Eight hours. Six friends. Five survive. A road trip turns deadly in this addictive YA thriller from the bestselling author of the worldwide phenomenon A GOOD GIRL’S GUIDE TO MURDER.
Red Kenny is on a road trip for spring break with five friends: Her best friend – the older brother – his perfect girlfriend – a secret crush – a classmate – and a killer.
When their RV breaks down in the middle of nowhere with no cell service, they soon realize this is no accident. They have been trapped by someone out there in the dark, someone who clearly wants one of them dead.
With eight hours until dawn, the six friends must escape, or figure out which of them is the target. But is there a liar among them? Buried secrets will be forced to light and tensions inside the RV will reach deadly levels. Not all of them will survive the night. . . .
- Title: Five Survive
- Author: Holly Jackson
- Publisher: Delacorte Press
- Publication Date: November 29th, 2022
- Genre: Mystery/Thriller
- Source: ARC provided by Publisher/Author/TBR and Beyond Tours in exchange for an honest review
- Targeted Age Range: YA
- Content Warnings: Alcohol abuse and underage drinking, past parental death (mom), murder, description of murder (gunshot to the head – referenced in multiple chapters), pts, mentions of police, guns, mentions of death (throat cancer), death (by gunshot, on page, quickly described in chapter 23, also mentioned in multiple chapters), blood, grief and trauma, cheating (past), physical violence (punching, choking), injury (gunshot wound to the leg), attempted murder, threats and blackmail, mob violence, death threats
- Rating: ★★★★★
After absolutely devouring the A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder series — and rereading it often — I’ve been eagerly awaiting Holly Jackson’s next novel. While I love her writing, I did have some worries. I love the A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder series so much, how can her next book live up to my expectations? I’m very happy to say that my expectations were met and that I loved Five Survive.
Five Survive follows eighteen-year-old Red, her best friend Maddy, their friend Simon, Maddy’s brother Oliver, his girlfriend Reina, and Red’s secret crush Arthur, on a road trip from Pennsylvania to the Gulf Shores over spring break. On their way to a campground in South Carolina, they take a wrong turn leading them into the woods with no cell phone service and a flat tire. However, this is no random incident. When all four tires and the RV gas tank are shot out, they discover that there is a sniper in the woods, and he wants answers. Answers that only one of them has, and the sniper has made it very clear that unless one of them confesses, not all of them will survive the night.
Sometimes I feel like when an author has written the same series for a few years, some of those characters or plot lines can unintentionally bleed into their new works, but that is not the case here. The vibe of Five Survive was distinctly different from her last series, which I appreciated, but it did take me a little longer to get into it I think because of my attachment to A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder. However, once I really got into it (which was about five chapters in) I could not put it down.
Five Survive is a great example of a “closed circle” mystery. A “closed circle” mystery is described as a “situation where contact with the outside world has been severed” (tvtropes.org), which perfectly describes this story. Not only do they have no way of leaving because of the flat tires and the sniper outside, they also don’t have any way to call for help as the cell phone towers in the area are down. They’re completely isolated and when you combine that isolation with the stress and fear they’re all experiencing, the tensions run high and the stakes rise with every moment that ticks by. I think that it would’ve been incredibly easy for this story to become stagnant or repetitive as 95% of it takes place in one location (a thirty-one foot RV to be exact), but this story never got boring.
This book had me on the edge of my seat the entire time — I could not put it down because I needed to know what was going to happen. What I particularly love about Jackson’s writing is that she always elicits intense reactions out of me. At one point during Five Survive I found myself shaking and crying because I was so emotionally invested, and frankly, terrified of what was going to happen next. Not many books can get that kind of reaction out of me, but it’s the second time that one of Holly Jackson’s books has, which I think is pretty amazing.
I loved the complexity in this story — from the characters to the plot itself, everything in this book was incredibly layered. Small pieces of the puzzle are revealed right at the start, but just when you think you’ve got the story solved, a total bombshell is dropped and the story takes a turn. I was completely thrown by the big twist, I didn’t see it coming at all, and I loved that! I gasped in surprise when it was revealed and couldn’t believe it. I’m already looking forward to reading it again and picking up on all the clues left for that big reveal because it really was brilliantly done.
I’ve always felt that Jackson excels at character development, and Five Survive really showcases that. Our six friends are completely different from one another, and the way that they play off each other is extremely well done. At first, the dynamics feel pretty straight forward, but as the book goes on and the tension rises, those dynamics and relationships are really put to the test. I was particularly shocked by the actions of two of the characters, and while one of them gave me a bad feeling from the start, I truly could not have anticipated just how off the rails things would become.
Unsurprisingly, I found myself staying up well past midnight (about three am to be exact) to finish this book, as I have done with every one of Jackson’s previous novels, because I couldn’t get enough. If you’re a fan of the A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder series, or just mystery/thrillers in general, I high recommend Five Survive!
Links for Five Survive: Goodreads | TheStoryGraph | Bookshop | IndieBound | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Indigo
Holly Jackson was born in 1992. She grew up in Buckinghamshire and started writing stories from a young age, completing her first (poor) attempt at a book aged fifteen.
‘A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder’ is a YA Mystery Thriller and her debut novel. She lives in London and aside from reading and writing, she enjoys binge-playing video games and pointing out grammatical errors in street signs.
