Five Survive is an edge of your seat thriller that occurs over the course on one harrowing night for a group of 6 teens and young adults. Red and her friends are in their way to spring break in an RV when they take a wrong turn and get lost on a rural back road in South Carolina. When their tires are shot out, they realize someone lured them here and has trapped them in the RV. They attempt to make a plan to get out, but can they survive until morning?

Red and her friends are fully fleshed out characters, and as we learn their secrets we get to know more about what is motivating them. Of course everybody has a secret they don’t want to reveal, and some of these secrets are pretty twisted! I did not come close to guessing the ending of this one, and once I hit the middle of the book I absolutely couldn’t put it down. The author writes such intriguing stories, and this one was woven together beautifully. It did take me a bit to connect with the characters, and there were a couple things that were quite repetitive through the book. It is still a solid thriller that was an enjoyable read!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Childrens- Delacorte Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

This seemed like it was going to be super fun and it was a quick read, don’t get me wrong. But I didn’t like any of the characters - for high school/college students they had SO MUCH GOING ON. Like, how could all of them potentially have a secret that someone was willing to kill them over? Just really implausible.

Six friends from Philadelphia rent an RV to go to spring break in Florida but somewhere in South Carolina, they become stranded with an active shooter targeting them. They can get out alive, but one of them has a secret the shooter wants. Which one is it? As the night progresses, secrets and confessions abound, but is it the right one? As tensions heat up, the friends turn on each other and, as the title implies, someone doesn’t make it out alive.

I think the most important thing to know is that this is a completely different vibe than the A Good Girls Guide to Murder series. This is straight up a fast-paced, one-night thriller. It was nice to see Jackson flex some different muscles, and while I don't think it's quite as good as her series it was enjoyable to read.

It took me a minute to get into it - I didn't love our MC, but once I hit the 30% mark it really started to pick up and I read the rest of it in one sitting because I just had to know what was happening. I did not see any of the big reveals coming, which is quite impressive.

Overall, a fun YA thriller. I don't think it will be for every fan of the series, but if you like YA thrillers and her series, be sure to pick this one up!

Oh my god. This book is INTENSE! I stayed up until 12:30 finishing it because I couldn’t put it down. Just wow. Fabulous read.

I really enjoyed this book. I loved that it was set over the course of one night. It was very fast paced with lots of twists and turns I didn’t see coming. I liked how even though the book took place over a short time, the characters were fleshed out well. I would definitely recommend this book.

3.75 stars!
This book didn't captivate me the way I was hoping it would. It was a GOOD thriller, and had twists that I wasn't expecting. I had a hard time connecting to any of the characters and I think that's why this isn't a higher rating for me. It was a fast paced read and very action packed as well. I also enjoyed the ending and felt like it tied up the book really well!
Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Children's Books, and Holly Jackson for an advanced e-copy in exchange for my honest review.

Stick with it, the pay off of this book is worth it. Holly Jackson captivated us with the Good Girl’s Guide to Murder series, and just know that this is not that series. But she’s earned her spot as a go to thriller writer for me. Five Survive started slow and I nearly put it down a few times, but at about 59% it hit its stride and I finished the rest in one sitting. Excellent - and I hope there’s a follow up coming soon.

WOW WOW WOW. I stayed up all night reading this and it was absolutely worth it. Five people survived and I was screaming at the end of it because some

This book is 100% pure, exhaustive, edge-of-your-seat kind of thriller. The entirety of it takes place in an RV with six teens and young adults on their way to a camping site. The claustrophobia of this 31 foot RV and the predicament they find themselves in had me finish this book in one sitting. I refused to go to sleep without knowing what happened.

I don't know how but somehow in a span of 400 or so pages, Holly Jackson fleshed out the six characters to a shocking degree. It felt so damn real and I was reacting to their behaviour and choices so easily. I was absolutely livid at some of the characters and overwhelmed with sadness for others.

Red is a fantastic character to have as the narrator. Her past and unreliability due to trauma makes the thrill even more heightened. The entire cast of characters were absolutely fantastic. In such a short amount of time Holly Jackson made them so real and I honestly could not guess what was going to happen next. The twists and turns were shocking and left me breathless. It was so interesting and not even for a second did my attention waver.

