This was way better than I had expected. The whole premise was rather interesting; eight kids who have previously survived traumatic events put in a reality survival show together with a huge cash prize but is that it? It is a thriller that keeps you on your toes and you have to finish it in a single sitting. I was invested in every single character
Mercy's character is heroic and really well written, all of them are. As we do not know everything about their lives and they are defined by that single traumatic event they went through, which could have made them lack depth but the author makes the reader care about every one of them. And the whole story has a great pace and the ending is solid as well as twisty.

🔥 A fast-paced, high-stakes twist on the dystopian survival genre! 🔥

When Mercy Gray arrives at the remote site for a new survivalist reality show, she’s hoping to leave her past behind. Hailed as a hero after a mall shooting, she can’t shake the weight of those she didn’t save—or the chilling truth about the shooter. The trauma still lingers, both mentally and physically, as she recovers from her own gunshot wounds.

But something is very wrong.

The filming site is abandoned. There are no cameras, no crew—just Mercy and a handful of other contestants, all expecting a game, but instead thrown into a real fight for survival. Cut off from the outside world, without food, water, or any way out, Mercy must uncover the truth behind their nightmarish predicament—and rally a group of strangers before it’s too late.

Tense, relentless, and impossible to put down, We Won’t All Survive is Kate Alice Marshall at her absolute best—a psychological thriller-meets-reality-style survival story that keeps you guessing until the final page.

#PenguinYA #Viking #WeWontAllSurvive #KateAliceMarshall

If *Man vs. Wild* were a reality survival show, it would look a lot like *We Won't All Survive* by Kate Alice Marshall.

The story follows Mercy Gray, once hailed as a town hero for saving lives during a mall shooting. Now, desperate for money, she joins a reality show called *Who Survives*, where she and seven others must endure six weeks in the abandoned city of Landry’s Gap to win a grand prize of $100,000. But something is off—there’s no host, no cameramen, no visible crew. Just the contestants… or so they think.

Follow Mercy’s gripping journey as she fights to survive in an eerily desolate city. Will she make it out alive?

This was my first novel by Kate Alice Marshall, and I highly recommend it to fans of thrillers, suspense, or anyone who loves *Squid Game* and survival shows like *Man vs. Wild*.
Thank you penguinteen and kmarshallarts for providing this book for review consideration via Netgallery

I would join a club just to read Kate Alice Marshall’s grocery lists! I especially love her page-turning adult mysteries and supernatural YA thrillers, which I devour in a single sitting. So when I got the chance to read an ARC of her latest book, I didn’t even check the plot—I just jumped right in, eager to see what she had in store.

This book feels a bit different from her recent works and leans more toward the style of Holly Jackson’s standalones. The premise? A reality survival show with a massive cash prize, created by tech billionaire and TV host Damien Dare (gotta love that name). The show recruits eight contestants, each a survivor of a real-life disaster—lost in the mountains, trapped in a train wreck, stranded after a boat crash, and so on.

Mercedes Gray is one of them. She survived a mall shooting where a man obsessed with her sister, Jamie, killed innocent people. Thinking fast, Mercedes saved Jamie and many others by closing the gate, but she was shot in the process, leaving her with chronic pain and medical bills that wiped out her sister’s college savings. Desperate to help Jamie, she reluctantly applies to the show, hoping to win the prize money.

But from the moment she arrives, things feel off. Alongside Harrison—a crime podcast producer with an encyclopedic mind—and Milo from Canada, who seems a little too friendly, she meets the other contestants. Yet something is wrong. They’re stuck in an isolated location, with only cryptic video instructions and high-tech surveillance monitoring them. No welcoming crew, no clear rules. Then, after their first failed challenge, they realize the stakes are even higher—one of them is already dead. And the killer could be anyone.

As the clock ticks, Mercedes must navigate deadly challenges, uncover the truth behind the show, and figure out who she can trust. Some contestants are hiding secrets about their pasts, and one of them is far more dangerous than they seem. She’ll need to find the killer—and a way out—before it’s too late.

