As a massive fan of the Good Girl’s Guide to Murder trilogy I was super excited to get an eARC of Holly Jackson’s newest book Five Survive. The book was released November 29th so I thought now was the perfect time to share my thoughts with you all! Let’s take a look!
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...
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.
Five Survive by Holly Jackson
Published by Delacorte Press on 29/11/2022
Pages: 389
Goodreads
The book starts off a little slow in my opinion, but that might’ve also been due to my mindset haha. We follow 6 young adults who are traveling by RV to go to their spring break location. At first I wasn’t sure what to make of it, they are driving around, I didn’t really get a good feeling for the characters. Our main character is Red, and she is pretty chaotic so that didn’t help. I’m still not sure whether she was written that way because of her trauma or if she might have ADHD, because I did recognise a lot of myself in her. If anyone knows, please tell me, I couldn’t find anything about it!
“This was the absolute worst way to die. Mid-squat-pissing behind a tree while Maddy’s axe-murderer charged at her from the front. Dignified till the end.”
At one point the kids take a wrong turn and find themselves on a small, rural road. One of the tires is blown out and they have to change it before they can leave. But as soon as they do, all 4 are blown out. They’re stuck. And the tires didn’t just get blown out, there is a sniper. The whole story is told through one night. And once the action started, I couldn’t put it down. It was pretty fast paced, pretty impressive for a book that’s almost 400 pages long and just takes place inside a RV during one single night.
“If only it had been that easy, Oliver. Throw money at the problem.”
This wasn’t Holly’s best book in my opinion but I did like it a lot. It was fast paced, there were a lot of twists I didn’t see coming. Some parts were a little predictable but overall it was a pretty good mystery in my opinion. I really liked most of the characters, and really disliked others. A good mix I would say!
I’m already looking forward to Holly’s next book. Her YA mysteries are just really good reads. This was a fast read that I couldn’t put down. I haven’t really read anything similar and it was interesting to see the dynamic and the decisions the characters made under such pressure. Definitely recommend this one!
