Someone open a window because it just felt like I was trapped in an RV for the entirety of this book. Suspense, dread, and suspicion are three words I'd use to classify the feelings continuously cycling through me as I read Five Survive. You'd think the title would prepare you as to what happens, but it only scrapes the surface of the twisted events this group endures.

On a road trip down the East Cost for Spring break, right off the bat, there's clear evidence that we cannot trust our main character. She's forgetful, easily distracted, and a good liar. But she's not the only one with secrets. As they slowly get stuck in the middle of the woods when their GPS stops working, the atmosphere drops a solid 30 degrees as everyone realizes someone has intentionally trapped them here and the target is one of their own.

There was barely a moment of calm in this thriller. Tensions were high, arguments spiked, fists were thrown, and reluctant truths were shared. The story builds enticingly, and, like an escalating heartbeat, things take a turn from scary to downright dreadful. I pointed fingers at pretty much every character, I covered my eyes at the same time my fingertips held them open, and the hysteria bled through the pages once the blood started spurting. Even better, the characters were unconventional making the storyline even more intriguing. This was very difficult to put down what with the time structure and knowing we were counting down to at least one death. If you make it to the last page without pulling out your hair, I'd be surprised.

I haven't read A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, so I had no idea what to expect going into this. However, I love survival horror and thrillers. So, when I saw this on NetGalley I was very excited. I love claustrophobic survival set-ups and the addition of an unreliable narrator is always a plus. This was incredibly fast paced, taking place over the span of eight hours, and with the threat of one character dying looming over you, it's a very fun time. I read this over the span of one morning lol.

As always, thank you to Random House Children's/Delacorte Press and NetGalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review!

Holly Jackson does it again! After a very high bar with AGGGTM I am happy to report that Jackson’s newest thriller is a fun book that will keep you on your toes.⁠
The tenseness of the book as the night wears on sets a great stage, and while I did guess some of what was going to happen, there were multiple twists at the end that surprised me.⁠
Each character brought their own unique personality and secrets to the story that kept me engaged and flying through the pages. If you are AGGGTM fan I think you'll be happy with this one!

⚠️Light Spoilers⚠️

4.5/5⭐️ (rounded to 5)

I want to preface this by saying I don’t read thrillers/mysteries often. And while Holly Black’s other books have been on my TBR for awhile, I have not read them yet. With that being said, I very much so enjoyed reading this.

This book definitely took a few chapters to really pull me in and to get me to understand the way Red’s (the main character whose perspective we see through a third person limited view) brain and thoughts worked. But once I got into it, I couldn’t stop. I stayed up all night reading this and it definitely had some twists and turns that were unexpected!

This book follows six characters (Red, Maddy, Arthur, Oliver, Simon, and Reyna) as they start a road trip to get to their spring break location. But when they get lost and the RV they are traveling in gets a flat tire- that’s when everything starts to go wrong.

This book is pretty much entirely in the RV. I thought it was a very bold choice because that’s a very limited space to house an entire story in. But, it worked very well for the story. It also gave you a bit of a feeling of claustrophobia because that’s kind of what the characters were feeling.

I’m not going to lie, the characters actions were pretty predictable. I predicted nearly everything about them. (There was one twist I did not predict but it was something involving a character we did not see or interact with in most of the story.) The twists with the main six characters were not all that twisty because they kind of followed the tropes that are used in these kinds of books. But, that didn’t make me love the characters or the story any less.

I know that thriller/mystery readers will be able to know the twist from the very beginning, but as a non thriller/mystery reader, I quite enjoyed not knowing the main twist at the end and the mystery of who was gonna live and who was gonna die. I do think it could be a very enjoyable read for those thriller/mystery readers. I definitely recommend this book for those who want a quick and easy thriller/mystery!

this book was SO well-crafted. it had exactly the right amount of mystery and suspense, which had me guessing to the very end. whenever i thought i had figured something out i was thrown for a loop, which kept me on my toes throughout the entire thing.
holly jackson really does a wonderful job of writing multi-dimensional characters with each their own unique personalities, backstories, and strengths. she also perfectly illustrates how stress, and a high tense situation can cause personality changes and even strip some of their basic humanity.

the publisher kindly provided this arc through netgalley in exchange for an honest review

Thanks to NetGalley and Holly Jackson for this ARC! I was eager to start this Holly Jackson novel fresh off the heels of the Good Girl's Guide to Murder series. This YA selection was slow to start but rapidly picked up to a frenetic pace... and kept me reading til the end.

