The brand new, explosive crime thriller from Holly Jackson, best-New for 2022, an explosive crime thriller from the best-selling, award-winning author of the Good Girl's Guide to Murder trilogy.
Eighteen year old Red and her friends are on a road trip in an RV, heading to the beach for Spring Break. It's a long drive but spirits are high. Until the RV breaks down in the middle of nowhere. And as the wheels are shot out, one by one, the friends realise that this is no accident.
There's a sniper out there. He's watching them and he knows exactly who they are. One of the group has a secret that the sniper is willing to kill for.
As a game of cat-and-mouse plays out, the group desperately tries to get help. Buried secrets are forced to light and tensions within the group reach deadly levels. Only one thing is for sure. Not everyone will survive the night . . .
Bookseller shame: I haven't read Holly's fantastically popular series, A Good Girl's Guide to Murder. There's no particular reason, I just haven't got to it - we know how many books are out there, don't we! So this is my first experience reading anything written by her.
I loved the concept. Six people trapped in a tiny space, trying to figure out what their captor wants and how to get out without being shot? Tense, exciting stuff. That part of the story was great - watching the plans and counter plans and trying to outthink each other was very interesting.
I didn't really like the choice of POV character, though. Red kept losing time and going on tangents and missing things, and it made for a very disorienting read. (If that was the aim, then Miss Jackson is brilliantly skilled!) I found I was putting the book down much more often than I normally would just to get my breath and my balance back for a while. Besides that, Oliver was a terrible character. He was so completely unaware of everyone around him, so arrognat and up himself. And even when everything he tried failed, people kept going along with him? Why? Because he shouted louder than everyone else?
Spoiler below:
The villian inside the RV was communicating with the outside consiprators by using a remote control to flash a light in code. When this was discovered, the remote was smashed up, and Villian then said they couldn't communicate anymore. Why not flash the headlights? We know they were working!
The tension is really good, though, and the way it ramps up as time goes on is brilliantly written. Definitely one of the high points of the book.
I can see why people like Holly, there are traces of something great here and I did enjoy it, but I think I could have enjoyed it more. It's a shame but I'm sure other readers will enjoy it far more than I did.
Five Survive publishes on the 29th of Novemeber, 2022 in the US (top image) and on the 8th of December, 2022 in the UK (lower image). I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.
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