A review by morgannbookk
Five Survive by Holly Jackson

4.0

WHAT IS THAT ENDING?! I WANT MORE. I NEED MORE.

Before I say anything else it must be said that the main character, Red, is nothing like Pip (In AGGGTM), so don't go into the book thinking it!!!

Five survive follows 6 friends headed to the beach for spring break. Suddenly, their RV breaks down, the tires get shot out and they have no cell reception. There is a sniper in the woods who is watching their every move. One of the 6 friends has a secret that the sniper is willing to kill for. They are in the middle of nowhere, they can't escape without being shot and they can't call for help.

Now, I'm not one for mystery novels, but I'll make an exception for Holly Jackson after I absolutely loved A Good Girls Guide to Murder. The beginning of this book was pretty bland despite the fast-paced plot. The whole novel takes place over the course of 8 hours so you can expect a very fast storyline. The first half of the book was slow and I was just yearning for something big to happen. I found myself finally intrigued with the story at about 60%. The then last 20% had me on the edge of my seat - I was so invested. So even though the beginning was slow, the end made up for it.

The characters were pretty bland in my opinion. We had mentions of their pasts and how each friend was connected, but I felt like we didn't get much out of them in the present. There was all this talk of Maddie and Red being the best of friends and Maddie always protecting Red, but this didn't seem to be the case during the book. Either my memory is failing me, or Red and Maddie barely spoke just the two of them. I hated Oliver with every ounce of my being. Rayna was okay and became slightly more interesting at the end. I cannot recall a single thing about Simon. Loved Arther haha *but that is gonna be an unpopular opinion*. Red was nothing special and definitely no Pip (from AGGGTM). My heart aches for what she's been through, but her character was still very boring.

5/5 for this book to be unpredictable. I had several theories in the beginning and they all turned out to be wrong. This book had me guessing the whole time which I guess is a sign of a good mystery novel. Once everything started opening up at the end I was able to piece some things together but was still grasping at straws. I also liked how there was so much more to the story than I originally thought.

Okay and the ending... I WANTED MORE. I still think it was a great end, but I would not complain of we got another chapter from Red's POV!!!

Spoiler ARTHURS LETTER <3 OMGGGG. Listen... I know we aren't supposed to like him, but I kind of love him. I can't really forgive how he set everything up and led them into that trap, but THE LETTER. Ugh. I wish we got to see if Red showed up... In my head, I think she might've because even after everything she was still gravitating toward him at the end when Oliver was going batshit crazy.