My Thoughts:
I didn’t love this one as much as Marshall’s previous books, but I still enjoyed some of the twists! While I guessed the killer’s identity early on and the execution felt a bit formulaic, what sets this book apart is its well-developed characters and their compelling backstories. Too often, survival thrillers feature shallow, disposable characters, making it hard to care who lives or dies. Thankfully, this book gives us likable, well-rounded protagonists with real emotional depth.

Overall, I’m rounding up my 3.5-star rating to 4 stars. It’s a fast-paced, gripping read with a solid conclusion that keeps you on your toes. Perfect for fans of the author who love survival thrillers with a psychological twist!

Many thanks to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group | Viking Books for Young Readers for the digital review copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.

At first I almost didn't read this book because it wasn't available to send to Kindle. I am so glad I tried the Netgalley Reader for the first time! I loved this book and read it in two days. The premise drew me in and the characters made me want to continue. My opinion on who was good or bad changed so many times and still the ending surprised me. I will definitely recommend this book to everyone I know who loves a good thriller or mystery. It was believable and it is actually a story that I could believe would actually happen. I have not read the author's first book but will definitely hunt it down now. Terrific read! I'd give it 10 stars if I could.

Great read! The selection of people to play the game was perfect. Never trust anyone at face value, everyone had a secret. Trying to figure out which secret was the deadliest kept me hooked.

I really enjoyed it. This authors been doing adult thrillers lately, but her YA horror will forever be where my heart remains. The story was solid and mysterious, and I think the characters were great. There was good pacing and quite a bit of surprise twists. I highly recommend it.

Thanks to NetGalley for the copy of this ARC. This will be out in July of 2025!

Thank you to Kate Alice Marshall, Penguin young readers group, & Netgalley for the e-arc of We Won’t All Survive! Twisty, fast-paced thriller with interesting characters and friendships built! TV competition gone wrong! Who will survive & who is behind the madness?! I requested this book because one of my favorite books a read last year was What Lies In The Woods! I also really like A Killing Cold & No One Can Know by the same other! This book publishes on 7/29/25! Add it to your TBR and in the meantime read some of her other books!!

A reality show with a $100K prize turns deadly when a killer begins eliminating the contestants. This YA survival thriller blends suspense with emotional depth, particularly through Mercy's character and her complex past. The tension builds as the characters' individual mysteries unravel, creating a razor-sharp narrative. The killer's reveal was unexpected, though I still felt there were unanswered questions/plot holes. Definitely a fun read that'll resonate well with fans of YA and new adult thrillers!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this digital ARC. All opinions expressed are my own.

Really good overall! I love this sort of "locked room murder mystery" sort of thing. Definitely 5 stars!!

A group of teenagers who have survived harrowing traumas in their lives, get invited to compete on a survival game show hosted by a famous billionaire known for extreme views on survivalism. What could go wrong?

Well apparently, everything. Mercy Grey our FMC enters the site with two other contestants she's met on the way; Harrison and Milo. There they are joined by Piper, Eli, Alethea, Colby, and Spencer. As soon as they explore the abandoned mining town that has been skillfully set up for the game show, it is evident that there is no crew, and no host.

But the games have begun.

As the eight of them struggle to figure out how much of this is real or staged, things take a serious turn when they start getting injured or turn up dead. Time and resources are running out quickly as Mercy tries to figure out the mystery, before there are none of them left standing.

This was a decently paced story with well thought-out characters who come with their own trauma and backstories. As a survivor of a shooting, Mercy is constantly haunted by the ghost of her antagonist - a seemingly nice guy who turned out to be a shooter; which makes her constantly question who to trust in this town they are locked in.

A few twists here and there kept the story exciting, though I worried about becoming attached to the characters as they started to form relationships - despite not knowing if they would survive

It was pretty obvious figuring out who the culprit was, but understanding the how and why of what they did was something that I couldn't figure out. It was just a gnawing feeling at the back of my head and only clicked for me the moment Mercy realised it herself.

I thoroughly enjoyed this twisty, dark-without-being-over-the-top thriller! Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin Young Readers Group and Viking Books for Young Readers for providing this book, with my honest review below.

