whitneydaniell

by: Megan Miranda
published: Apr 11, 2023
genre: Mystery, Thriller, Fiction
339 Pages, Hardcover
GoodReads Link

Definition of slow burn, The Only Survivors. It took me so long to fully get into what was going on.

The story bounces between two timelines; THEN and NOW. Ten years prior there is a terrible van accident carrying high school students and it’s revealed that only nine of the students make it out alive. In current day: Each year on the anniversary of the crash, the surviving students meet up in the Outer Banks to spend a weekend together and help each other get through the grief. Of the nine survivors, Cassidy Bent is our narrator and the story is told from her POV and through her relationships with the others.

After the suicide of Clara and the mysterious death of Ian, then there were seven: Amaya, Grace, Hollis, Oliver, Josh, Brody, and Cassidy.

In PRESENT DAY Cassidy is uneasy about everyone around her, she goes as far as changing her phone number and blocking their emails, to just “disappear” from the group. Others have gotten messages and emails from a stranger requesting information about the night of the crash. This stranger is alluding that they know their secrets and something else happened that the survivors didn’t tell the police. Throughout the story, there is something that had happened to the nine survivors while they were stuck on the side of a ravine after the accident. Someone dies and they don’t tell the police the whole story!

Final Thought: It took too long to get to the plot twist. Also, who didn’t see that twist coming? There is also little to no character development, not even with Cassidy. Even though it’s been ten years, the only “personality” these now adults have is that of their high school personality as viewed through Cassidy’s point of view. I also was not a fan of the tiny thread of a love story, I think that side story wasted too many pages.

I don’t know — something didn’t curl all the way over for me with this one. The writing was good; concise and the dialogue was easy to follow. Even though there are multiple characters, it was not hard to follow and I appreciated that there are very few times when more than two of them are talking at a time. Lastly, I think the premise was good but Miranda spent too much time on things that (in the end) didn’t move the plot forward – -while reading you’re going to assume it’s important but, in the end, you’ll realize it was all a waste of time.

I’ve heard good things about Megan Miranda and I may pick up other books of hers but, this one won’t make my ‘fave reads’ list this year.