Red and her friends are driving in an RV on the way to Spring Break... but when they blow a tire, it becomes apparent that they are in a much more dangerous situation than they first thought. Is Red an unreliable narrator, or does she have what it takes to get them out of the life or death situation they now face?

Fast paced YA mystery/suspense. 6 friends on a road trip end up on the wrong road, no cell signal and an active shooter who shoots out their tires, all the shooter wants is to know the answer behind a big secret from one of the 6. Who’s secret is it? Who is lying among them? Told from perspective of Red Kenny and I didn’t guess who was the secret keeper, you learn some other secrets along the way too! Enjoyed this quick read, did skim some of the extra informative parts more towards the beginning. Oh my gosh on the letter at the end!!! Loved it!!!

Thanks to Netgalley and Random house my advanced electronic reader copy in exchange for my honest review!

Wow. All I can say is wow.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟/5

Did I say up way to late reading this book? Yes I did.

Was I super scared at first while reading? Yes I was.

Did I see the ending coming? No I did not.

Thank you, @netgalley and @randomhousechildrens @delacortepress for the e-arc of Five Survive!

Brava, Holly Jackson, this book was everything I wanted it to be. I really enjoyed A Good Girls Guide to Murder, but Five Survive was VERY good.

✨Six friends go on a road trip for spring break. When they take a wrong turn and get lost on a rural road in South Carolina, they become trapped by an active shooter looking for a secret. All six friends are pushed to the brink as they try to escape and figure out which secret is deadly.✨

I was captivated by this story! Red, the main character, has great (sometimes repetitive) internal dialogue and kept me guessing the whole time. Oliver, the annoying older brother of her best friend did exactly what I wanted as a reader. He drove me crazy while reading, but with purpose.

Overall, this book had a fast pace, lots of action, suspense, and a who dun it quality that I loved.

Highly recommended!

This book is thrilling chaos incarnate. While the Good Girl's Guide to Murder series felt intricately plotted, Five Survive feels like a good kind of messy. It's real and raw, as we watch 6 teens locked in an RV devolve Lord of the Flies style. While I predicted the main twist, there were so many others that I didn't see coming. And the suspense that Holly Jackson builds is next-level. As the hours tick down, the situation becomes more dire (and deadly) and you won't be able to put it down. Everyone has a secret and they're all coming out by the end of the night. (Though I'm still wondering why Red is so fixated on the curtains!?)

*Thank you to TBR and Beyond Tours, Delacorte Press, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review*

After some wrong turns in the dead of night, Red and her five friends find themselves in a broken down RV with a sniper holding them hostage. One of them has a secret and must divulge it if they want the others to live...

Five survivors is a brilliantly tense thriller which kept me guessing at every point. Big twists and dramatic reveals, its everything you could possibly want from mastermind Holly Jackson

After absolutely loving the AGGGTM series, I had really high expectations for this one. This book is an adventure. The beginning felt a little slow, but once it picked up I was hooked. There were even a few places where I wondered how Jackson would move the story forward, which is a great feeling with a thriller. Red was an unreliable narrator but that really fueled the story in a cool way. I will absolutely pick up this author's next book!
Thank you to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I enjoyed this fast paced thriller by Holly Jackson! It was exciting and full of plot twists. Red was a very interesting character and I am glad she was featured so strongly in the story. I thought a few of the other characters were a bit over the top but it didn't detract too much from enjoyment of the story, Thanks to NetGalley for the read!

