me. The story was really twisty and enjoyable, and I was able to read this so fast because I was really invested in the plot. Loved it!

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Young Readers Group for allowing me to read and review this book before publication.

I honestly went into the book completely blind, and didn’t know what I was going to read. All I know is the title and the cover caught my eye. And I’m so glad it did. I couldn’t stop reading the book. I’m honestly sad it ended and I can’t reread it for the first time again.

I love the survival and game show vibes from it, along with all the mystery and the what’s going to happen next. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time and honestly the ending threw me off because I honestly never suspected it. But after reading it all I finally see the parts I missed that pointed a little towards who did it.

I also honestly expected to hate Dare, which still kind of do, but in a good way? I don’t even know if that makes sense. But absolutely loved this book and recommend to anyone who likes a good mystery.

This is a fun little YA thriller.

I found that I liked our MC immensely and definitely liked some of our other characters. While I wasn't surprised by the big reveal, I still very much enjoyed watching it all play out.

The reality show aspect was done well and I enjoyed learning the tragic backgrounds of some of our characters.

A fun, easy breezy read.

* ARC via publisher

Anything by Kate Alice Marshall is forever going to be an automatic read for me, and I was SO grateful for this opportunity to read one of her books as an ARC for the first time, and it did not disappoint. For any fans of KAM this is yet another super solid, super creepy read with well developed characters and story despite a surprisingly low page count.

Now I prefer to go into all my books blind, and I coincidentally started reading this book the same week as I started listening to One Perfect Couple by Ruth Ware, which has a startlingly similar plot (reality show gone horribly wrong) albeit the two books are also wildly different. If you loved this new YA offering from KAM though and feel ready to head fully into adult fiction, that is where you should start!

Back to WWAS though. Like I already mentioned, the book is about a reality show that our team of characters have all been cast on, however once they arrive on set, nothing is as is as it seems. Our FMC Mercy, barely survived of a mass shooting in the mall (she carried a bullet in her spine still), and the other contestants also all seem to carry stories of surviving harrowing experiences. And where are all the cast and crew of this reality show? And as the gates around this odd empty set close and lock, Mercy has but one last thought- We Won’t All Survive!

Thank you so much to Kate Alice Marshall, Penguin Young Readers, and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my unbiased review!

Marshall has become an auto read author for me, and this book really seals the status. "A Killing Cold" wasn't my favorite of hers (that honor goes to No One Can Know, but this book is my second fav. (To be fair, I have not read any of her other YA books yet, but I sure plan to). I gobbled up the premise for this book: Survival show, something goes wrong (it always does), people start dying (of course). They have to lock up their phones? SIGN ME UP.

8 teens with backpacks full of trauma arrive for what is supposed to be a survival reality tv show. Last till the end and win 100K. Easy peasy? But something is very, very wrong. No one is there, they are locked in, it's the desert, there is no water. And did I mention they were all chosen for very specific reasons? The book follows the POV of Mercy Gray who recently lived through a mall shooting. Other teens on set survived be stranded at sea, a train crash, lost in a mountain, and I can't remember the rest (there are 8 which is a lot to keep track of!).

Overly friendly Milo gives Mercy the icks, but can she trust her instincts? Harrison is sweet but is he safe? Is Althea a pampered princess or a survivalist badass? Why does Eli look familiar? Is Spencer the killer? Maybe it was Colby? Who can she trust? Is one of them the killer or is there someone else in town? This book also has an eccentric billionaire which is just like, icing on the cake. He is absolutely insane, but is helping them, or is he the one hurting them? You have to read it to find out, I can't tell you.

There was just a touch too much teenage angst and a few slow parts that made this four stars for me, but definitely go read it! Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

A dystopian novel exploring survival and moral dilemmas in a collapsing society. Marshall presents a haunting narrative with complex characters. A thought-provoking read about humanity's resilience.

Pub Date: 7/29/25

I've never read anything by this author but wow ... I absolutely loved it !!! I've been in a reading slump & this book really helped with that. It's a fast paced YA thriller that gives off survivor reality TV vibes & it absolutely sucked me in . I went into this read completely blind so I don't want to ruin it for anyone & I also recommend just reading this. There are so many twists & turns going on .. never a dull moment.
I also loved the podcast at the end.

Definite solid read for sure 🖤

Thank u to #NetGalley & #Penguin 🐧 for this uncorrected Arc. 🤘

Thank you, NetGalley, for this uncorrected ebook ARC of 'We Won't All Survive' by Kate Alice Marshall - expected release date of 07/29/2025

ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I've read quite a few of Marshall's adult novels but this is my first YA book of hers (it definitely read as YA too). I'm not her intended audience, but I will say it was well-written, the storyline was clean, and the characters were well developed. There were also a lot of twists and turns. There was a lot of alluding to who the killer was throughout, but I was able to figure it out before the reveal.

I love everything by this author and her latest is no exception. I also love a cautionary tale about the entitlement felt by the "nice guy." This one kept me entertained, enraged, and rooting for the main character.

