**Disclaimer: Thank you to publishers and NetGalley for the free eARC of We Won’t All Survive by Kate Alice Marshall.
We Won’t All Survive by Kate Alice Marshall is a young adult mystery thriller book. It revolves around a girl named Mercy who survived a shooting at a mall. In order to try and make back the money spent on her hospital fees, she decides to enrol in a survival reality television show, but, unfortunately, things go horribly wrong. It is set to be published on July 29th, 2025. I rated it 5 stars on Goodreads.
Here’s the summary from Goodreads:
From the bestselling author of I Am Still Alive comes a new nail-biter that’s part survival story, part murder mystery, and all thriller—perfect for fans of Karen McManus and Holly Jackson!
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.
Kate Alice Marshall (KAM) is fully on my auto buy author’s list. I think I would read anything she writes in the YA and Adult genres, so when I saw this one on NetGalley, I knew I had to request it, and then I crossed my fingers and toes in hopes of the approval. So when I got it, I was so excited and new I needed to read it ASAP. I am so glad I did, because it genuinely was an excellent book.
A lot of KAM’s young adult novels seem to have an element of the supernatural to them, so I wondered if this one would be the same, but it turns out it is more in the vein of the first book I read by her: I Am Still Alive. I Am Still Alive is not my favourite by KAM, but I still had a really good time reading it, and I loved this one even more. We Won’t All Survive does a good job at balancing between the murder mystery genre and the action/adventure genre. It has good crossover appeal between the two in my opinion. I also liked how it played with elements of reality television and what people will do for money.
Mercy is a really interesting character. I liked being in her head and watching through her perspective as things initially just seemed to be a little bit weird and then turned out to be incredibly wrong and not what it should be. Her thought process and reasonings all made sense to me, especially for a character in her position and who has gone through the things that she has gone through. She was beautifully written, and I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of her character arc. She felt incredibly realistic. The side characters are also compelling. Effort and dedication went into developing them, and I was equally compelled by their character arcs.
The writing style really worked for me, though I won’t say it’s the most impressive thing I’ve read by KAM (that would probably be Rules for Vanishing). However, it was really engaging and kept me at the edge of my seat. She fed out details slowly and surely, and in such a way that I had an incredibly hard time putting it down and ended up reading the whole book in one sitting and staying up far too late. I had theories that were wrong, and I didn’t even mind because I just ended up so pleased with the way the story played out. There were certain parallels that happened that had me kicking myself later for not picking up on them, because I should have read between the lines a bit more.
There were lots of wonderful layers to this book, and so many great elements to it. I had a great time reading this book, and I highly suggest that you check it out when it’s published on July 29th.
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