We Won’t All Survive is a spin on a survival thriller that I can see young and new adults gobbling up. A group of young adults who have survived traumatic events are to appear on a reality show organized by a survivalist billionaire in a ghost town he purchased for a prize of $100K each. But right from the jump things aren’t right, the ghost town never sees anyone from production and the group starts to see their numbers dwindle at the hands of a killer amongst them.

The main mysteries in the book are who the murderer is and what’s going on with the show. But the more compelling ones focus on our main characters, Mercy, and the details behind a shooting she played a role as a hero in which brought her to the show. In addition, all Mercy’s other peers experienced notable events with some mysteries involving them that slowly unfold. A tale of survival and what it takes - individually and together - the story is always razor sharp and both emotional and tense. I was definitely taken aback at the grand finale and unveiling of the killer, though I wish we could have understood some of the backstory around this a bit better. The epilogue was perfect, however, and I want to get to see these characters later in life! Recommended for late teens upwards, this will glue readers to the page.

A note on the NetGalley ARC that I will not include in other reviews - I generally use my kindle as my reader except for with Children’s books and I wish the option was available here. It speaks to the compelling story that I stuck with the reader/app but it was not pleasant. I hope other reviewers don’t let this influence their rating but I have seen that the book isn’t being read in full due to it, so I hope it’s remedied soon (I’m sure my eye doctor will tell me the damage I caused for reading it as I did soon enough).

I loved this book! The plot twist had my jaw to the floor, it gave me hunger games vibes and kept my attention the entire time.

Thank you Netgalley & PENGUIN for this ARC in exchange for an honest review

We Won't All Survive is part survival story, part escape room thriller about a group of young adults invited to compete on a new survivalist reality show. Only, once they arrive, it's clear something is wrong - no one is there to greet them, and the gate locks behind them. And then the first body turns up.

Another great story by Kate Alice Marshall. Admittedly I love her adult work, but in true KAM fashion, this one is fresh and exciting and keeps you guessing the entire time. I did guess part of a major plot line but still had a great time, and was still a little surprised by the end!

I will continue to read and love all Kate Alice Marshall books, and I definitely recommend this one.

This looks promising but unfortunatelly, I did not catch on that it was a PDF that we cannot send to any ereader. I cannot read off anything else for ebooks. I'll try finding this when its published and give a review to this. Unfortunately, NG has been problematic with books that don't show PDF only. I clicked too fast as well because the book sounds interesting.

Will return.

R E V I E W

Mercy is a hero, or so people tell her. making it out of a mall shooting, and saving people (including her sister) from a jilted man who can’t take no for an answer, have left her with debts that need to be repaid, and questioning what being a hero really is.

enter WHO SURVIVES, a tv show created by the eccentric billionaire Damien Dare. Mercy knows that winning the one hundred thousand dollar prize would be just what she needs to get life back on track.

from the jump, something is off. Mercy can feel it in her gut, but can she trust her intuition? slowly each of the eight contestants is revealed to have survived a traumatic experience… just like Mercy. and now they’re all alone in an abandoned mining ghost town.

what follows is a story of murder, intrigue, suspicion, and unbelievably found family. there are plot twists and plenty of interesting and likable characters.

this book was a really quick read for me. honestly would’ve loved it to be longer. i really enjoyed the character development of our narrator as well as the supporting cast.

cw: gun violence, trauma, death, murder
rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75
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I’m definitely interested in reading this book! Unfortunately, I am unable to read it in PDF form. If there’s a way to read it as an epub or audiobook definitely let ‘me know! I look forward to reading and leaving a review.

This gripping, page-turning thriller centers around a high-stakes survival-based reality TV show, told through the eyes of Mercy, a survivor of a mall shooting two years prior. The story follows eight contestants, each vying for the grand prize of $100K by enduring a series of intense challenges, with only those who survive until the end walking away with the cash. From the very first page, this book will have you on the edge of your seat as the contestants battle not only the physical and mental hurdles of the competition but also the dark, haunting secrets of their pasts.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group for providing the advanced reader's copy of this thrilling novel!

Thanks you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for this book.

It was so, so good. There were so many scary moments. The sad events were so heartbreaking. Wow, the twists and turns were amazing. I think I suspected everyone and one point or another. The ending was shocking.

I give it five stars

Highly recommend.