Review: Five Survive by Holly Jackson

Author: Holly Jackson
Publisher: Delcourte Press
Publication Date:  November 2022

Eight hours.
Six friends.
One sniper . . .

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. There’s no mobile phone reception and nobody around to help. And as the wheels are shot out, one by one, the friends realise that this is no accident. There’s a sniper out there in the dark watching them and he knows exactly who they are. One of the group has a secret that the sniper is willing to kill for.

A game of cat-and-mouse plays out as the group desperately tries to get help and to work out which member of the group is the target. Buried secrets are forced to light in the cramped, claustrophobic setting of the RV, and tensions within the group will reach deadly levels. Not everyone will survive the night.

Five Survive follows six friends who are on an RV trip for spring break.  After getting lost, they break down with a flat tire.  After fixing that, all four tires become flat.  They quickly realize that someone has followed them and has shot out their tires.  It seems someone in the RV has a secret that the sniper wants revealed.  It's a race against time to see who will be brave enough to tell.

I really enjoyed this one.  The first 15% was a slow burn but once they break down, the tension is at an all time high and never lets up.  The story is told through one person's perspective.  I think it worked better that way because having to follow all six people would have been too much.  I liked the twists although I did call one of them.  I also liked the ending.  The one person I was hoping not to survive, didn't so that made the ending worth it.   It is a bit violently graphic, so I would probably keep this to the upper YA crowd.  I do recommend this one.