Reviews with content warning for Gore - Five Survive

I tried the Five Survive challenge and read this within 8 hours. What a ride?

The writing is fantastic in a really modest way. Descriptions never drew attention to themselves but I always knew exactly what was going on with the perfect amount of metaphor.

The pacing was incredible, though I think I was expecting a bit more slasher thriller vibe than strictly secrets and psychological thriller vibe which is maybe one of the only major negative critiques.

It was a fantastic read and a great way to spend a Saturday!

Also, Oliver got what he damn well deserved.

Content Warnings

carrielensing584's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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measlibrary's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Another incredible novel by Holly Jackson! She is one of my favorite authors of all time and I love anything that she writes. This novel did not disappoint, and it had me eagerly reading late into the night to find out all of the reveals and twists!

Jackson does such an incredible job at creating a tense atmosphere within her pages that makes it impossible to stop reading. The writing in this book was so captivating and made me never want to put it down. Although the first 1/3 of the novel is a little bit slow, the rest of the novel has you gripping the edges, eagerly turning the pages to find out just what the heck is going on inside of this RV.

Red was such an interesting protagonist, and I honestly did not know how to feel about her until the story went on. As the reader learns more about her past, everything she does and the way she thinks makes perfect sense. I was truly sympathetic towards her once I found out everything that she went through with her Mom.

There is one character in this book that I absolutely LOATHED. Like I do not think that I have hated a character as much as I hate

Oliver. HE IS THE WORST. LITERAL WORST. SELFISH, UNDESERVING, AND SELF-MOTIVATED.

Just read the book and you will agree with me, trust.

I loved the way that all of the twists were revealed in this book. I did not see most of them coming, and they were revealed in a very skillful and engaging manner. By the time I reached the climax of the plot, I was reading until 1am to get all of the answers I needed.

I will say that I do wish we had a little bit more information for the conclusion of the novel. I wanted to know what happened to all of the characters and what all of these events did to them. I genuinely would love to read a short novela of the aftermath of the novel.

Overall, I really had such a fun time reading this novel and would definitely recommend it for any Holly Jackson fans out there. It is 100% worth the read and will not disappoint in terms of suspense, twists, and phenomenal writing. I rate this book 4/5 stars! 🌟

Content Warnings

jaimeeleigh_'s review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

the only thing I didn’t like actually was the narrator. I was still guessing who the five to survive would be right until the end. another fantastic book by Holly Jackson

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vivianstory's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This was one of the best reads of this year! A very tense and thrilling story! The characters where all very interesting and at some point you are rooting for at least one of them and are against someone else! I really enjoyed how discriptive and intense the sense where and I am looking forward to read more of Holly Jacksons books!

(Spoiler about one character down below)

Oliver was really the most unlikeable character even though he was written extremely well. Every time he opened his mouth I just wanted him to shut up. He just made things so much more complicated and only cared about himself. In the end he was really scary. But he also made the threat that much more real!

Content Warnings

thatsssorachael's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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ella7211's review against another edition

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dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

anjh's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

oh my god. wow. how do i put all my thoughts about this book into one review. the amount of times i was holding my breath or about to beat up oliver (fuck oliver) through the page or getting literal shivers down my spine. this thriller was THRILLING let me tell you, holly jackson has some way of keeping you guessing and keeping you on the edge of your seat wondering “then who is it?? what?? how??” and suddenly a few pages down the track everything makes sense and slots into place and you beat yourself up for not realising sooner how holly tricked you and played with your mind through her writing, to make you believe and empathise with characters that were actually plotting violence and silently hating characters that were completely innocent. there were a few points in this book - particularly towards the start - where i almost felt like the writing style was similar to that of a poorly written wattpad fanfiction just because of the way holly has chosen to repeat seemingly useless details over and over and over again and i was thinking “why on earth is this relevant??” but thinking about it in more detail and reading online analyses of this book it makes sense that red is so detail focused and obsessive likely as a result of trauma.

i love red so much and can relate to her a lot and i hate oliver. i really hate oliver. fuck oliver. oliver sucks. the light blue tabs are “fuck oliver” tabs. oh and the letter at the end oh my god holly jackson will be paying for my therapy after this. ***PLS CHECK THE CONTENT WARNINGS IF UR THINKING OF READING!!***

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