The Only Survivors

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What did you think of this one? I really enjoyed the narrative structure and the multiple mysteries?

Long ago, she had once led us all to safety. I tried to find the shadow of that person in the one now standing before me. Growing up, Miranda lived in New Jersey [9] [3] [5] and spent time at her grandparents' house in the Poconos. [4] Amaya, like me, like most of the survivors, had moved away from town in the years after the accident. Though her choice of location now was unsettling. Thrillers often provide a chance for the readers to exercise their reasoning skills and guess twists and solve mysteries alongside the characters. Throughout this book, did you correctly guess any parts of the plot? Which parts did you not anticipate? Does trying to guess twists contribute to or take away from your reading experience?

Miranda has a way of keeping me on my toes. Her storyline is always well thought out, the characters engaging and realistic and the best part? The twist. You will never figure out the twist before she exposes it to you. The Only Survivors is no different. There were four cars in a row out front, the last being Amaya’s rust-colored sedan, with a collection of decals lining the rear windshield. It was already late afternoon—I assumed I was the last to arrive. Not everyone lived within driving distance anymore. On the morning she would’ve been leaving for the tenth year reunion, she gets a text from an unknown phone number, informing her that another one of the Survivors is dead. Are you kidding me?” Amaya said. I wasn’t sure if she was referring to the fact that he’d taken the room, or that he was being so crass about it now. “You can’t just take whatever you want.”

I drove five hours to the coast, and then over a series of bridges to the southern barrier islands, passing the time in a state of steady dread, trying to distract myself with a variety of podcasts I couldn’t focus on, before finally giving over to the silence. I had my eye on Russ (and also fisherman Will) from the get-go. Mostly because it was the same plot twist in a book I read in 2022. But sadly, I had a difficult time connecting and/or empathizing with any of the survivors. In fact, at times I found a few darn right annoying — hello there, Grace, who like a broken record implores the others during the final climactic scene, “Don’t tell.” It was a habit I couldn’t shake, the question always on my mind. In a room full of people, a bus full of strangers: Who do you save? A thought experiment playing out in real time. A horror interlude in the monotony of my daily life. I’d begun the process of disentangling myself six months earlier, in the hope of becoming invisible, unreachable. Three simple steps, seen through to the end:

The Only Survivors

Hey,” I said quietly, swinging the doors fully open. But I made her jump all the same. Her curly brown hair was up in her signature high ponytail, and it appeared shorter than the year before. There were hollows under her hazel eyes when she turned to face me, as if she’d traveled through the night, or been haunted by the drive in, same as me. I didn’t figure that Grace was guilty of killing Ben, though I think the book does give a lot of clues and leave a LOT of questions open about this: What?” Josh said, turning on Grace now too. “We’re a dying breed. If we can’t joke about that, who can?” Last I heard, Oliver was living in New York, managing some prestigious hedge fund. Maybe he was used to people waiting for him now. But he still, always, made time for this. All of us did.

I breathed slowly, staring up at the house. The raised porch, multiple gables, windows reflecting the sun and sky. The structure was dated but objectively beautiful, I knew, in the way it rose unobtrusively from the landscape, like driftwood from the beach, positioned with care to welcome the forces of nature, instead of fighting against them.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for an advanced copy. All opinions expressed are my own. Almost immediately, something feels off this year. Cassidy is the first to notice when Amaya, annual organizer, slips away, overwhelmed. This wouldn’t raise alarm except for the impending storm. Suddenly, they’re facing the threat of closed roads and surging water . . . again. Then Amaya stops responding to her phone. After all they’ve been through, she wouldn’t willfully make them worry. Would she? From the New York Times bestselling author of All the Missing Girls and “master of suspense, Megan Miranda” (Mary Kubica, New York Times bestselling author of The Good Girl ), a thrilling mystery about a group of former classmates who reunite to mark the tenth anniversary of a tragic accident—only to have one of the survivors disappear, casting fear and suspicion on the original tragedy.