⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½
This Is Where We Die definitely kept me on my toes. It had that perfect psychological thriller vibe — twisty, unpredictable, and full of those little moments that make you second-guess everything. I never saw the ending coming, which I loved. That said, while the ending tied everything up nicely and made sense, it just didn’t totally land for me. Personal taste, I guess. Still, this was a solid, gripping read that I’d definitely recommend to anyone who enjoys a good mind game.

Thank you to Netgalley and SOURCEBOOKS FIRE for this ARC!

This dark and twisty horror/thriller will leave you guessing until the bloody end! This is an unusual and dark teen thriller and with nods to Final Destination and the historical Donner party. Although many of the characters were insufferable, and you know what will happen from the beginning, I still found myself caring for them and hoping for a different outcome.

Perfect for fans of Natasha Preston.

I read “Perfect Little Monsters” last year and loved it. This book, however, is not as good. Yes, there’s suspense, and you wonder who the killer is, but man—there’s just not enough plot and character development here. Everyone is one note. Also, the amount of gore is off the charts and, I think, dialed up on purpose to shock the reader. At the end, I was left with more questions than answers, and I felt distinctly unsatisfied. This book is a one and done for me. I know the author is capable of writing a better story, so I’d like to see what she comes up with next.

My thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the eARC. I am writing this review voluntarily.

This is where we die is action packed full of suspense and thrills where 6 friends go to a remote island expecting to have a fun filled graduation party when all behold no one else turns up, trapped on the island with no cell service and no help it's just them until they start getting picked off one by one. I really enjoyed the flashbacks and finding out who was the one behind everything, a really fun YA thriller read that i would recommend for everyone to read.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher SOURCEBOOKS Fire | Sourcebooks Fire for the copy of this arc in exchange of my full honest review

Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire via Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was a great thriller for teens/ young adults. It had just the right amount of gore and trauma, there is trigger warnings so definitely recommend checking those before reading. I liked that throughout the story some of the chapters ended with people talking about the events of what happened on the island so while you are experiencing it in real time you are also experiencing it post events as well. It was a very good book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this arc.

Trapped on an island, the killer has one night to kill everyone. This is filled with secrets, betrayal and revenge. Action packed.

Two years ago, Sadie, Will, Isla, Anthony, Emily, and Charlie survived a ski trip that ended in bloodshed. Six returned. Two did not. What really happened has never been revealed—buried under the weight of trauma, silence, and Sadie’s powerful, well-connected family.

Now, with graduation looming, their class convinces Sadie to celebrate on a viral dream destination: a remote private island, complete with a mansion and no neighbors for miles. The six survivors arrive first by helicopter, expecting the rest of their classmates to follow by boat the next day.

But no one ever shows up.

Trapped on the island with no cell service and no way to leave, the reunion turns into a nightmare as someone begins hunting them down—one by one. As the body count rises, it becomes terrifyingly clear: the past isn’t done with them yet. And this time, not everyone will make it out alive.

A mix of One of Us is Lying and And Then There Were None. Told from multiple POV, this book had me reading non-stop. Just when I thought I figured it out, whoops! I was wrong. I liked how at the end of each chapter the author included speculation comments from other students, written as if they were social media posts. This is another one that will fly off the shelves!!

This is my first read by Cindy R. X. He and it won’t be my last! I thoroughly enjoyed this fast paced YA thriller and binged it in two nights. I loved the flashbacks and how each chapter was told from a different character’s POV.. This Is Where We Die was really well written and I give it 5 stars!

First, thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the opportunity to read and review this Young Adult, Thriller/Mystery ARC.

Several years ago, eight friends went on a ski trip together, and that trip took a tragic turn after an avalanche, with two of the friend group dying tragically. Now, the remaining six have graduated high school, and as a present, they receive a trip to a beautiful home on a private island. Tragedy couldn’t strike the same group twice, right? WRONG!!

