So, Five Survive was definitely one of my most anticipated reads of the year. I loved Holly Jackson’s series for A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder (except the last book… I despised it [see As Good as Dead]). The writing was phenomenal for the whole series, which is why I knew I had to read Five Survive the moment it came out. While I enjoyed the novel, though, it didn’t have the same flare as Holly Jackson’s A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, but I can’t imagine that any novel will be that good ever again. 

To preface this, I did like the novel. Solid four stars for me. I just didn’t like it as much as I was hoping I would. Five Survive started out a little slow and could’ve been condensed much more than it actually was. Once you got about halfway through, though, it was smooth sailing. There were characters I absolutely despised. Characters I rooted for. Characters I just didn’t care about enough. The writing, as Holly Jackson has already proven numerous times, was amazing in its style, the flow of the story, and the development of the characters. I never thought this would be an issue. My main issue with the book was what I mentioned above: it just started out way too slow and was dragged out for a hundred pages too long. 

To get to the good stuff, though, I think Jackson did an amazing job at building tension between the characters. Man were there times I just wanted to punch someone specific in the face over and over again (if you’ve read the book, you know exactly who I’m talking about). 

With the ending, too, there were some things that were predictable while others were not. I still felt very thoroughly surprised with the resolution at the end, which was a welcomed surprise.

Spoilers ahead. 

Okay, now for the fun part. I just seriously want to rant for hours here about how much I was hoping the sniper would just shoot Oliver so he’d just shut up. Dear Lord was he annoying. I usually don’t like unnecessary killings in novels, but I just wanted Oliver gone and didn’t care how it happened. I mean, come on, that dude was psycho. 

The other thing that I wanted to talk about in the spoilers is what I predicted and what I didn’t. So obviously I knew the Gottis had to be involved. The high profile case wouldn’t have been mentioned at the beginning otherwise. What I didn’t expect was Arthur being the main mafia dude’s son, Catherine Lavoy being the inside man for the Gottis, or the fact that Catherine executed her best friend (aka, Red’s mom). While not completely mind-blowing, I definitely didn’t expect these things to happen and I felt shocked for the most part when I found out. 

Last thing, I swear. I also really hated the fact that Arthur killed Catherine. Yes, Catherine was obviously a terrible person, but dying was such an easy way out for her and it made me super disappointed. 

Overall, while not as thrilling as A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, Five Survive is still a solid thriller/mystery novel and will definitely satiate fans in that genre. I finished it in about a day and a half and felt satisfied (at least for a little while) in the mystery department. Holly Jackson definitely knows how to write a good thriller/mystery novel. 

Source: Personal Copy