Five Survive by Holly Jackson

e-Audio, 10 hours 33 minutes
Narrated by: Emma Galvin
Release Date: November 29, 2022
Published by: Delacorte Press
Read from: November 17-22, 2022
Stand-alone
Source: PRH Audio (I received the audio copy of this book from PRH Audio in exchange for a just and honest review. This did nothing to influence my review.)
TW: Death, Violence, Gun Violence, Abuse, Mention of past cheating 
For Readers Interested In: Thriller, Mystery, Stand-alone, Auto-buy Authors, Realistic Fiction, YA, Sparkly Covers

    Red Kenny is on a road trip for spring break with five friends: Her best friend – the older brother – his perfect girlfriend – a secret crush – a classmate – and a killer.
     When their RV breaks down in the middle of nowhere with no cell service, they soon realize this is no accident. They have been trapped by someone out there in the dark, someone who clearly wants one of them dead.
     With eight hours until dawn, the six friends must escape, or figure out which of them is the target. But is there a liar among them? Buried secrets will be forced to light and tensions inside the RV will reach deadly levels. Not all of them will survive the night…
     Eight hours. Six friends. Five survive. A road trip turns deadly in this addictive YA thriller from the bestselling author of the worldwide phenomenon A GOOD GIRL’S GUIDE TO MURDER.

*MY THOUGHTS*

There is so much to unpack about this book. So much happened and I had no idea where it was going to go from the beginning. If you look at my place holder review on Goodreads, I’m basically asking if Holly Jackson is ok because man, this was dark. (I really need to learn to read the synopsis of books whether they’re auto-buy authors or not.)

The number one best thing about this book was the plot. It was so fast paced and I couldn’t put it down! I found myself listening to it no matter where I was and I was trying to read it everywhere. I was obsessed. Now it is told over a number of hours where they’re in a really tense situation so it has to be. But man, this was crazy. I had my shoulders near my ears the whole time. I can only imagine how I would have looked if I was reading a physical book. I would have looked maniacal turning the pages as fast as I was listening lol

And of course Holly Jackson’s writing style was amazing. Like I said I couldn’t put it down. I do wish some of the clues and final info came a lot faster than it was given tho. Or at least spread it out some. It was kind of like an info-dump. This book could have used some more red herrings or something throughout it. And the very end was jaw dropping. I was not expecting that. But I wanted something more to happen to that one person because….. They definitely deserved it.

The characters in this tho were terrible. I wanted to do nothing more than strangle all of them. From the main character to the character who had the smallest part. None of them were good enough. I did have some love for Red, but she really should have started speaking as soon as she knew something. It just seemed a little selfish when she didn’t. I know there is a lot more to it, but man, this was crazy.

The ending was cray cray tho. Although I wish some of the signs were spread out, it didn’t stop the details from being crazy. Because I was not expecting any of them. I was really in shock. Like how did Jackson come up with this? I really was nervous, like what happened to her? Because this was dark. Like last book in the A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder dark. If you’ve read that series, than you know. But even still, I loved it.

The audio was crazy good too! The way the narrator was able to sound scared, hurt, confused, and crazy like one of the characters was, was amazing. And it wasn’t a full cast audio like Jackson’s other books, so that means all those changes and very different voices for each character was done by one person. And that just seems hella hard. I can’t imagine it being easy or keeping track of what you made everyone feel like, so that was just cool to me. I looked into her name and she has a long back list. I immediately added some of them to my TBR. (Yes sometimes I add books to my TBR because of the fact that the narrator was good. Today was one of those times lol

This book did nothing but confirm my reasoning for making Holly Jackson an auto buy author. It was actually thrilling and so, so good. If you’re a fan of thrillers, give this one a chance. I assure you, you will not be disappointed.

Overall, I give this

What about you? Have you read her other series? Will you read this one? Let me know in the comments!

Take Me Away

Diverse Book Blogger. Diverse YA Librarian. Wonder Woman enthusiast. Bookish Blerd. "GryffinClaw" Geek extraordinaire. Pitbull mom. She/her linktr.ee/take_me_awayyy