YA THRILLER : We Won't All Survive by Kate Alice Marshall
ABOUT THE BOOK
Two years ago Mercy Gray was hailed as a hero for saving lives during a mall shooting. She still carries souvenirs from that incident: the fragment of a bullet lodged in her back, a mountain of medical debt, and guilt for ignoring her sister’s warnings that the sweet boy next door was anything but.
When billionaire-turned-TV-host Damien Dare recruits Mercy to compete on his new survivalist reality show, she can’t turn down a chance at the whopping cash prize that could send her sister to college—but when she and the other contestants arrive at the off-grid location, something isn’t right. The set is empty. The gates close without warning, trapping them inside. Then one of them turns up dead. What appeared at first to be a tragic accident quickly transforms as more contestants start dying. With time and resources running low, surviving this show takes on a new meaning.
REVIEW
For a thriller to really be thrilling it needs to keep the reader on their toes and be full of interesting twists and turns. This book fits that description very well. Mercy makes an intriguing narrator considering her backstory that very much comes into the forefront in interesting ways. That's probably why her backstory isn't all told at once but gradually filled in as the story goes along. It's clear from almost the first chapter that all isn't right as Mercy joins the other contestants on the survival show only to discover no one else around. Despite having misgivings they all choose to stay and see where things go. The first couple of challenges prove to be difficult, even haunting. But things really take a turn when one of them dies and it proves to be a deliberate act. Can Mercy figure out who can be trusted before it's too late? The story has plenty of interesting twists and turns, some I saw coming and some that surprised me. The book combines the challenge of physical survival in an isolated location with the tension of emotional survival as the characters face past traumas as well as the uncertainty of not knowing who to trust. The billionaire's ideas for creating the so-called show in the first place add some ethical considerations to the story as well as some existential questions.
CONTENT: plentiful swearing & profanity, violence (murder, assault, self defense). I'd give it a PG-13 rating.
Comments
Post a Comment