I felt like I was starting to piece things together every 10 pages and then Holly Jackson turned around and said not on my watch, loser.

Holly Jackson knows how to weave all the factors that make a good thriller in a way that feels new and leaves you feeling like you're in the story with them.

Holly Jackson is going to be my go-to author to satisfy that need for "holding on for dear life" and "clenching your insides" kind of thrill and entertainment when reading. I'm gonna be shouting off the rooftops about this one to everyone I now. This is going to the top of my list of thrillers.

I adored our MC Red and her perspective was perfect for this book. Jackson’s inclusion of characters that you love mixed with characters you would want to throttle on any day of the week. Five survive is a perfect thriller - fast-paced, high stakes and full of characters that you would die to save or die if they were saved. If you’re desperate for a book to become attached to whilst your heart drops at a turn of the page, Five Survive a great story and you should read it.

*thank you Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review*

I was extremely excited for this one unfortunately i didnt love it as much as i thought i would. The entire book takes place in one setting on an Rv with 6 characters who werent fleshed out properly so they seemed interchangeable and made it hard for me to care about the outcome . The ending was blah and left me feeling underwhelmed. Overall the story was fine but i didnt really feel it held a candle to her previous “ a good girls guide to murder”

4.5 !This book is very different than A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder and not quite what I expected, but I had so much fun reading it!

Synopsis: Red and her five friends rent an RV for senior year spring break. Mid way through the night, their RV breaks down in a remote area with no signal. When their tires get shot at, the group quickly realizes that this is in fact no accident. They find a walkie talkie on the RV and after searching for a signal, a man on the other line shares that one of them has a secret, and until that secret is revealed, they’re trapped and will not make it out alive. Confessions start pouring out and accusations are made… but who is to blame?

Thoughts: This was one fast-paced wild ride! There were twists I didn’t see coming, when I was sure I knew the answers, and I loved the atmospheric, dark setting. I like how Jackson chose to tell this story just from Red’s POV. We learn early on that she has had a traumatic past with her mother’s death but do not know what in fact happened and how that has shaped her life. Getting her steam of consciousness as all the chaos occurred was a great way to watch the events unfold. I mainly read this book but listened to a few chapters on audio and definitely enjoyed that format as well!

Read if you like:
-Whodunit stories
-YA thrillers
-Dark, atmospheric settings
-Lord of the Flies vibes

DNF-21%
First, thank you for the complementary copy of the book I received in exchange for a honest review.

I wanted to like this book so much. The hook and blurb were so excellently crafted, and I kept thinking it would turn around but it never did for me. I tried really hard to force myself to finish, but I just couldn’t.

First of all, the writing isn’t the best. Well not even the writing, the editing. The amount of “said’s” on EVERY SINGLE page was so distracting. I counted 14 “she said” and “he said” on several pages in a row. Phone screen pages at that, so out of the approximately 80 words on a page 14 of them were “said.” That’s almost 20% of the words. There are so many other ways to indicate who’s talking, it could be ANYTHING else, and I found this so distracting. There was also problems with the flow—it was choppy—the tense, and the POV.

But aside from my issues with the writing, which I found incredibly distracting, the characters just weren’t likeable. They seemed whiney and unrealistic. The MC’s parent was a cop and she had good instincts to avoid the danger they found themselves in, but she never listened to them. Instead, she blindly followed the others while complaining in her head—as if they weren’t in a life or death situation but instead she was trying to decide whether or not to go to a party they wanted to go to. Also, there was a couple that the MC continued to call perfect, but the male in the relationship was a complete douche to everyone especially his girlfriend. The MC seemed to have no real agency and her opinions changed so frequently it was hard to keep up. There were a ton of breadcrumbs about some kind of tragedy in the MC life—her parent dying I think—but it felt like the MC was languishing and enjoying being a victim instead of attempting to move on or get past it. And while I get some circumstances in life are beyond your control, it felt like everything just happened to her and she did nothing about it but complain. Plus her reactions to things felt unrealistic for someone who had been through what she had.

