User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
Normally I’m a little tough grader when it comes to YA thrillers and after seeing some unpopular reviews I was afraid of being bad guy with a acidic taste in my mouth after reading something illogical and not entertainingly crazy enough for my picky taste! But thanks to literature Gods, I couldn’t be so wrong because I was already hooked and felt like watching a fast paced, breath taking, captivating, low budget Blumhouse teenage thriller movie which is 6.5 IMDb and %70 rotten tomatoes rated, mostly takes in one place: a haunted, disturbing car! It was entertaining, mind blowing, surprising, twisting and plot idea was also simple, action packed and brilliant!
Our heroine, sweet, artsy, good daughter, 18 years old Mira wants to go to Pittsburgh for Christmas holiday but after unexpected canceled layover because of sudden terrifying blizzard lurking around and her urgent wish to be at home just in time(Her mother keeps secret her divorce news and she is at the verge of nervous breakdown after her sister passed away) forces her make a quick decision to travel with four strangers trapped in a car at snow blizzard.
Yes, not a wise choice! But her seat mate at the plane, Harper seems like cool, sophisticated and friendly. She cannot be a bad person, can she?
The guy with crutches, blonde hair seems charming and nice, too. His name is Josh. And the med student, tall, wealthy boy Brecken seems like a little pretentious but he seems harmless. And Kayla the weird girl who reminds us of sleeping beauty contest winner seems like quiet, introvert,silent one. Yes, they are a bunch of cool college kids and they cannot cause any harm throughout their exciting, thrilling journey. Right?
Sorry Mira, you cannot be so wrong because one of them is ugly soul twin of Joe Goldberg and she or he is watching every step you take and every move you make!
Harper- she is way too friendly and secretive
Brecken seems like violent one
Josh becomes more agitated at each moment and Kayla seems like a drug addict with sociopathic tendencies.
One of them is after her and he/she won’t stop till his/her mission accomplished.
The ending was a little foreseeable and there are so many coincidental facts to bring those five strangers together.
But overall: I drank whole bottle of Chardonnay in twenty minutes and I became more agitated, jumpy during the horrifying action packed scenes. I screamed, I jumped, I shouted too many OMGs (my neighbors thought I was performing a rite. Coincidentally my husband was listening” I’m a believer” from the Monkees at the highest volume: he loves 60s music and I endure everything for him leaving me alone when I’m reading) It was fun, it was joyful and I had amazing time.
Of course I’m cutting points for illogical and coincidental events affect the credibility of the story but I’m still rounding 3.5 to 4 stars!
It was a quick, nail biter, hair splitter, couch jumper, husband disturber, witty journey for me! I enjoyed it so much!
Special thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for sharing this interesting ARC with me . Thankfully it was soooo much better than I expected.
Rating: really liked it
**3.5-stars rounded up**Mira lives in California with her Dad, while her mother lives in Pittsburgh. With Christmas approaching, Mira is making her way to the East Coast for the holiday.
Last year, Mira's Aunt, her Mom's sister passed away and her Mom has really struggled coping with that loss. Her sister was her best friend.
Concerned about the state of her mother's mental health, Mira expects her to need extra support through the holiday.
So, when her connecting flight from New York to Pittsburgh gets canceled due to inclement weather, Mira needs to find another way to get home as quickly as she can.
Luckily, the girl she was sitting next to on the plane, Harper, is renting a car along with three of her college friends, Brecken, Josh and Kayla.
There is room left in the car and they are heading in the same direction, so Harper offers Mira a ride. It sure would beat any of the other options, like sleeping at the airport on Christmas Eve.
Mira accepts, but has some reservations. These people are complete strangers.
As they hit the road, the weather gets progressively worse. They see a lot of accidents and even have a few close calls themselves. As you can imagine, the stress level in the car begins to ratchet up.
They're at each other's throats and it's not pretty.
Anything that could possibly go wrong, does. Conditions get to the point where they are barely able to drive at all.
They make a few pit stops and yep, you guessed it, those don't go well either!
I had fun with this one, y'all. Richards did a great job of bringing your typical Teen Scream to the page.
The cast of characters played well off of one another and it definitely kept me guessing. There's some uncertainty as to what people's motives are and I enjoyed that element a lot.
The suspense continues to build throughout, as items start to disappear from the car and it feels threatening rather than accidental.
Although there were some plot holes, and I wasn't sold on the ending, I did have fun reading it. I think if you don't take it too seriously, it's quite an enjoyable read.