There is a killer on the island who begins killing the friends one-by-one. After each kill, another person is crossed out on the print of the Donner Party that hangs by the kitchen. (If you don’t know, the Donner Party was a group that was trapped in a snowstorm in Nevada in the 1840s, and they resorted to cannibalism to survive.) Who is killing off the friend group? Is there an outsider hiding on the property? Or is it one of them?

This YA novel was an excellent read. It keeps you guessing right up until the end. With no spice and only a few uses of bad language, this book is definitely appropriate for teens. The chapters are pretty short, and the entire book is only 336 pages, making it an easy read for a Young Adult. Cindy R.X. He has written one other book, Perfect Little Monsters, and I’m putting that one on my fall TBR. This one is definitely worth the read!

This was a good YA thriller. I loved a locked door thriller, especially when it’s on an island. I think this a great summer read that you can devour in just a couple days. I think the author did a great job on this book and I’ll definitely keep them on my radar for future reads.

Hey, I am always going to be down for a homage to "And Then There Were None." The author, Cindy R.X. He I think does a great job of turning this into a young adult version but with a contemporary spin that really does work. The only reason that it didn't get 5 stars for me and received just 4 is that I think the jumping back and forth to the terrible secret the 6 teens shared was killing the momentum of the story in the present. I think I would have liked it better if the author had waited until the very end to reveal what happened in the past to bring the teens to this moment. Also, with six characters and all of them told in first person point of view, it just maybe would have been stronger told third person point of view. That's just a personal preference for me since I think that this book was really really strong.

"This is Where We Die" follows 6 teens: Sadie, Will, Isla, Anthony, Emily, and Charlie. We see that an event happens (we don't get details) that changes the 6 characters to the point that they barely function as a group anymore. On their graduation day they get the opportunity to go to an isolated island and stay in a fantastic house staffed with people, food, and drink. We quickly find out that Sadie is the rich one in the group and she has the means to rent the island and house and when the group has the ability to take a helicopter a day earlier than the rest of their group of 21 they do so. They quickly realize though something is wrong and then they all start to get picked off one by one.

I thought that the six characters were developed very well. Everyone's "voices" felt very distinct to me. I thought that the shifting perspectives though does not allow you to get into anyone's heads too long though which I think we needed a bit more of in some parts.

I already mentioned flow above when I said that showing the present and jumping back to the secret just hampered things after a while. I wanted to stay in the present and figure out what was going on.

The setting of the island and murders definitely set the right atmosphere.

When everything is revealed and the why behind it all, I thought it was really great. I also loved the little messages we got at the end of the chapters which were supposed to show I think message boards or chats and I thought that was a nice touch. Most true crime enthusiasts would be all over this if this was a true story, so I thought that was a nice add.

One of my favorite reads of the entire year--This Is Where We Die is a captivating tour de force from start to finish! With Agatha Christie vibes through a modern lens, Cindy R.X. He delivers a thrilling masterpiece that readers will be talking about for years to come.

With the hope of celebrating their graduation, Sadie rents a palatial glass mansion on a private island for her five friends and fourteen other graduating members of their class. When the six of them arrive early to get a head start on festivities no one is there to greet them. No staff at the dock, no one maintaining the grounds, no chef, no housekeeper. There's no one else on the island but them...right?

Cue anxiety!

Everything that follows is a masterful example of tension, paranoia, and deceit. Though there is a Donner Party theme throughout the plot, things take on a Lord Of The Flies energy as friends and exes turn on each other, and the body count rises steadily. They're forced to figure out if they're actually alone on the island, or if the killer is one of them...

This book is written at a breakneck pace, with twists that make your head spin and keep you turning pages rabidly. The ending is the heartbreaking kind that might not be every reader's cup of tea, but it was definitely my glass of whiskey!

This is a gripping and fast-paced thriller. Although reminiscent of books like Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, it is still quite unique and pleasantly unpredictable. You never know what will happen from one moment to the next. The ending is both shocking and refreshingly original.

