This isn’t a completely new plot, but I enjoyed the tension and the ending was clever. Solid 3.5 stars.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

As expected, I absolutely loved this book! Alexa Donne is an auto-buy author for me and this one did not disappoint! At every turn I was so intrigued and I couldn’t put the book down. I don’t always love multi-POV or dual timeline because often I’ll find myself bored with one and wishing I was back in the other—that didn’t happen with this one. Alexa did a great job with each POV and I was fully invested. I did guess the killer very early on, but that didn’t hamper my reading experience. After reading all of her thrillers, it seems we just think about the plot in similar ways, so despite figuring it out, I still had a blast reading. Loved this book! And will continue to read whatever Alexa writes next!

Eight teenagers find themselves stranded in the mountains as one by one they begin to die in mysterious circumstances...

This was such a good thriller! I was totally gripped and changed my mind about who the killer was quite a few times. This is a quick but really engaging read!

Thank you to the publisher for providing a copy to review

Love love love Alexa Donne!!
I'm not a big fan of thrillers, I actually never read thrillers unless Alexa Donne writes them.
Alexa did a wonderful job on this book, and I thoroughly enjoyed The Bitter End!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for accepting my request for an ACR of this book!
No, I think this trip will be burned into our memories forever.
1.75/5
I need to say, this has been one of the most disappointing ARC I’ve had. I just didn’t end up liking the characters which made me less interested in the story. I know they were all bad but I was never really rooting for anyone. The characters then just ended up seeming really similar to each other. The good thing about this book was that the pacing was really fast! I loved how I was able to glide through the book and the suspense was done well.

I love a good “closed room” troupe. This is a closed mountain with a group of mostly privileged teens. There are lots of red herrings and an ending that still got me.

A teenage, modern 'And Then There Was None' by Agatha Christie x Clue

'The Bitter End' is a fun thriller, full of twists and turns. 8 wealthy, internet-addicted teens begrudgingly go on their school-mandated Senior Excursion, which includes a total digital detox. Instead of partying while their chaperone sleeps, they stumble upon the bodies of their classmates one-by-one, and have to figure out how to survive the weekend and incoming blizzard.

8 teens, 8 POVs, 2 different timelines - author Alexa Donne put a lot into this book, and it's well worth it. Most of the narration is split amongst only 3 of the characters, so it doesn't get confusing. The second timeline is of a party they all attended 3 years prior, so that's also easy to follow. I particularly love the representation, there's a character with OCD, another with anxiety, another with a little-known connective tissue disorder called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS).

The stakes are high in Alexa Donne's newest thriller, with a handful of teenagers trapped on a mountain together . . . and then the bodies start dropping. Told in present tense, with a series of flashbacks revealing one fateful night years before, THE BITTER END will keep readers on their toes. Everyone is a suspect.

I truly enjoyed this one.


[NOTE: Unless otherwise stated, my NetGalley feedback is not a blurb or endorsement. If a publisher wishes to use any part of my comments for promotional purposes, please contact me or my agent via email. I would prefer not to include star ratings but NetGalley won't let me post without one, so all will be 5 stars.]

This book would be a great selection for high school students who enjoy thrillers and murder mysteries. The intensity of the story was built through following a group of high schooler trapped on a mountain in a blizzard while on their class trip. The overall plot was exciting, interesting, and I loved the twists that left me questioning who might find their untimely demise next. It took me a bit to become interested in the characters as they felt un-relatable to most high school students, mostly due to their elite, upper-class status, and I wish there was a better story arc for several of the characters. It was a bit hard to care about them when most of the characters were only focused on vanity and competing with each other for the first half of the novel, but I was happy to get more of their backstories later on. There are mature themes throughout the book, so this might be better suited for an older YA audience.

You get five stars you get five stars yoou get five stars. round of a freaking applause. so so good. Alexa donne does it like no body else.

This was so much fun! A locked-room mystery where gossip-girl-level rich kids get stranded in a cabin in the mountains in a snowstorm and then begin dying one by one.

Told through multiple POVs and with flashbacks between a party at the beginning of High School and the present, The Bitter End is a YA thriller with plenty of twists and turns. This would be an excellent late fall/early winter mystery read! I enjoyed this a lot and might check out some of Donne's other works.

✅ YA Thriller
✅ Multiple POVs
✅ Timeline jumps
✅ Locked-room mystery
✅ Wintery setting ❄️❄️❄️

⭐⭐⭐⭐ - I really liked it!

📅 Out October 15th, 2024 and available for preorder now. (Currently on sale on Amazon!)

🙏 Thanks so much to Alexa Donne and Random House Children's for this ARC through NetGalley! This was the most fun I've had reading YA in a while :) It finally broke me out of a several week long reading slump!!

