Member Reviews

Ok I very much enjoyed this book just like I have Holly Jackson's other books. I find when I pick up one of this authors books I don't want to put it down until I'm done!

Some of things in this story were rather predictable however the writing keeps you entertained and guessing the entire time. Oh, and the ending I didn't really expect and who was involved, though it was clear to see there was a mole. The character Red was so relatable to me and I thought she was a great MC and well written. Oliver's character was very realistic in a scary but believable way that someone in that situation might respond when they are under too much pressure. All and all I really enjoyed this book and read it in 2 days. I'd recommend to people who enjoy real life suspense and mystery books.

Was this review helpful?

Holly Jackson's new thriller is her first book I have read outside of her first series of highly entertaining teenage sleuth books that began with A Good Girl's Guide to Murder.

Five Survive is a fast paced thrilling book about eight hours on a road trip with six characters. As the title suggests; there will be murder, there will be twists, and there will be action. I thoroughly enjoyed this read. It is one of those books to read quickly in one sitting if you have a few hours to devote, you will not be disappointed!

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing a review copy of this book.

Was this review helpful?

I totally loved this one! It was my first thriller of the spooky season and it did not disappoint. I honestly did not see some of the twists coming and it made me love it all the more! It was the perfect balance of suspense and terror and so fast passed you just devour it!

In short: you need to read this one!!

Pretty sure this one is gonna have to be a physical book on my shelf when it comes out 😍

Was this review helpful?

Officially 4.5!

No one does thrill and suspense like Holly Jackson. I went into it like "oh the plot is gonna be predictable, I know the twist " but I was SO wrong.

Props her for keeping it interesting and keeping me on the edge of my seat, despite it being set in an RV for 100% of the time.

It was gripping, it made me think and even doubt myself, and made me anxious... everything a thriller should be!

Was this review helpful?

I am such a Holly Jackson fangirl so I just HAD to get my hands on her latest thriller. It did not disappoint!!! Five Survive was fast-paced, full of betrayals and secrets, and off the walls crazy. 90% of my predictions were dead wrong, and every time I thought I had the ending figured out, something crazy was revealed, leaving me grasping for straws.

This story begins when 18 year old Red and her friends leave in an RV for spring break. Eventually they get lost in the middle of nowhere, with no cell service, in the middle of the night; the ultimate trifecta. However, things really take a turn for the worse when an unknown sniper shoots out the wheels one by one. A deadly game of cat-and-mouse plays out as the group desperately tries to get help and to work out which of them is the sniper’s real target. Buried secrets are forced out, and tensions within the group quickly rise.

I devoured this book, reading it completely in one evening. This novel takes place over a grand total of 8 hours, and in one very cramped RV (31 ft long, apparently). However, even though it takes place in a short time, with one setting, Jackson fleshed out all six of our characters so well that they were easy to picture and understand. Some of the characters were so easy to love (like our MC, Red) whereas others I wanted to shake. Watching them all slowly unravel and descend into madness seemed so realistic and like we were a fly on the wall.

Last but not least - THE ENDING!! I could not have tied it up better and given it a more fitting ending if I tried! As with all of Jackson’s other novels, I loved the use of other forms of media to really tie the whole story together.

Five Survive is the perfect thriller - fast paced, high stakes, and full of complicated, realistic characters with their own motivations. If you enjoyed the GGGTM series, or YA Thrillers in general, then this one is for you!

Was this review helpful?

When I saw that Holly Jackson had another book coming out I knew I HAD to get my hands on it. I LOVED “A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder” and let me tell you this book did not disappoint!!!

Holly Jackson managed to make the book face paced (but not too fast), give you characters to love (and hate), and give you a crazy ending with so many twists and turns! Just when I thought I knew what was going to happen next, there was another twist.

This YA thriller is a MUST READ this fall! And I must say, I think it would make an excellent movie!! If you love a crazy thriller with a shocking ending, you have to read this book!

Was this review helpful?

Great read! This is more like a locked room thriller that takes please in an RV. Fast-paced and gripping. Highly recommended for lovers of Y/A and/or suspense! Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Was this review helpful?

You know that feeling when you're watching a good horror movie and your stomach is turning with anxiety and your heart is beating smile a minute because some stuff just got real? That is exactly how I felt reading this book.

A thriller/horror set in an RV spanning the course of eight hours? How could I not say no? When their spring break abruptly comes to a screeching halt in the middle of nowhere, six friends quickly fix their seemingly flat tire and turn back around to find their way out. But all thoughts of having a relaxing break suddenly come to a close when all four of their tires are shot out by someone lurking in the woods around them. The sniper in the woods wants something from the-a secret only they know-and the clock is ticking.