Overall, I think this book had a great premise. I think it could be great with more development. And it’s possible some of the issues I had with the characters would have been worked out in the part of the book I didn’t read, but the writing/editing issues were such that I couldn’t power through and finish. Of course that’s all just my opinion, and if you don’t notice writing, editing, grammar issues, maybe you’ll like it or be fine with it., but for me, I just couldn’t do it

When I finished this book, one of my first thoughts was: Holly Jackson has got to stop with the romantic cliffhangers.

I have read all of her A Good Girls Guide to Murder books and while I will always have a soft spot for Pip, but the ending of the final instalment rubbed me the wrong way. So I approached Jackson's newest standalone with a fairly equal mix of eagerness and trepidation.


I’m going to be honest, 90% of Red’s secret was obvious from the moment the concept of secrets was mentioned. That being said, the little twist was satisfying and the ending tied up pretty much everything nicely.

It felt a bit more like Maureen Johnson’s last YA mystery book to me for some reason but there were definite parallels to AGGGTM: morally dubious ending/solution to the mystery, a romantic subplot/love interest who is intimately connected to the case at hand, and a female protagonist with a unique name and lots of anxiety whose best friend’s family is somehow embroiled in the core mystery (both them, their sibling and a parent)

I really enjoyed reading this book; and one of my only complaints wasn’t having enough time to read it in one sitting. One the way to spring break, Red and her friend’s RV broke down in an abandoned road, but what they don’t know is that their is a killer among them, and thawing of them has a secret worth killing for. I really enjoyed reading the character development and how showed their true colors in time of a stressful situation. Also the twists and turns kept me guessing until the end. This is my first Holly Jackson book but won’t be my last.

Six friends go on an RV trip for spring break; Red knows she's the reason why they didn't just fly (she's broke) but when they're trapped in the middle of nowhere, South Carolina? Any one of them could be a target. All the sniper wants is the secret one of the six has, but whoever has it isn't willing to give it up easily.

Honestly, I expected a much higher quality book from this author. This is set up like a typical teen thriller (which isn't a bad thing, just not my cup of tea) except with a much higher suspension of disbelief required. The twist was obvious from the first chapter, the characters are flat even by thriller terms, and the writing is nowhere near as intelligent as it was in GOOD GIRL'S GUIDE TO MURDER. Once the six start to suspect the mafia is involved - which also happens very quickly - the suspension of disbelief required shoots up substantially and the quality of writing just didn't bring me to the point where I could do that. AS GOOD AS DEAD also required a pretty high suspension of disbelief, but the writing was strong and it was the last installment in an exceptional trilogy so it was easy to go along for the ride.

I personally will not be adding this to the reread queue but I would recommend it for teens who have exhausted other thriller options and are big fans of the genre. FIVE SURVIVE reads a lot like a less diverse combination of THE GIRLS I'VE BEEN and ONE OF US IS LYING, and is perfectly palatable if you don't go in with the expectations of it living up to the author's previous works. I do not recommend this book to adults.

When I saw that Holly Jackson had a new book coming out, I knew I had to get it. Five Survive was a thriller where I found myself second-guessing everyone. Was anybody who they said they were, and what were they hiding?! I found myself rooting for some characters while also rooting for some other ones to die. I thought the first quarter of this book was a little slow, but it was needed to set the scene. I devoured the last three quarters in one night. Overall, this is definitely a thriller I'd recommend, as I didn't know how it would end until all the twists were revealed.

Thank you to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for the e-ARC of this book to review. This releases November 29.

Red and five of her friends are on a road trip for spring break in a 31 foot RV. They get a little lost, then get stuck on a road outside a cemetery. All of a sudden, they are ambushed and someone is shooting out their tires and the gas tank, and asking them to spill their secrets. The twists this one took! Whoa! I love the way Holly Jackson writes and need to go back and read all of the other books they’ve written. I was so invested in Red and the evolution of this story. Highly recommend!
Thank you to Random House Children’s and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book is intense and a very emotional ride. Don’t pick this up unless you don’t have anything else planned for the day because you won’t be able to put it down.

