Kara's whole family is murdered on Christmas Eve. After her older sister Marlie hides her in the attic, she escapes to find Marlie is gone and the rest of the family has had their throats slit.The only other person left alive is her brother Jonas, who goes to jail for murder. Although he has injuries similar to everyone else, the police his injuries are self inflicted.
Twenty years later Jonas is being released on a technical issue. Now that Jonas has been release others close to the family start to die. Coincidence or was he really the killer. Great writing from Lisa jackson. Thanks netgalley.

I loved the premise of The Girl Who Survived and the first few chapters really drew me in. However, then it became very repetitive with overdrawn descriptions and clunky dialogue. The details of the McIntyre Massacre are repeated several times as are details about the weather.
I did like the MC, Kara and the reporter Tate. I feel like the book could have been 100 pages less with more editing and it would have been solid.
Instead, I found myself skimming a lot.

2 stars ⭐️⭐️

I was not feeling the writing in this book. Unfortunately, that made it hard to read and I ended up skimming. There is a lot of repetition and extreme detail that is not necessary. There are very graphic descriptions. And the ending reveal was kind of ridiculous.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

What's the last book that kept you up at night? Get ready because Lisa Jackson's new thriller will make you want to not be alone at night. 😂

📝 Kara is a survivor. When she was seven years old, her family was brutally murdered in their Mt. Hood cabin on Eve. 🎄Twenty years later, her brother, convicted of murdering them, is released. Suddenly, others around Kara are murdered in a similar way as her family. 🗡 Is Kara safe? And what really happened 20 years ago?

What I 🤍:
🏔 Oregon Setting
🔎 WHO DUNNIT?
🏚 Creepy House
😱 Scary, Heart-Pounding Ending
👥 Multiple Narrators

This book sucked me in and really had my heart RACING in several instances. 🫀I really felt for Kara, and I couldn't imagine living in her shoes. The trauma that she went through would be impossible to get over. Also, there were some REALLY messed up people in this book, but I was glad rooting for Kara was always easy.

Prince's Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Scare Factor: 😱😱😱
Read if ➡️: You love thrillers with criminals who were wrongly accused.
FYI 🛑: This book contains very GRAPHIC details of gruesome murders.

Part of this story that bothered me was how repetitive it was. It described these horrific murders over and over again. It made the middle of the book a bit slow for me, and I ended up skimming the retellings each time. Thankfully, the ending picked back up, and I even had to turn the light 💡 on as I finished it! 🤣

Huge thank you to Kensington Publishing, Lisa Jackson, and Netgalley for an advanced digital copy of this book. This review will be up shortly on my Instagram Blog (@lifewithprinceman) very soon.

Kara’s entire family was murdered and her brother Jonas was convicted of the crimes. He was recently released on a technicality, and now there are more murders occurring. Is Jonas actually guilty? Or is there another murderer on the loose? Overall a decently paced story that was easy to follow. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Girl Who Survived, by Lisa Jackson, is an intense psychological suspense novel! Part dark mystery, part detective procedural, this is an intense story of murder and revenge, told in Ms. Jackson’s usual style of strong story-telling and propulsive plot development.
In the exciting opening, it is Christmas on the slopes of Mt. Hood, Oregon. Kara, age 7, is told by her teenage sister to stay quiet in the attic, as there are terrible things happening in the large mountain home. When Kara emerges, she finds her family brutally murdered and she is chased into the snowy outdoors by a dark masked man. The tragedy becomes infamous and is labeled the Cold Mountain Massacre.
Now, 20 years later and another Christmas season, Kara is in therapy, drinks too much, and suffers from disabling survivor’s guilt.
No spoilers here, the story is strong and compelling. The action is nonstop as new murders of those connected to the original massacre occur, and two detectives try to figure out the killer.
This is a dark story, with plenty of tragedy, descriptions of graphic violence, and mental anguish. The plot is very much character-driven, and I found it easy to invest in Kara’s history and struggles with her family’s disaster and her mental health. There is a strong sense of place in the Portland/Mount Hood area, and excellent descriptive writing. The juxtaposition of two Christmas seasons, 20 years apart, with the murders and sadness which occur adds more intensity to the novel.
I highly recommend this thriller to readers who like tales of dark psychological suspense which feature strong characters and intelligent writing.

