Welcome back everyone! Today we’re doing another blog tour with a book review attached, this time for Holly Jackson’s new novel, Five Survive. I love Holly Jackson’s books – A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is still one of my favorites. Read on to find out what I thought of Five Survive.
I received this book for free from NetGalley to facilitate my review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Five Survive by Holly Jackson Also by this author: A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, Kill Joy
Published by Random House Children's Books on 11/29/2022
Genres: Young Adult Fiction / Thriller
Pages: 400
Format: ARC, eBook
Source: NetGalley
Amazon // Barnes & Noble // IndieBound
Goodreads
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.
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. . . .
Content Warning: guns, death threats, mob violence, death, injury
When I had the chance to join the blog tour for Holly Jackson’s newest novel, Five Survive, I knew I had to take it. I own A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder and loved it – I also own the second and third books in the trilogy, although I haven’t read them yet1I need to get on that LOL. You’ve already seen my star-rating for this book, so let’s get into why I gave it 5 stars.
Characters
There are six main characters we’re going to focus on here – Red, Maddy, Oliver, Simon, Arthur, and Reyna.
Red
Red is the main focus as far as main characters go – at least in my opinion. She is the first character we meet in the book. She is an interesting character, although a very sad one in my opinion. I like her a lot – even if she might be hiding something.
Maddy
Red’s best friend in the entire world. She tries her best to keep people from upsetting Red and helps her out money-wise whenever she can. I like her as well, although not as much as Red. There is something about Maddy that always makes me wonder if she’s still friends with Red out of pity.
Oliver
Maddy’s older brother. He’s not a favorite of mine. He’s kind of a jerk. No, not kind of, he is a jerk. I get the distinct feeling that we aren’t supposed to like him – I know I certainly didn’t care much for him.
Reyna
Oliver’s girlfriend. You’ll find that Red isn’t the only person in the RV who is hiding something. But I’ll admit, regardless, I really liked Reyna. She has guts, I’ll give her that. You’ll have to read the book to see what I mean.
Simon
Simon is one of those characters that is there, but not there, if you know what I mean. He’s generally just obnoxious or in the way. He’s pretty much only there to be irritating and because he’s the one who provided the RV. At least that’s my point of view on him.
Arthur
Arthur is an interesting character. Another person who might be hiding something, although it is difficult to say. But he likes Red, which I think is pretty awesome. You’ll see what I mean when you read the book. I liked him.
Atmosphere
For a thriller, you can’t get much better of an atmosphere than a broken-down RV in the middle of nowhere. I mean, it’s the middle of the night, your vehicle is broken-down, you’re in the middle of absolutely nowhere, and even better – there is zero cell service. What more could you ask for? If this wasn’t a thriller, I’d say it’d make the perfect atmosphere for a horror novel.
Writing
Ok, since I’ve already mentioned that I love Holly Jackson, let me tell you why. Her writing style is easy to read and she knows how to make a book move. Sure, you’re going to get slow parts. That’s a given with any book – I’ve never read one without at least one. But even the slow parts are paced well and are easily blown through. Holly writes books that you don’t want to put down – that you can’t put down. You’ve got to know what’s going to happen next because the book is so well written, you can’t stop thinking about it.
Plot
I love the plot for this book. It’s amazing. Stranding a bunch of high school and college students in an RV in the middle of nowhere without cell service with a killer? And having one of those students be the reason they’re stuck out there? Even better! The best part is that none of them realize why they’re there and when they finally get told – none of them believe it could be them. It’s brilliant.
Intrigue
The intrigue for this book is seriously high. Besides wondering how six people are going to survive in a 31-foot RV2This number comes up a lot in the book and it’s funny to me. without killing each other, you’ll be wondering how they’re going to get out of the fact that there’s a killer on the outside of the RV. You’ll wonder whether they’ll all survive or if only five – or less – of them will survive. It’s a pretty intense book for intrigue.
Logic
I have to say, with Red, logic isn’t her strong suit. But that’s because she’s designed that way. Everyone else makes up for what she lacks in logic. You’ll see some pretty ingenious ways to handle things. You’ll also see some pretty stupid ways to handle things. There’s a great mix of logical and illogical things going on in this book.
Ending
The ending was satisfying, but yet not… it seems to end in a way that could point to a second book if Holly Jackson wanted to add another book, but yet is also closed enough that if a second book isn’t in the plans, it wouldn’t really matter. I do wonder what the answer to the question was though…
This book was amazing and I highly recommend it to thriller fans. If you aren’t a fan of YA, you should still pick this one up because it’s absolutely incredible. I don’t think you’ll even notice you’re reading a YA novel. Trust me.
About Holly Jackson
Holly Jackson was born in 1992. She grew up in Buckinghamshire and started writing stories from a young age, completing her first (poor) attempt at a book aged fifteen.
‘A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder’ is a YA Mystery Thriller and her debut novel. She lives in London and aside from reading and writing, she enjoys binge-playing video games and pointing out grammatical errors in street signs.
