Megan Miranda is a skilled suspense author and I love this slow burn thriller. "The Only Survivor" will be a great addition to her works!

“Who do you save in the moment, when you have the chance?” Is the question that plagues the main narrator of this book, Cassidy. Years before Cassidy and her friends had been involved in a tragic accident but now the past is very much the present. As they try to figure out their relationships as survivors, too each other and the world, they also have to deal with the memories and the truth about that fateful night! Another great read from Megan Miranda!

okay yes yes yes!!! I’m so happy that this one was a win! 🤩🤩🤩

this was such an atmospheric read with a fantastic cast of characters!! I loved every minute of this one - it kept me guessing until the very last page and kept my mind spinning the entire time!

ten years ago, nine teenagers survived a terrible accident, leaving thirteen of their classmates dead. now completely off the rails, the remaining seven of them gather during the anniversary and of course, paranoia ensues 🙃

told from alternating POVs from past to present, I loved how you didn’t know exactly what happened during the big accident until the very last page. it kept leading and leading and leading the reader on until it all clicked at the end and had me screaming HOLY SH- at 2am 😳

while I did guess the secret antagonist from the beginning, I didn’t mind because I loved figuring out the little easter eggs scattered throughout the novel and squealing when it was finally revealed 🤭 (aka my favorite type of thrillers ever)

the ending plot twist still had me reeling though. megan miranda really got me this time 🫡

a huge thank you to netgalley and simon and schuster for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!!

rating: 4.5 stars
wine pairing: argentina chardonnay

I always enjoy this auther Megan Miranda and this book is no different. It slowly and carefully tells the story of a tragedy years ago that many friends are protecting the truth about. It flashes back and forth in time and the true story is not revealed until close to the end. It was a good page turner and had a great ending.

This book kept me on my toes! Every time I thought I knew what was going to happen it would change! There were a lot of names in this book, so at some parts I had to go back and remind myself who was who.

Had no idea where this one was going. It's a similar premise to some other books out there - shared trauma, secrets, survivors - but this took a swerve I didn't expect and ended with a reveal that I normally expect from Lisa Jewell books. Its paced well, tons of red herrings, good use of dual timelines and ultimately just tragic all around. There's no happy endings.

3.5 stars

A thrilling, suspense novel where a group of nine high school classmates bond as survivors of a school van crash that had sent them hurling into a raging river in the Tennessee mountains. Now in their twenties, the group continues to meet for a week every year at an isolated house, strengthening their bonds and their pledge to each other to keep the secrets of that horrific van crash that had killed 12 of their other classmates.

After two of the nine survivors die, the rest are uneasy and don't know if they can still trust each other, suspecting that one of them could be a murderer.

I like that the story of the crash is told in bits and pieces throughout the book and we get the full and complete story of what happened only at the end, This way of telling the story added to the suspense and kept me guessing. The ending was not a total surprise to me, but still a good one.

This was a slow burn thriller. It took me a while to get into the story but I did end up enjoying it. Megan Miranda will always be one of my favorite authors.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I started this book and had to stay up late to finish because it was so good!! I think I’ve loved every book Megan Miranda has written, but this might be my favorite. It’s about a group of teens that survive a horrible incident and come back together once a year. 10 years on, weird things happen. Loved it!

I'm up writing this review at 3am because I could not put this down! I've been slightly disappointed by Miranda's last couple of books but this one was great. Dark and twisty, kept me guessing the whole time.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Megan Miranda, and Scribner for this ARC!

I love Megan Miranda and this book did not disappoint. "The eight" survivors re banded together by a traumatic event in their early teens, and they get together at a beach house on the anniversary every year to check in on each other. This year it becomes apparent that someone is orchestrating their arrival to the beach house, they begin to question why they are there and are they being watched? Who can they trust? As the survivors come together things increasingly don't add up and the truth begins to spill out on what happened that fateful night long ago.
I highly recommend this fast paced thriller that kept me guessing until the surprising end!

