Five Survive by Holly Jackson

 

Five Survive

May 9th, 2024

Five Survive by Holly Jackson, Realistic Fiction/Mystery 2022, 386 pages

Winner of the CrimeFest award 2022 for Best Crime Fiction Novel for Young Adults

Five Survive is an intense, action packed story about a group of six teens on a road trip for spring break. Red, the central character, battles the grief she carries over the fatal shooting over her mother many years prior. Red, along with her best friends Maddy and Simon, Maddy's older brother Oliver and his girlfriend Reyna, and their new friend Arthur are off to an exciting spring break in an RV when suddenly they lose all cell phone service. Then, all tires in the car are flat and there's a whole in the gas tank. Confusion soon becomes fear when Red and her group realize that was planned; someone outside in the dark has a rifle--and he wants one of them dead. As the group tries to plan a method of escape, friendships are tested as lies and secrets bubble to the surface. The sniper has made one thing clear: one of them with a secret will not survive the night. 

I chose to read Five Survive because my students are huge Holly Jackson fan, such as her book A Good Girl's Guide to Murder. The title and back of the book (Eight hours. Six friends. Five survive) also greatly caught my interest. Right away, we know one of the characters will not make it to the end of the book.  I love a plot line with plot twists and secrets--I knew this book was going to be right up my alley! 

Teaching and Content Considerations:

I think Five Survive would work best as an independent reading novel for students. I would recommend Five Survive to high school students or to perhaps upper middle school students who obtain parent permission due to its violent content and adult language. Students who love a good mystery, enjoy the theme of secrets, or books with overwhelming tension between characters will thoroughly eat up Jackson's latest novel! 

Instructional Ideas

New Character Perspectives: Five Survive's plot line and tension is completely propelled by secrets. By the end of the book, all of the characters' secrets are laid bare for everyone to see. The consequences are deadly. After reading the novel, students could rewrite a scene in the book from from another character's perspective (other than Red, or main protagonist). Students would not only have to appropriately capture the personality of the character that they chose, but also the internal conflicts/inner dialogue going through their head now knowing the secret they held close to their chest. For some characters, such as Arthur, students could narrate actions the character secretly participated in that added further conflict to the novel. 

Attention to Detail with Characterization: Each character trapped inside the RV with Red has a distinct personality. We see certain personality traits heighten, or the character unravel completely, as more time passes in their hostage situation. Additionally, small facial expressions or minute physical reactions eventually reveal a lot about specific characters. While reading the book, students could choose 2 characters they believe are the sniper's target. Students could fill out a characterization chart where they specifically note the characters' thoughts (if they choose Red), speech, actions, effect on others, and looks. In their chart, students would cite textual evidence with inferences about what this could possibly reveal about their two suspected characters. 

Possible Read Aloud Passages

• Page 65: "And then something new, a flicker in the corner of Red's eye, pulling at her attention. She turned to look at it. There was a red dot, right over there on the off-white side of the RV, near the open door....a crack in the darkness, louder now that she was outside with it. Red flinched, hands up to her ears, and the red dot wasn't there anymore. But there was something else. A splintered hole in the RV. Not the size of a fingernail. The size of a bullet."
• Right before this moment, Red and her friends are confused about how they suddenly have four flat tires. Then she sees a red dot that can only be a laser from a gun. Red then realizes they have been shot at. This scene is at the end of a chapter and will be a great cliffhanger to get students to read this book!
• Page 109: "'I'll tell you what I mean." Static. 'Oliver Charles Lavoy. Madeline Joy Lavoy. Reyna Grant Moore. Arthur Grant Moore. Simon Jinsun Yoo. Redford Kenny.'"
• After realizing they are held hostage by a sniper, the group finds a walkie-talkie outside of the driver's side door to communicate with their mystery threat. The sniper reveals that he knows all of their names, making everyone realize this moment was not bad luck, but planned. This, like most of these passages, is another moment that will shock young readers and make them want to read on to find out why the sniper has chosen to target Red and her friends.
• Page 195: "Crack. A plume of blood in the headlights. A gaping hole in Don's face, beside his forever open mouth. He fell slowly, knees buckling first, crumpling backward over his legs, bent all wrong. Empty stare up at the stars, a halo pooling on the road."
• By some miracle, an older couple in a truck come across the group's RV. Red and her friends think they will be saved! However, the sniper tells the group to get rid of the couple or he will shoot them. Oliver comes up with a plan to secretly pass a note to the husband explaining their urgent situation. However, as the couple walk back to their car, the sniper kills them both. Somehow, the sniper knew exactly what was happening. The entire interaction between the teens, the impatience of the sniper, and the couple is incredibly tense, full of urgency, and nerve-racking. Readers will be shocked by this scene and also wonder, like Oliver, how the sniper possibly knew their secret rescue plan. 
• Page 272: "'She has to leave the RV!' Oliver looked over at his sister, like Red was already gone and it wasn't up for discussion. 'They want her. She's putting the rest of us in danger by staying here. Look. He's going to keep shooting up the RV until he gets what he wants. Some of us will get hit. Some of us will die if we continue. We need to give him what he wants, and he wants Red!'"
• **SPOILER AHEAD**: Red admits to the readers, and her travel companions, that she is the protected witness in the murder of Frank Gotti. Oliver has become utterly unraveled; although Red views Oliver as a pseudo-brother, he now is motioning to throw Red out of the RV, essentially sending Red to certain death. 

Thoughts and Reflections

Five Survive was a very action packed, tension-driven story. I loved that Jackson immersed her readers into the anxiety, distrust, and panic that Red and her friends undergo while being trapped in the RV. Jackson also made Red an unreliable narrator from the start, so readers are even suspicious about her intentions until everyone's secrets are revealed. What a run ride of a mystery filled with all sorts of twists and turns!

After reading, I'd love to explore some of Jackson's other books, starting with A Good Girl's Guide to Murder; this seems to be trending pretty highly in my school right now. Thanks to Five Survive, I certainly know a dependable author to seek out for a heart-pounding, mystery plot!