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i received a copy of five survive from harper collins nz in exchange for an honest review.


star rating

five survive review

holly jackson has once again cemented herself as one of ya’s best thriller writers of this generation. she knows how to keep the reader on the edge of their seat, and how to keep that book in your hand. i didn’t put this book down from the moment i picked it up. being rather short, and extremely fast paced, i read this in one sitting.

so the first thing that really got me was how fast paced this book was. the entire book is set over the course of 8 hours. understandably, it can’t be slow paced with that sort of timeframe. there is non stop action – and something is always happening.

to my surprise, only one character died. (i mean, it’s literally in the title “five survive”. six were in the rv at the start). unfortunately, this made it soo predictable. there was only one character that i wanted to kill myself. they were annoying and arrogant. i’m sure most other readers would’ve guessed that they were going to die fairly early on. there were other parts that were predictable too, but in the end, it was still a very engaging story.

most of the characters were likeable. some of them turned irritable part way through. i imagine it’s the lack of sleep and high stress (life/death) environment to blame for some of their shitty decisions. but for the most part, i enjoyed getting to know everyone.

aside from the “totally unexpected death of a certain character”, my only issue with this book was the setting. i mean, how much can you really do inside a locked rv? i’m not a big fan of one room settings – i like some variety. (but it was so fast paced that i didn’t notice until the end, when i realised they only left at the end of the book.)

overall, i recon holly jackson is one of my favourite ya thriller writers. she hasn’t let me down so far. her a good girl’s guide to murder series is still top tier. she could write anything and i’d buy it!

buy your copy now!

the warehouse | whitcoulls | paper plus | the nile | mightyape

6 Comments

  1. avatar
    WendyW says:

    Wonderful review!! I’m glad you enjoyed this one!

  2. avatar

    I’m so excited for this book! I’m glad you enjoyed it, I should bump it up on my TBR.

    1. avatar

      it’s so good, i hope you enjoy it!

  3. avatar

    I have this book on my Libby holds! Whenever I get around to it, of course. It’ll be my first Holly Jackson book so hopefully I like it and then can go to her Good Girl’s series.

  4. avatar
    Lara says:

    I’m a little confused because in the book it says (spoilers) 3 deceased but we were only told about one character so I’m a bit confused on who’s dead and who’s not.

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