Holy moly, the tension in this book is off the rails. I have this thing about horror movies where anything involving real-life monsters (especially guns) truly gets to me. But I am a glutton for punishment and watch them anyway. This book scared the poop out of me. The red dot of the sniper rifle, not knowing who could be shot next had me gasping for breath. Not only that but the six protagonists slowly begin to turn on each other. With every reveal, the tension grew thicker and thicker.

I'm amazed at how Holly Jackson managed to put all my horror fears into one book and execute it with such finesse. I'm constantly on the lookout for books that scare me (those are few and far between), but I think I found the one in FIVE SURVIVE.

Edit (possible spoiler): I may have missed it (and need to reread) but did Red ever find out the characters on the curtains? HOLLY PM ME PLEASE.

Was this review helpful?

3.5
Here's the thing. This was a super quick, enjoyable read. I definitely wanted to know what happened. However, I don't think it'll really stick with me. We follow a lot of different characters, and although we spend 400 pages with them, I never felt particularly attached. You definitely had to suspend your disbelief at times, and the dark tone paired with the young writing style often had me wondering who, exactly, this book's ideal reader would be.
If you fell in love with Holly Jackson for her GGGTM bubbly, humorous writing style, this is not a return to that. This felt very reminiscent of As Good As Dead, which was a bit of a let down for me (and many other people, I believe). We have a traumatized main character who has repetitive thoughts about a secret that we don't find out about for farrr too long.
I didn't guess the ending, but you also can't really guess the ending because we're left mainly in the dark.
I'm curious if this is going to be a series.
Thanks to the publishing and Netgalley for providing an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Was this review helpful?

Holy plot twist! I did not expect anything that happened and the ending was insane, yet satisfying . I loved AGGGTM but I LOVED this one. A locked room (or better yet RV) mystery, high stakes, fast paced, YA thriller. I don't think I could ask for any more. I couldn't put this down and finished it in a day. It definitely did not feel YA besides the fact the main characters were all teenagers, this was a top tier thriller for me. I fully believe you should go in this one blind, it makes it so much more suspenseful.

Thanks to NetGalley and Delacorte Press/Random House for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Was this review helpful?

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for giving me a copy of this book to read and review. All of these thoughts are my own.

This is by far my favorite Holly Jackson book. I couldn’t put it down. I read it in one sitting and it kept me on my toes all the way until the end. I’m still trying to recover. All of the twist, like my lord. Just when I thought I had it figured out; Holly was like sike false alarm. This will seriously keep you guessing until the end.

I wish it was longer too because that ending left me unsatisfied. I have got to know what happens next between Red and Arthur.

Easiest 5 stars I’ve given in a while.

Was this review helpful?

I ended up really liking this one! I couldn't help but compare it to AGGGTM in my mind and I feel like it held up but in a really different way. Five Survive struck me more as a traditional thriller and more of a departure from the YA vibe of AGGGTM, while I would still consider this YA. I think Red took me a while to get used to as a main character but as the book goes on I found her very endearing. This book honestly gripped me and was so fast paced I didn't want to put it down. Definitely recommend!

Was this review helpful?

Eight hours. Six travelers. 1 red dot from a sniper rifle.
🔴
Red, her best friend, her best friend’s brother and his girlfriend, and two other friends are on their way to Gulf Shores for Senior Spring Break. They’re driving an RV, but reach a dead zone and struggle to get service for directions. When one of their tires blows out they pull over to change it when all four end up blowing out too. In the confusion they realize they’re being shot at by a sniper. Static from a walkie-talkie has their capture asking one question: what’s your secret? As night bleeds to dawn each person must tell the truth in hopes of figuring out what the killer wants and the ending will leave you speechless.
🚐
What a whirlwind this trip was! I read this YA thriller in one sitting—I was that invested. I love books that happen with a small cast in one time frame like No Exit. It read like a play, which I absolutely loved and could definitely see this one being made into a movie. Fans of HoJay’s A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder series will love her newest thriller book out Dec. 8!

CW: murder, blood, death of a parent, death, hospitalization, gun, alcohol use, physical assault, violence

4.5 ⭐️

Was this review helpful?

This was absolutely incredible!! I struggle a lot with reading books on my phone because I just don’t comprehend it as well for whatever reason, but this one was so so good I could not put it down!

