Five Total Strangers

Suspense that...didn't make sense and went nowhere. A messy bummer of a book. So much made absolutely no sense (like the man in the yellow hat) and the payoff wasn't one, it loosely connected some of the dots, left the rest, and then just ended. It's a promising idea that needed better writing, editing, and character development.

Great book. What a ride. Mira, who is traveling home for the holidays, when all flights are canceled. Ends up sharing a ride with 4 other strangers. Or are they. Things go from bad to worse when items in their car start to go missing and the roads are getting worse because of the winter storm. Fast paced and keeps you on the edge of your seat.

This book was just so meh for me. I didn't dislike my time reading it, but I didn't really enjoy any aspect of it. I was intrigued some of the time but the ending was lackluster and some of the things that happened were honestly ridiculous. This also tried to do wayyyyy too many things at once, and it just didn't work. 

This book had an interesting premise but as you can imagine, there's only so much excitement and bad stuff and then internally monologuing about bad stuff that can happen in a car. During a car ride. There was some definite filler in the form of our MC second guessing herself and constantly considering her gut instinct- we get it! Something's off! Also way too much coincidence for them to end up in the situation they were in. Plus I found 2 typos toward the end. Ugh. Last book of the year. Good to read during our shockingly cold weather but ended up lacking in content and smart decisions.

A group driving through a blizzard in an attempt to get home for Christmas come down with a case of cabin fever. Make a bunch of bad choices, commit some crimes, try to make everyone else into the bad guy. Its very slow building in the first half and then everyone starts pointing fingers based mostly on vibes.

It was a drag to get through and probably not going to be picked up again

Ooof. This book was RoUgH. If I had to pinpoint a perfect example of trying too hard, I'd pick this book. To start off, the first couple chapters weren't actually that bad, and the premise of the whole book was pretty cool, but the execution was painful. I could honestly feel the author trying to be mysterious instead of BEING mysterious. As a reader, the last thing that I want when reading a suspense novel is to be constantly told by the main character's narration that someone is being weird. I should just inherently know that. There were also a LOT of plot holes that were just never explained. For instance, the entire time Mira, the main character, keeps getting these weird "gut feelings" about people or feeling suddenly nauseous, but there is not explanation. The "strangers" all also seemed to know each other, but how they did was never explained. The ending honestly felt like a shot in the dark. I wish that I could say that there were parts that I liked, but this was difficult to get through. I would NOT recommend.

2.5 star
The description didn't prepare me at all for what was to come...the plot kept me turning page after page.
I was halfway through the book and it was abt 2.30 am and I asked myself ‘do you want to finish the book tmrw or finish it now' and I chose the most obvious answer.... To finish it now.
So I finished the book at abt 3/3.15am and let me tell you it was like I was there in the book with Mira facing what she was facing, I didn't feel like the reader at all, more like a passenger in the car and to think the person she was fearing was more closer than she thought.
Abt 3 quarters into the book I found myself shivering a bit by Mira's thoughts and her instincts

You know that feeling when you're enjoying a book so much, you can't put it down? Five Total Strangers gave me that feeling from the very beginning.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire for providing me with this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

When I say I love thriller books, this is the kind of book I'm talking about! Fast-paced, no-nonsense, creepy in all the right places, simple thrillers like this. This is exactly my kind of book. If you're looking for a Thriller to fly through in one weekend, I recommend you try out this book!

For context, I don't often feel this way. This is a special occurrence for me! However, whenever I can't put a book down, it usually has a lot to do with personal preference – what I enjoy about a book rather than what makes it a good story in general. (I'm also the kind of person who enjoys a thriller simply because it “wasn't too predictable”, so there's that.)

I was on the edge of my seat for most of this book. It was mostly well-paced, and I was genuinely curious about many aspects. I wanted Mira to get home to her mom. I wanted to figure out another mystery that I cannot tell you about because it's not in the synopsis. I was desperate to know how everyone was going to survive! I flew through this book so fast, it got me out of a month-long reading slump!

While the overall book kept me on the edge of my seat, the ending felt a bit... rushed. Everything happened so fast, and I didn't have time to process it. This might have been something on my part, or it might have been an actual issue which was changed for the final draft. Although I liked this book a lot, I also felt like the characters could have been more developed and the ending could have been more developed. For this reason, I'm putting 4 points under my “personal emotions” rating system category, for liking this book even though I normally would have taken more points off.

Either way, this book was exactly what I needed in my life during this spooky season, so I was really caught up in the moment while reading it! It was a fun and fast thriller, perfect for this time of the year.

Rating System
Character like-ability: 3.5
Character development: 3
Plot development: 3
Writing style: 3.5
Dialogue: 3.5
Personal emotions: 4

3.41 ≈ 3.5 stars. This is a solid 3.5, but because I have to round it, it will be 4 stars for this review.

Okay uh wow. This book was... interesting. I was seriously about to DNF it like 5 times. It was so slow in the beginning and JUST started to pick up around page 150 or so. It then grabbed my attention slightly, but still managed to bore me up until pages 230 and so on. I enjoyed the ending more than anything, but I probably will never read this book again.

This felt a bit like a low budget horror/thriller film but with a 12 classification. There were gasps and surprises but nothing very terrifying. Kept me reading though, I wanted to know who it was... The ending was rather predictable and rushed with the final few pages feeling almost unnecessary.
3.5 rounded up because it was better than some of the recent rubbish I've read.

3.5 Rounded to 3

This one makes for a fun buddy read. If you love B-Rated movies then this will be one to add and enjoy.

Even though this is predictable, it was still enjoyable. Mira is a tad irritating but then give she's a high schooler it made sense.

Some of the events didn't make sense to the story, except to add terror where there really didn't need to be any. I think the story would have been fine without a certain addition of “mystery” which was never answered.

Overall though, not a bad read and it's quick so that's a plus.