This was just okay, I liked it and flew through it but not one I'd reread again. I think this is perfect for new to thriller genre readers or ones who don't read a ton of thrillers. I would still recommend it for readers of YA and anyone looking for a good popcorn thriller

Loved this sophomore thriller from Cindy R.H. He! Anything that can be comped to And Then There Were None is going to be my jam and this book didn't disappoint. Multiple POVs, everyone is a suspect, and the isolated island trope were all done to perfection. Chef's Kiss.

This was definitely a YA thriller through and through—fun at times, but I had to suspend a lot of disbelief to get into it. Like... we’re really just leaving a bunch of traumatized teens alone on a remote island with no supervision? Okay, sure. 😅 A group of teens—survivors of a traumatic avalanche two years prior—reunite for a weekend on a remote island. But things quickly spiral when one of them turns up dead and they're trapped with no way to call for help. Secrets unravel fast, and not everyone will make it out alive.

There are two timelines (before and now), but the transitions weren’t clearly marked, which made it a little confusing early on. A simple chapter header could’ve helped a lot. That said, once I let go of logic, the story moved along pretty well. The pace picks up, and I did enjoy trying to piece together what happened during the avalanche—and who might be behind the new deaths. The final twist actually caught me off guard, which was a nice surprise.

Overall, it’s entertaining if you’re in the mood for a dark, dramatic teen thriller and don’t mind a few eye-roll moments along the way.

Thank you net galley and Sourcebooks Fire for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!
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Six friends graduate high school and want to have one last celebration at a mansion on a remote island. Relieved to finally be separated from one another, after being bonded together from a traumatic ski trip 18 months earlier that left them trapped for weeks and left 2 of their friends dead. The six of them head to the house a day early before the rest of the seniors, but the six are slowly dying one by one….and it would appear that whoever is doing it knows exactly what happened on that ski trip…
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I was so excited to get this ARC, Perfect Little Monsters completely blew me away. Ever since I read And Then There None in the 8th grade I have been an avid lover of locked room mysteries. When done right it is one of the most anxiety inducing plots. Let me tell you…this one was done RIGHT. It is almost horror-like with how dark and gritty it gets, but it also has the mystery of what they all did on the ski trip, and the thrill of trying to figure if one of them is doing it or if there is someone else hiding on this island. It really is almost like if Yellowjackets was a locked room mystery after they were rescued. There are a lot of POVs but the characters are so different I didn’t find it confusing. The twists and reveals are shocking and well done. It is clear Perfect Little Monsters was not an accidental success, Cindy R. X. He has IT when it comes to YA thrillers. It almost is like they are not YA at all, they have an almost adult quality to the plot that sometimes feels like you’re reading an adult thriller about teens. I will be desperatelyyyyy awaiting the next book!

I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for providing me with the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Twisted! To begin this review, I want to highlight that this is the first book I have read by this author, and I am thrilled to explore more of their work. I want to start by saying that this book was fantastic from start to finish. The cover was simple, clean, and captivating, while the synopsis perfectly described the content, enticing readers to dive in. Furthermore, the plot was engaging, and the writing style made for a refreshing and effortless read. I appreciated the fast pace and the multiple perspectives, as they allowed me to gain a comprehensive understanding and develop connections with the characters. That said, I must mention that the characters were exceptionally crafted, and their development was executed very well. However, my favorite aspect of this book was the inclusion of references to the Donner party, which seamlessly advanced the plot and happens to be one of my favorite historical cases. In conclusion, this was a beautifully written book that has certainly piqued my interest in reading more from this author.

I loved this suspenseful, tension-filled and action-packed read! The shifting dynamic between the eight friends and the isolated setting created an atmosphere of dread. The author excelled at creating complex characters and delving into their psyches. I loved all of the twists and the ending! This book was a real page-turner.

Read this book in two sittings! Fast paced and kept you guessing until the very end! Best kind of binge worthy book! Definitely recommend!