Fui na fé para ler “Five Survive” porque gostei muito (muito mesmo) de “Manual de Assassinato para Boas Garotas ” – uma trama de suspense YA, gênero que agora está em ascensão e está muito bem representado nessa trama de uma garota que decide investigar um crime que marcou a história de sua cidade e foi um livro tão bom, com tantas resenhas magníficas, que ganhou duas sequências, se tornando uma trilogia (você pode ler a sinopse clicando AQUI. Depois de ter sido fisgada por essa trama, foi natural querer ler o mais novo livro da autora, que só será lançado mês que vem, mas que a Penguin Random House tão gentilmente cedeu um eBook para leitura. E tô em choque até agora de TÃO BOM que esse livro é. Sério.

Começando bem do começo da trama, somos apresentados a Redford “Red” Foster, uma jovem que tem o nome do avô e passou um trauma grande com a morte de sua mãe, que era uma delegada e foi morta em serviço. Prestes a se formar no colegial, Red aceitou sair em um veículo recreativo (trailer) com sua melhor amiga, Madeline “Maddie” Lavoy e o amigo da dupla, Simon. Acompanhando os 3, ainda temos Oliver e Reyna, respectivamente irmão e cunhada de Maddie, e, por fim, Arthur, que é amigo de Simon e por quem Red tem uma certa quedinha. O grupo pretende sair de Philadelphia e ir até Gulf Shores, uma cidade no Estado de Alabama para se divertir – e tem mapa no livro, tanto com a planta do trailer quanto da viagem que o grupo faria, o que é bastante interessante para visualização de tudo. O enredo é simples assim, a princípio, e os 6 jovens, de idades diversas, estão realmente se divertindo e aproveitando aquela fase de adolescência de 18 anos que todo mundo tem que aproveitar – menos Oliver e Reyna, que são mais velhos, já estão na faculdade e namoram há bastante tempo.

Depois de uma ligação dos irmãos Maddie e Oliver com a mãe, Catherine, os jovens pegam uma entrada errada na estrada e logo seu pneu é estourado. Depois do pequeno contratempo resolvido, a viagem parece que vai continuar sem problemas – só que não, claro, porque então todos os pneus explodem e fica claro que tem alguém fazendo isso com os jovens. Alguém está acompanhando a viagem dos jovens e esperava por eles ali escondido, naquela estrada escura que eles pegaram errado, usando uma arma com mira e que quer expor uma pessoa que mente entre o grupo. O problema é que todos tem algo a esconder, da forma mais boba e fútil até mesmo a crimes reais. Todos precisam colocar seus segredos na mesa enquanto vai ficando claro que um dos personagens que você está conhecendo e se apegando está mentindo porque alguém de dentro está trabalhando com o atirador porque sim, o atirador com mira a laser lá fora do ônibus está mais do que disposto a matar o grupo, completo ou não.

Sobre os personagens que foram o grupo principal, temos Red, a qual já falei que sofre há anos pela morte de sua mãe, justamente porque quando o crime aconteceu, elas estavam brigadas. Você consegue entender o drama e o trauma da personagem, que não tenta ser corajosa além do aceitável e nem é uma garotinha que vai deixar os sentimentos tomarem conta de sua visão. Claro, ela tem seus motivos para ter os segredos que tem, e quando o leitor os conhecem, a absolvição vem fácil para a personagem. Já sua melhor amiga, Maddie, é a típica boa garota, prestativa e gentil, que realmente tenta fazer de tudo pela melhor amiga – até mesmo pedir para todos não usarem a palavra “mãe” perto dela para não fazer Red se sentir mal. Simon, o amigo, também tem sua contribuição como o personagem mais leve e mais brincalhão, que está lá para se divertir com o grupo de amigos, e foi através dele que Arthur se introduziu. Arthur não estuda no mesmo colégio que os 3, mas sempre que pode, está presente, e consegue conversar facilmente com Red, parecendo retribuir os sentimentos que ela sente, mas fica claro que ele tem bastante mais do que deixa a garota ver em sua superfície. Completando o grupo, Oliver e Reyna estão em um relacionamento sério há anos, como já falei, e fizeram a transição para a faculdade muito bem, ou, pelo menos, é o que todos acreditam. Oliver parece ser um tanto quanto possessivo com a namorada e cabeça quente e teimoso com os outros, o que o torna fácil de detestar, enquanto Reyna parece ser mais calma e gentil. São um grupo bastante heterogêneo, mas, ainda assim, encontraram formas de serem amigos e se divertirem juntos, sem jamais esperar que aconteceria justamente aquele desastre em uma simples curva errada em uma autoestrada.