I enjoy a closed circle mystery, and wanted to give this one a try. The premise of teens trapped in a snow storm always has merit. This book is based on Agatha Christies And Then There Were None, which was interesting and overall it does keep you guessing on who is responsible. It is told in dual time lines and multiple POV’s which can get a bit tricky to understand but still works. And ultimately is very necessary to the plot. You can definitely tell though that this is an adult writing what they think teens talk and act like. I didn’t find it to be very realistic, based on my experiences. I do think Donne is getting stronger with her writing, but to me she’s just not quite there yet. If you can look past that though it is a decent thriller. There is casual alcohol and drug use throughout, in case you need to be aware of that. Ultimately it’s a quick thriller that I can see some YA readers get into if they enjoy a murder/survival story.

What happens when entitled teenagers with history end up trapped in a remote winter cabin? Told from multiple points of view, this thriller had me guessing all the way through. While I haven't read anything else from Alex Donne, this one won't be my first. Great plot, interesting characters, "chilling" setting--Recommended.

𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: ★★★★☆
𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐠: Master of None by Beach House
𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: mystery • thriller • ya

🕯️❄️🧣🏚️👀❓🔪

I would describe this book as a modern, teen retelling of And Then There Was None by Agatha Christie. The book takes place in a secluded cabin on top of a snowy mountain, which I really liked. I think the setting and the general plot was super good, but there were points where the execution was lacking. For example, some of the flashbacks were weirdly structured and didn't make much sense. I also felt like the ending was rushed, and a little predictable. The writing was ok, but confusing at points. However, I did enjoy reading this book. I wouldn't say I was on the edge of my seat, but I was interested. There was just a lot happening at once. I gave the book 4 stars because the plot and setting was really good, and I was intrigued during the first 3/4 of the book. The ending just doesn't settle well with me. I don't feel like there was much closure, but maybe that was the author's intention.

One thing I wasn't expecting was for this book to be written from 3 different perspectives. Each chapter was a different girl's perspective, Willa, Delany, or Piper. The characters all kind of annoyed me at the start but Piper grew on me because of her love of true crime. Delany was really annoying. Willa was fine, minus some questioning actions. The other side characters were ok, but no one really stood out.

8 teens are trapped on a school retreat from hell. Without their phones and no way to get off the mountain, the group will be forced to wait out the storm in an old cabin. And as the weather gets worse, so do the tensions in the cabin. Everyone has secrets, and this group isn't exempt. But a death in the cabin will cause the group to question everything they believe to be true. Including whether or not the death was an accident. And when a 2nd death occurs, they will be forced to consider the possibility of murder. However, as the bodies start to rack up murder is no longer a possibility, in fact it might be the only truth. To figure out who in the group is a murder, they will be forced to dig through lies and loyalties, all while on borrowed time.

Thank you to Random House Children's and Net Galley for the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review!

ells.library💋

I thought this was really well written and I look forward to reading more from this author in the future. I think it will find readers at our library, so we will definitely be purchasing for the collection.

One of Us is Lying meets Yellowjackets in Alexa Donne's THE BITTER END, a ferocious, twisty murder mystery that keeps you guessing.

First of all, thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy of The Bitter End. I really enjoyed The Ivies and Pretty Dead Queens, so I was excited to see The Bitter End! The premise was great -- I love a And Then There Were None retelling. Overall, the story was interesting, but the multiple perspectives ended up becoming a real issue for me. I found myself flipping back to the beginning of chapters to see whose perspective I was in; there just wasn't enough difference in each character's voice for me to notice without a cue like a reference to a sling, the character's weight, or clinging to Liam's arm. I'm not a reader who typically struggles with multiple perspectives, but in this case my inability to distinguish between characters pulled me out of the story and slowed down the momentum that's necessary for this type of tale. Unfortunately, The Bitter End just wasn't a hit for me.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me an Advanced Reading Copy of this book!

Where do I begin? I loved loved loved every moment in this book. Alexa Donne’s storytelling is AMAZING, the characters are all relatable and I can’t wait for it to come out so I can recommend it to my teens at work. The teens in the story are the types of characters who even if they aren’t a 1:1 copy of the teen reading, there are elements of each that make them real. Sometimes when reading YA books the teens seem very fake, and almost like the author doesn’t know what teens are like. But that was NOT the case here. I can’t say enough good things about it!

This book was fabulous! I really loved how everything fit together in the end, and how there were so many little clues to help you figure out what had happened. I love how the author tries to mislead you and make you think the story will end differently. Altogether, it was a great book with a really cool twist ending.

I am a sucker for locked room mysteries. This is a great locked room mystery suitable for teen readers where teenagers at an elite high school are on what is basically a field trip on a mountain -- but it's not the trip they signed up for. Bad things start happening and secrets are revealed! There weren't any perfectly good people but I liked some of them and the story was interesting. I would definitely recommend this to people who enjoy thrillers.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this