Another unputdownable thriller from the queen of brilliant settings and slow burning mysteries!

This slow burn, claustrophobic mystery made me assumptions till I reached the last chapter. Tension slowly builds and when things finally escalated you feel the exact goosebumps, sitting at the edge of your seat, increasing your reading speed to find out the big revelation. The author successfully didn’t give much away and the final twists make you scream WTH! I didn’t see them coming!

This is story of nine survivors! They were innocent high school kids on the school trip, surviving from van accident, living with guilt, harboring secrets, celebrating their lives by meeting at the cabin called the Shallows: as the townies also call “ The Ghost House”.

They made a pact to let the bygones be bygones, not talking about the tragic event which changed their lives forever!

They were nine! But a decade later they are only seven! One of them committed suicide as the other overdosed!

They keep coming to the Shallow at each year: because it’s a place of safety, and retreat, isolated from the rest of the world, and surrounded on all sides by the endless deep.

Cassidy, Josh, Brody, Hollis, Amaya, Oliver, Grace were the last ones standing! But will they stay alive longer? Somebody is watching the Shallow, playing mind games with them.

Cassidy finds a cell phone at the sea, the same phone she has gotten message about the obituary of Ian who was one of them. The message convinced her to come back to the Shallow! But now she realizes Ian’s death might not be accident. He tried to reach her before he died. He messaged her that she was the only one he could trust. Could one of them mess with the others and decide to talk with the authorities about what really happened at that tragic night? But most importantly could one of them be killer targeting the rest of the group?

I loved the smart twists and how things were wrapped up adroitly! I was planning to give four stars but smart ending made me give extra half star and round up 4.5 to 5 slow burn mystery, cabin in the woods stars!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Scribner/ S&s / Marysue Rucci Books for sharing this amazing digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.

This is the tenth anniversary of the week long gathering at The Shallows beach house. For 10 years, this group of relative strangers come together to not be alone to wonder why them. Why did they survive? What really happened all those years ago. Cass has tried her best to distance herself from the others who’ll be there, until she is mysteriously notified one of them committed suicide. She leaves her comfortable life with her wonderful new boyfriend to head down for the week. While there, suspicions and tensions among those remaining lead to explosive accusations and revelations. The reader is kept on their toes with flashbacks to that fateful night and ulterior motives each of them have to keep the ten year long secret.

This was a fun read. I liked this survivor thriller. It was a twist on tropes and I liked the friend group vibe. I didn’t love the ending, it felt a little cluttered to me.

This was a good thriller, but with most Miranda titles I have a hard time with characters. They all feel pretty much cut and paste from the other novels she puts out.

Thank you Scribner and NetGalley for the Advanced Digital Copy of this thriller. One of my favorite books this year. It was a quick read, taking less than two days from start to finish. The author’s creative use of multiple POVs, mainly one POV with others used on a limited basis where it benefited the telling of the story really added to my experience as a reader and was different from other multiple POV use I have read before. The twists and turns were executed very effectively; I was definitely surprised. I thought the dual timelines made the story more interesting and helped increase the suspense. I am looking forward to reading more of her books.

I am a huge fan of Megan Miranda. So when I saw her name I knew I had to request to read her new novel. Her writing is just so captivating. She does such an amazing good of luring you in and making you send the entire day head first in the book. Her writing style is one of my all time favorites!

Mystery and intrigue written by a talented and gifted author. This book was sent to me by Netgalley electronically for review. Thanks to the publisher and author. This book is captivating. It is a page turner, a cannot out down. The characters come alive on the pages of this novel. What will happen next? Who is guilty? A group of friends who have come together year after year…why? Enjoy…

Heart pounding thriller that left me on the edge of my seat. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one. Definitely one of the best books this year.

Megan Miranda brings another thrilling story with many twists and turns. There is no one you can trust among this group of seven friends, which started out as ten.
Thank you Scribner and NetGalley for the advanced review copy of The Only Survivors.