Wow, what a WILD ride this one was! This was very reminiscent of No Exit by Taylor Adams. It reads like a movie, and kept me on the edge of my seat! Perfect for spooky season :)

So at the point in the book when I realize, 6 teenagers were on this road trip and the title is Five Survive I knew exactly who I hoped would be the one to die. I won't reveal who that was, but I think you'll feel the same way when you read this. They were entirely unlikeable and I was hoping one of the other people would be the ones to bump him off. Red especially deserved to have that honor.
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Six teenagers are on their way to spring break, they are traveling via RV and at the moment looking for their campsite before continuing on in the morning to their destination. When the service starts to disappear no one is suspicious (not surprising since they seem to be traveling deep in a wooded country). However, a wrong turn leaves them with a flat tire and miles away from a phone. When all the other tires end up blown out by rifle fire the group goes into panic mode. The person who shall not be named began showing even more of who they really are than the initial drive was revealed. Then contact with the mystery person is made, they are looking for a secret, and won't let them go until it'd revealed. Plans are made... and they fail epically. Over and over.
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As the group is trying to figure out if their secrets are the ones the shooters are looking for they are becoming more unhinged. They have 31 feet of dead RV filled with 6 people and the tension along with the heat and claustrophobic feeling just keeps rising.
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This book which I absolutely flew through kept me on the edge of my seat, and I did not expect at all what was going on until it was revealed... and I absolutely loved that ending! I can't wait to see what Holly Jackson will come out with next!

Thank you NetGalley for the copy of this book.


I absolutely loved this book. Holly Jackson hit another one outside of the park. This book is labeled as YA and it makes me super happy they are. As a HS librarian, I read a lot of YA and so I love it when I love the books just as much as my students.



This story is about friendship, loss, betrayal, survival, and love. Six friends rent an RV for a trip and they get lost. Upon trying to turn around and backtrack, their tires get shot out and someone is trying to kill them.



Who is trying to kill them and why? Someone has a secret.

Thank you netgalley for this arc! I really wasn't too sure about this book. I was very excited to read it, but it was a struggle at times. The first half fell a bit flat for me and it took me a long time to get through. Now the second half was exciting and thrilling. Filled with plot twist after plot twist and I enjoyed it. This is my first book from this author and I'm interested in more.

WOW. Holly Jackson has done it again!! I loved the AGGGTM series, and she definitely did not disappoint with “Five Survive”. This is was a pulse pounding book that I just could not put down!

Summary: 6 friends are on a spring break road trip in an RV when they get a flat tire. Things quickly progress when there is a sniper trying to kill them unless one of them exposes who they are and their secret. What a tangled, twisted web of secrets these 6 have! The whole time I was reading this, my heart was pounding as I tried to figure out who had the worst secret and what was going to happen to the group! I loved everything about it. Brava, Holly Jackson!

Thank you to NetGalley & Random House for this ARC!

Wow! This book was a slow burn from intense friend drama to nail-biting action and suspense. The plot twists did surprise me and kept me guess until the end. Holly Jackson’s follow up to her “Good Girl’s Guide to Murder” trilogy was an incredibly fun afternoon’s read.

I wasn’t sure what to expect with Jackson’s first book outside her Good Girl’s Guide to Murder trilogy. I was so excited to get this review copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book is an adventure. The beginning felt a little slow, but once it picked up I was hooked. There were even a few places where I wondered how Jackson would move the story forward, which is a great feeling with a thriller. Red was an unreliable narrator but that really fueled the story in a cool way.

I will absolutely pick up Jackson’s next book!

I have enjoyed Holly Jackson’s books in the past so I wanted to check this one out. I was hooked from the beginning because right off the bat this one jumps into action. Six friends are taking a road trip for spring break in an RV they borrowed from a family member. When they get lost on their way to a campsite, all hell breaks loose when they realize they are being targeted when their tires are all shot out. Who is harassing them? Could it be a local that isn’t happy they’re on his property or is there someone out there who wants to harm them for a completely different reason? As the friends work to survive the night and figure out who is out to get them, secrets are spilled and lives are lost.

I found this to be an entertaining read, a little far fetched but it kept my attention from the get-go. I look forward to whatever Holly comes out with next. Thank you Netgalley for this ARC.