Thank you to Kensington Publishing Corporation and NetGalley for the ARC. This is my honest review.

4 stars

Such a solid thriller. I really enjoyed this book and was guessing the 'who done it" until the end. The main character was just likeable enough to keep me coming back to see how it all unraveled. Not sure I loved the ending but it was a nice resolution to the story. Nice summer read.

The Girl who Survived, a new thriller from bestseller, Lisa Jackson that follows the lone survivor of a Christmas Eve family massacre as she fights to uncover the truth before it catches up with her.
Kara, orphaned at age eight after her whole family was murdered and her brother, Jonas, convicted of the crimes, is forced to deal with everything she has left buried when her brother is unexpectedly released from prison and she receives cryptic text messages. As people around her start to die, she worries that she may end up being the last target.
Great character development had me hooked right from the beginning. Great read and highly recommended.

* I received an advanced reader’s copy of this book from NetGalley and Kensington Books in exchange for my honest review

When Kara was 7 years old her entire family was slaughtered in her home. Her sister, Marlie, disappeared that night and she is left as the lone survivor of the massacre that her stepbrother is accused of being responsible for. Two decades have passed. Her stepbrother is released from prison on a technicality and she Kara is thrown into a mess she has been avoiding her entire life.

I wanted to love this book. The premise is great and something I would typically really love. My problem is that there are too many “bit players” to keep up with and some of those smaller characters end up playing big roles. The ending was too outlandish for me. I like for things to be believable and I think there were just too many things that happened the night of the massacre to even be possible. It’s like the author wanted there to be shocking twists to throw the reader off. Well, that happened, but only because there was no way to predict what barely mentioned characters might come back on the scene!

This book is long and drawn out every page is a play by play of details that are just not required. I am sad to say that I could not get through it all I ended up skimming trying to find the story.

It might be for some and I had high hopes was so excited to be sent an arc but it killed me to read the “sound effects” of the clock and a door creaking shut.

The extremely detailed conversations that leave absolutely nothing to to imagination not even the mundane they are all laid on the page. The thrill of this was lost on me due to the excess amount of detail and repetition.

Thank you to Kensington Books, NetGalley and the author for an arc in exchange for my honest review. I wanted this to be a stellar read but it just didn’t hit the mark for me.

The Girl Who Survived | Lisa Jackson
Genre: Domestic Thriller/Suspense

I was excited to receive an ARC of this book as I have been seeing Lisa Jackson’s books for a while but had yet to read any of her full length stories. This one was the perfect introduction and has cemented her as an author I will continue to read.

The story follows Kara, who survived a deadly massacre which killed her parents and siblings and left another sister missing, presumed dead. When Kara’s brother who was convicted of the crimes is released from prison and others start to turn up dead, Kara will have to face the truth of what really happened all those years ago.

I love stories where you know that what happen isn’t the truth and you eagerly devour the pages to find out what really happened. This one delivered everything I would have expected from this kind of story. My only negative would be that I didn’t like the switching between different characters, I’d have preferred to stay with Kara but I can understand why the author did this.

The book was easy to read, fast paced and kept my attention well. I’d recommend this one to fans of Lisa Jewell, Elle Marr, Lisa Lutz, and Lisa Unger.

Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for an ARC.

This was a great page turning thriller. It tells the story of the one girl in the family who survived a horrible murder of her whole family. It flashes back and forth between her horrible past and her memories in the future. Lots of twists, turns and good, solid character development. A strong thriller I couldn't put down!