O livro se passa em apenas 8 horas, das 22 até as 6 da manhã, com capítulos divididos pelas horas passadas, mas claro que há flashbacks contados pelos personagens para que possamos entender o que está acontecendo. Tudo é um quebra-cabeças que parece bastante complexo, com pistas erradas e personagens bem construídas de uma forma que faz o leitor ficar ansioso para entender qual é a verdade. Há segredos que você sequer sonha que podem existir entre aqueles personagens quando a narrativa começa e tudo explode em uma trama mortal repleta de mentiras, desencontros e traições. É aquela velha máxima de que não adianta você tentar proteger alguém que você ama da forma errada porque karma é uma vadia e vai voltar pra chutar sua bunda.

Não há muito o que falar sobre a trama do livro em si porque os personagens estão sim, confinados dentro do trailer naquelas 8 horas. Eles podem tentar sair e fugir, mas está claro que a situação já foi orquestrada e eles não tem escapatória além de admitirem seus erros. O clima claustrofóbico e tenso vai se tornando quase insuportável, tudo em um crescendo que é capaz de carregar o leitor consigo, e se você sentir um clima de filme de estrada nos quais adolescentes estão caçados sem piedade, você está no caminho certo: o clima é tão próximo que quase me faz desejar uma adaptação, mas sabemos como essas coisas quase sempre terminam. Eu, como fã de filmes e livros de suspense, fiquei tão vidrada na trama que li de uma única vez, em uma única noite. E não, o livro não é grande.

Além de tudo que já falei, ainda quero destacar o final, que foi absurdamente bom, bem acima da média do que estamos acostumados. Holly não enrolou no livro, não acrescentou cenas desnecessárias, não demorou a entregar um final que é extremamente agridoce e capaz de deixar seu leitor decidir o que vai acontecer a partir dali – mas calma, você tem todas as respostas no final da narrativa, pode confiar em mim. E ah, ao que tudo indica, será um livro único.

Se você gosta desse novo gênero de “suspense jovem”, você pode e deve se animar para este livro porque ele realmente entrega tudo sem prometer nada – e ah, o resumo da sinopse dele: “Oito horas. Seis amigos. Cinco sobrevivem.”, é muito, muito boa para te preparar sobre o que esperar. Vá ler e eu também te prometo que você vai sobreviver a essa noite bem mais feliz por ter lido um bom livro.

Entre meus livros favoritos do ano, “Five Survive” (em tradução livre, “Cinco Sobrevivem”), ainda não foi anunciado aqui no Brasil, mas os livros da autora Holly Jackson estão sendo publicados pela Intrínseca, então fiquem ligados que assim que tivermos qualquer noticia sobre a publicação dele aqui, vamos comentar bastante pra fazer vocês todos lerem.

Thanks for the free book, Penguin Random House International.

En route to Spring Break, Red and her five friends wind up stranded in the middle of nowhere when their borrowed RV breaks down. As if being lost with no cell reception and no help around for miles, someone shoots out their tires one-by-one. Soon, they realize this wasn't just a random accident.

One of their group has information the sniper wants. Something they're willing to kill for. And as Red and her friends try to survive the night, buried secrets will be unearthed and not everyone will make it out alive.

I liked Jackson's writing. It flowed well and wasn't overdone. I particularly enjoyed the way in which she gave the reader a deep look into the MC, Red and the way her mind processed the events as the night goes on.

I tend to be a be hard on YA thrillers because sometimes the characters grate on my nerves. I have to remind myself that they're teenagers and at times will do silly, ridiculous things. I felt less this way than I have with many other books in this genre. Though there was one character I wanted to jump through my Kindle and slap, but that was because the person was a vile human being.

I thought this one had some nice twists. You can kind of see what it's setting up for, but I was still surprised by the ending.