It was overall a super easy read but so suspenseful and exciting and amazingly well-written. I love Holly Jackson’s writing so so much. Some mysteries tend to get convoluted (like A Study in Charlotte) but none of Holly Jackson’s ever are. Clear writing and thrilling and terrifying with satisfying resolutions are her mysteries and I love them!! So much fun and so quick to read, I absolutely loved this book and I can’t wait for it to come out to get a physical copy!!

Was this review helpful?

So I grabbed this just on instinct because I liked the first two books of Holly Jackson's Good Girl's Guide to Murder series so much (we do not speak of the third book). I didn't even read the description before requesting it, but once I did I was a little nervous about the premise - a group of six people in their teens and early twenties are taking an RV from Philly down south for Spring Break, when they get lost and then become the targets of a sniper who shoots out their tires and threatens them if they don't share the secret that one of them is carrying. The main character, Red, is the one you get to know best, and you see the entire terrifying night stuck in the RV through her eyes. Things unfold kind of how you would expect when people are stuck in close quarters being hunted by someone whose motives aren't actually all the clear. This was compelling enough that I read it all in one sitting, and the resolution was interesting if not completely believable, but it was so claustrophobic that I don't think I'd want to revisit it. Definitely more of a thriller than a mystery, and a really different tone and mood than the previous trilogy.

Was this review helpful?

This one was mainly lows for me; it just didn’t deliver.

Red’s constant PTSD issues were so all-encompassing that it hindered the progression of the plot. Then, mixed with what I’d guess with ADD, it was almost painful to try to follow her throughout the story. Oliver and Maddy were incredibly unlikeable, beyond just providing obstacles to add drama. The naivety of 6 people failing to recognize the immediate implications of 4 simultaneously blown tires was also laughable.

Reyna’s intelligence and Simon’s humor were the strongest points. And, eventually, the story did pick up. It was nice to see some ingenuity as the crew worked to try to piece together how to survive.

Then the ending hit. The “let me just lay out every detail” monologue was lazy. The letter to “wrap up” loose ends was also lazy. And it all made me feel silly for WANTING to like the story.

This is YA. And maybe I’m being harsh looking at it with adult eyes, but I don’t think I’ll have students fight their way through the book AND be satisfied with the ending.

I’ll tell my students about: language, death of a parent, murder/violence/gore, mental health issues, trauma

**Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children’s for the free ARC prior to publication. All opinions expressed are my own.**

Was this review helpful?

Wow! What an amazing thrill ride of a book! I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN! All the characters in this book are so different from one another and are so memorable in their own right. I usually have a tough time keeping track of who’s who when there is 4+ main characters but that wasn’t the case for FIVE SURVIVE. The whole premise of the book is terrifying, six friends are stranded in an RV while on a road-trip, but then it gets worse when they realize the RV didn’t break down on accident… I could go on and on about why this has become one of my top favorite books but first and foremost… THE ENDING! Now that’s how you end a book! Holly Jackson has truly done it again. She has brought readers another amazingly thrilling YA book!
Be sure to stop by your local bookstore on November 29th to pick up a copy of this future bestseller!

Thank you NetGalley for sending me a digital copy of this book.

Was this review helpful?

In exchange for an honest review, I received an ARC from Netgalley & Listening Library. I held my breath through most of my reading of this book even though I figured out the mole fairly early on in the intense standoff. The biggest question through out my reading was which of the group would survive? We know from the title of the book that 5 will but which five was constantly on my mind. I was not surprised at the end which of the five did survive. For some reason, that campfire story of boyfriend and girlfriend's car breaking down on a desolate back country road and he leaves her in the car to get help only for her to start to hear scratches throughout the night. I think we all remember how that ghost story ends up. I kept waiting for one of our group to end up outside the RV and we would start to hear scratches on the roof of the RV. I guess for this story to ring a bit more true for myself. I would like to have had more of flashback episodes of them in Philly. It would have helped the revelations made at the end more impactful than kinda coincidental. While I would probably rate this read as a B/B-, I will always read a Holly Jackson book when it comes out.

Was this review helpful?

I absolutely loved Holly Jackson’s A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder trilogy. I was so very excited to read this new book. It was a bit slow for me in the beginning, but once it picked up I was hooked. I did figure out what was going on early in the book, but I still enjoyed it. Holly Jackson is definitely becoming an automatic buy author for me!

Was this review helpful?

Six friends leave on an RV trip for Spring Break, but only 5 survive the night. Someone in the group is hiding a secret. All they have to do is admit it. But can they trust each other?

This book is fast-paced. It takes place over the period of less than one day. It’s a definite thriller.

Was this review helpful?