Dark, Haunting and Gory Mystery with Twists Abounding! I loved this book. I have not read a bad book written by Lisa! I love her writing style! Riveting thriller for sure!

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
A scary, gripping thriller. Shocking at times. well-written Lots of twists and turns. Don't read it alone. Recommended.

The best part of this entire book was probably the opening chapters. It was perfectly done with just the right amount of suspense, horror, and the fear of a child (our main character is seven when these events take place). And then it jumps to the present day, where our MC is now a twenty-seven-year-old adult, and everything just falls apart.

To begin with, this story is told from multiple points of view, which I would usually enjoy, except this one not only has too many characters telling their side of things, but also in entirely way too much detail. I don't need pages and pages of details about every little thing they see, hear, or sense. Perhaps I'm in the minority here, but when I read something, I like to let my imagination fill in some of the blanks. I feel that this not only makes the story feel more immersive as a reader, but it adds to the suspense. When everything is "told" to the reader, we lose a lot of that suspense.

I also felt as though the ending lacked the "shock" value that the author was going for. It was hard for me at that point to connect to the murder having spent so little time with them. I barely remembered who they were and the "truth" of the night was just, in my opinion, completely unbelievable.

Finally, It is my very sincere hope that this book has undergone another round of heavy editing between the advanced copy that I read, and the final product. Because while this one had the potential to be something amazing - it failed on every level, and some of that had to do with the rampant spelling errors (and overuse of an exclamation point). Another issue I had with this one is all of the times when the same character performed the same actions on the very next page. One example of this that immediately springs to mind is when our detectives are interviewing a potential suspect, on one page it says, "the woman cop opened her phone, made a call and turned away". Then two pages later it says, "the detectives shared a look and the woman turned away, pulled a cell phone from the pocket of her jacket, punched in a number, and turned away". To me, it was very off-putting that it seemed like the author either forgot (or didn't care) that they had already provided this information.

Now, with any novel I review, just because it didn't work for me doesn't mean it won't work for someone else. If after reading my review, you still think this would be a novel you would enjoy, please give it a shot and decide for yourself.

DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher. This has not affected my review in any way. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.

Alone, Kara has survived a brutal attack on her family. This story takes us on a creepy and suspenseful journey through her memories of that night and how it changed her forever. How many times does she have to survive through this night and the present as all those around her a dyeing tragic deaths? Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book.

The Girl Who Survived by Lisa Jackson, was definitely a thriller from the first page I was engrossed in the storyline. Kara is certainly not leading a life many would want to have, scarred from her childhood trama that basically saw her whole family destroyed we follow along to see what finally happened that night so many years ago. I would recommend this book to others that love this genre as much as I do.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and Kensington Books, in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I loved staying on edge and couldn’t put this book down. I felt for Kara, as her family was massacred, only she and her half brother (Jonas) survived. Is her sister Marley dead or just missing? Is Jonas the killer or a victim? Even with multiple points of view, we’re kept in the dark. The plot was very twisted. Glad Kara had Wesley to finally open up with. I did cry towards the end. Loved Kara and Wesley, and there’s a hint they end up together. The ending was a shocker. I definitely would re read this book. I voluntarily read an advanced readers copy through NetGalley and I highly recommend this book.

This story gripped me from the very beginning and kept it up till the surprised ending.
Kara, Jonas and possibly Marlie has survived the massacre of their family 20 years ago. Jonas has been convicted of the murders and at present released due to a glitched in the system. Marlie had disappeared then and still has not been found. This is just the beginning of the questions. IsJonas a victim or the real murderer? Is Marlie dead or alive and if alive where is she? Kara is trying to figure out these questions and what really happened that night, as well as facing her.
I really loved this book from my favorite author. Thank you NetGalley for the advanced readers copy.

Twists and turns! Draws you in from the beginning! Well done! Thoroughly enjoyed this book!

Thank you #netgalley and #kensingtonbooks for the eARC.