Book Review: Five Survive by Holly Jackson

‘Five Survive’ is a young adult thriller novel by Holly Jackson, author of the ‘A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder Trilogy’. This novel was released in 2022 and was her fifth release since her debut in 2019.

The release of this novel managed to spur on a TikTok trend where readers would congregate with friends, locking themselves in caravans to read the novel for extra immersion. Honestly, having finished the book, the idea of reading it in a caravan, sounds terrifying. Every sound would have me on edge, unsure if it was another car, or something more sinister. It was an incredibly tense read.

‘Five Survive’ follows the story of six friends on spring break, travelling from Pennsylvania to Gulf Shores, where many of their friends were going for the holiday, too. They would fly out, but due to our unreliable narrator, Redford Kenny’s financial troubles, the group make the journey in a caravan.

When the group take a wrong turn, and lose phone signal, they find themselves stranded and held hostage by a mysterious sniper, who wants them to reveal a secret that could set the others free.

I immediately likened this idea of forcing the characters to dredge up their secrets to be like ‘An Inspector Calls’, especially when the secret was revealed to have something to do with a death in Pennsylvania . But when two of the group are the children of Assistant District Attorney, Catherine Lavoy, and the other is the bereft daughter of the late police captain Grace Kenny, there are plenty of potential secrets to dig up. The victims of these various murders, accidents etc. were evidently the groups own Eva Browns. I really enjoyed seeing these ideas being played out, but I wished we could have had a closer look at the potential other secrets hiding amongst the group, especially due to the trope-y nature of the dynamics within the RV.

All of the characters fit comfortably into accessible archetypes: The Protagonist, The Best Friend, The Love Interest, The Golden Boy, The Perfect Girlfriend and The Comic Relief. What I liked, though was how natural and normal some of these characters have to their circumstances. Underage drinking? Why not, it’s Spring Break! If they’ve had their go at driving the RV, why not? Near-death-experience? Time to whip out the tequila! But at the same time, they’re young, innovative and make the most out of the situation. For example, the characters that innovate aren’t necessarily the ones you’d expect: Simon and Red, the supposed liabilities are the ones with the good ideas. All of which Oliver, the Golden Boy and Natural Leader, take as his own. It was one thing that made him unpleasant, and unlikeable.

An element of this book that I really liked was that the plot twists weren’t what I would have expected. I had no idea that these twists were coming, and yet, the breadcrumbs of foreshadowing were cleverly laid throughout the book! I’d like to say I’m good at predicting the plot twists and ways that books will play out, but I didn’t foresee either of the big twists, so kudos to Holly Jackson for keeping me guessing!

I also really liked seeing how Red’s grief keeps her in check throughout the book. Her mother, Grace was killed in the line of duty five years prior and it threw her whole world into chaos. Irreparable chaos. Which makes the concealed nature of The Plan such a clever device in Jackson’s arsenal. The more you learn about everyone, the more you question what Red’s secret and The Plan actually are.

I’d argue the the pacing pre-sniper is rather slow, but once the accusations start flying I was eager to find out what was so important that a sniper had to target them in the middle of nowhere to know.

Another element of this book that had me incredibly distressed was the idea of how the police are reactive; shooting in fear of confrontation. The fight or flight instinct and how, due to the gun culture, and active shooters being much more common in the USA than where I am in the UK, there was just so much horror in how the police were depicted. Especially considering how Red’s bias would be pro-police, after all, her mum was in the police.

I really enjoyed this book, once I was into it, I didn’t want to put it down, I just wanted answers. If Jackson’s other books are even remotely as entertaining as ‘Five Survive’, I know that I’ll read them with the same voracity that overtook me here.