Five Survive

I was really torn on how to rate this. Not as good as A Good Girl's Guide to Murder but still a really solid YA mystery!

Pros:
Red, Simon and Maddy were cool characters. Simon was my favourite, he was funny, I liked his characterisation as an Asian American theatre kid who goes against his dad who frowns upon his career choice, also Simon's film geekiness and being a party boy. Maddy was super sweet optimist girly who took her less fortunate best friend under her wing. And I did like Red, I've seen many people write that they found her annoying, but I did like her trope of broken/weird girl with a tragic past and trippy mind and felt for her.

The plot twists. The author just knows how to write them and they were so good.

When the sniper shot Joyce and Don. It was so well written, emphasising that they have a grandchild, and then when the sniper showed he wasn't fucking around and meant his threats, it was just such a tragic and tense moment.

The ending. Endings can make or break a story and Jackson just delivers big time in each of her books on the ending. This ending had me tearing up, she just knows how to get me.

Cons:
Generally, I felt the pacing was a bit worse than in Jackson's other stories. The first half really dragged. But halfway through, when they try to escape and the sniper says there's two of themthat's when it picked up the pace I like Jackson's books for.

Oliver. I understand having a harsh, unlikeable character, but I feel he got too much space, it got really fucking annoying how he was bossing everyone around and put himself in charge for far too big portion of the book. After he threw Red out out of the RV and then told Reyna what happened is all her fault, I really just wanted him to fricking die. And well, he did at the end and it was satisfying. I know it's cruel to say that, but he was just such a dick I felt good when he got shot.

I was hesitating between 3 and 4 stars, but the pros outweighed the cons, so I give this 4 stars and still would recommend it to fans of Holly Jackson's work and other mystery enthusiasts.

tropes: weird girl (light)
literary references: Lord of the Flies