Prakhar Alok

Six friends on their way to their spring break vacation, getting stuck in an RV in an active shooter situation, in the middle of nowhere, and the only way to get out alive is by sharing their deepest, darkest secrets, this forms the basic premise of this closed-room thriller – Five Survive by Holly Jackson.

The story is told from a third person pov with Red being the main character, one of the underdogs in the group of six, but not at all the one lacking courage or brains. The main plot actually starts after half the book is over. These six friends try to come up with different schemes, plans with some positive, some negative outcomes to get out of the deadly sniper situation. But eventually they realize its the secrets they do not want to share are the ones that will help them get out alive.

The motive of not all characters are explored in lot of details with their history, except a couple. I think this confined the story to only those main characters with others supporting, which did not go well for me because the situation is equally life and death for all the six. Without spoiling the story for anyone, I think Simon’s character was the weakest having only one job of cracking lame “The Office” jokes. I was expecting more of a culmination of each of the six friends secrets revealing an outcome that noone was fully aware of. 

Five Survive is a fun read, not much of a book which will keep you glued, rather a book where you have to let the story come to you. At last you may feel – “Okay”, and then move on to the next one.