I’ve never read anything by this author but I look forward to picking up another book of theirs. I kind of went into it blind as I was offered the advanced readers copy by NetGalley (thank you!). I’ve found now that it is a YA which I’m fine with and do like the genre.
I have been in a reading slump so that may be part of my reasoning for some things in my review but overall it was a good read. However I did find it really difficult to be able to connect with the characters at the beginning. It was hard to imagine them in my head and I feel like it may have been because they were introduced in a giant lump some right at the beginning. I started the book, got about 40 pages in and then had to restart because I couldn’t remember who was who.
I will say I don’t think I necessarily saw the twist coming but I feel it did kind of end abruptly and I’m not sure why the end “villain” character has to be similar to the one at the beginning. Im not sure it fully connected for me to understand why it had to be so similar.
I was content with the ending even though it was abrupt.

Thank you to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP for this eARC for review. I really enjoyed this book, not realizing it was technically YA! I felt connected to the characters and was suspicious of each of them. Solid, 3.5 (rounded up) thriller! Definitely worth checking out.

We won't all survive Is a gripping mysterious novel that has you wondering from the beginning what's going to occur In this novel. The characters are well developed And the plot is very enticing. You need to read this.

I really enjoyed this book & this author. Gave survivor type vibes & paced well so I didn't lose interest!

Locked-room thrillers are some of my favorite reads. Add in a reality show premise, and I’m instantly hooked. I loved the entire idea behind We Won’t All Survive - with the ghost town setting and the team challenges.

Each character was fully fleshed out with a traumatic backstory that made them ripe for this Survivor-esque competition. Their trauma informed their actions and I thought Marshall did a great job exploring what types of reaction they’d have to the challenges based on their previous experiences. Especially Mercy, with the ghosts in her head and her flashbacks.

This story takes some dark turns, but balanced them out with scenes full of action, adventure, and reflection. I loved the way the characters supported each other when things could easily have devolved into a Lord of the Flies situation. The messaging around toxic masculinity and the importance of trusting your instinct were huge themes of the story, but conveyed in a way appropriate for the intended young adult audience. This was a compelling read sure to hook lovers of reality game shows with impossible odds!

Thank you to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group/Viking Books for Young Readers for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

ARC provided by Penguin Young Readers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

We Won’t All Survive throws readers into a high-stakes competition where trust is scarce and survival is uncertain. The book opens with a bang and wastes no time pulling you into its tense, claustrophobic atmosphere. I couldn’t stop turning the pages—it kept me on edge from start to finish.

The mystery at the heart of the story was compelling, though it didn’t deliver a shocking twist. Instead, it maintained a steady stream of suspense that made me want to piece together every clue. The main character’s distrust of the other contestants made me feel uneasy in the best way—it amped up the psychological tension and made me second-guess everyone’s motives.

By the final 20%, it gave off serious YOU vibes—dark, obsessive, and a little unsettling, which I loved. And while it didn’t leave me gasping, it absolutely scratched that itch for something in the vein of Squid Game meets SAW, with a psychological edge rather than gore.

If you enjoy survival thrillers with moral gray areas and a creeping sense of dread, this one’s worth the read.

Enjoy the setup with there being a survivalist reality show element to the story; wish that had progressed a bit more than it did before things started going off the rails. There being a killer on the loose is fun too. There’s also an interesting idea with all the contestants having survived something traumatic; our lead character survived a mall shooting. Even enjoying the overall premise for the story, I was let down by the characters. I would have liked a bit more depth to the characters; I just didn’t really connect with any of the characters. Mercy being all my sister, my sister the whole time was on the annoying side of things. The character relationship dynamics also weren’t there. The story does have some entertaining things though. Enjoyed how the mystery evolved with a fun twist to the end. Enjoyed the remote, ghost town setting too. Overall, I appreciate the cool premise to this story, but the characters didn’t work for me.

This was a young adult thriller with a Survivor vibe. For me, it was ok, but not great. It didn't grab me the way this author's other books have. Each character had a unique backstory, but some turn of events didn't work for me. The characters spent too much time just running around without anything happening.

A side note: I received this from NetGalley and it wasn't available for kindle so I used NG Reader and that was awful. It didn't affect my rating, but will never choose another read that requires using that.

Sometimes I just want to read a YA thriller with a few good twists and a plot that I don’t have to question too much. We Won’t All Survive was exactly that; plenty of surprises all wrapped up in a PG-13 suspense story. A group of young adults who’ve each experienced an immense trauma are brought together to film a survivalist reality show, but almost immediately realize that things are not as they seem. When one of them dies shortly after arriving, their plans quickly shift from fun and games to escape and survival, but who is behind it all? 3.5 stars

So, I don’t think this author is for me. I read What Lies in the Woods and had the whole thing figured out. But, I was very intrigued by this story and while it started off pretty strong, the last half fell very flat. I just don’t think it’s for me.