Thank you so much to the publisher, SourceBooks Fire, for providing me with a copy to read and review.
Blizzard Scares are some of my favorite scares, so I am definitely happy that I had the opportunity to read this one. It's perfect for this time of year!!
Rating: really liked it
Failed to astonish me but a few 4-star moments to lean on!
This book is about five young adults stranded at the airport as all flights are cancelled due to snowy weather. All five have never met and are complete strangers. They randomly meet, find out they are all headed in the same direction and decide to rent a car to make the six hour trip. We find out early that one of them has been stalking the main character. But who is the stalker? That you have to finish reading to find out. Things start to go wrong pretty fast. They encounter a huge snow storm, things are constantly going missing and everyone starts pointing fingers.
Overall this had a relatively decent pace. However, I found myself pushing through a few bouts of boredom. There was a handful of scenes that picked up and really got my heart racing, but unfortunately these were in the minority.
I feel like this author has a lot of promise and I would definitely consider reading another book of hers.
*Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire via Edelweiss & NetGalley for providing the digital review copy!
Rating: really liked it
Unfortunately, this book was a young adult mix of No Exit and You, but done horribly. The characters in this book were super immature and just fought over everything. I was so tired of listening to arguments throughout the whole entire book. I didn't get attached to any characters and couldn't care less about the main character and her relationship with her mom. I wasn't even shocked at the ending, and wasn't thrilled at all.
This book would be good for a young adult who is just getting into thrillers.
Rating: really liked it
I was enjoying the writing at first and made it through about 40% when I realized NOTHING HAD HAPPENED. I was hoping for a twisty psychological thriller and got a REALLY long and dangerous car ride with a bunch of sketchy teens who argue the whole time and make terrible decisions, and also a really thin stalker plot. Predictable, annoying/flat characters. Not good.
Rating: really liked it
Five things to know about Five Total Strangers:
1. It takes place on Christmas Eve, should you be the sort of reader that likes to time books with the seasons. As a thriller, it’s a nice change of pace from Hallmark romances and classic holiday tales.
2. Though it’s a Young Adult book, the plot transcends YA since people of any age could find themselves in the characters’ situation - stranded while making a connecting flight and opting to rent a car with strangers heading to the same final destination.
3. The atmosphere is pretty great. You can almost hear the snow crunching under the tires as they wind their way through rural Pennsylvania during a blizzard. You may even feel the need to grab a blanket and a hot beverage while reading.
4. It’s told from the first person perspective of a teen girl, Mira, with occasional journal entries from another character mixed in. Mira isn’t a particularly dynamic or memorable character though, and needless to say many of her choices are questionable.
5. Suspension of belief is a must! There are too many coincidences and are-you-serious??? moments to elevate this much beyond a counter-programing option during the holiday season. 3.5 stars.
Rating: really liked it
This is seriously the book they picked for the Big Library Read (or whatever it's called)? This ... monstrosity?
Let's be clear here. I don't like this author's work. I've read 3 of her books now and I hate them all for the same reason. A nearly falling asleep plot for the first 80 or so percent then you slam into warp drive and 'solve' everything with a bunch of convenient excuses. I only read this because of the Library Read thing (and honestly I knew it was a mistake).
Is it my fault for read this? Knowing I'd be disappointed? Yes. But I had to know just how bad it was.
First of all, I'm pretty sure this story got pulled from 1995 and plopped down into 2020. 5 'young people' all traveling and only one brings their laptop with them? Sure. Okay. That's totally believable. All the try hard sexist comments felt sprinkled in so that we could have a girl power moment. They were cringy at best.
The idea that 5 people all just happened to be flying out of San Diego to end up in Pittsburgh. By layove in New Jersey? On what continent does that even make sense? Crazy stalker, sure, he wanted to be sure to be on the same flight as Mira, but everyone else? Everyone else just decided to bypass all the NORMAL flights and take a weird-as-F plane change in Newark, New Jersey. I'm not even sure how you find a flight like that? Like, was the research on google something like 'the most ridiculous way to fly from San Diego to Pittsburgh known to man'. Because I honestly have no idea how that flight ended up happening.
Continuing on with the idea that 5 random strangers all just happened to be on the same flight, and all had the same connecting flight (you would assume since they were all in the same car driving towards Pittsburgh). Laughable at best. Come on. And why didn't anyone ever QUESTION the purely conincidental circumstances that led them to all booking the stupidest flight possible to get where they all needed to go on Christmas eve?
The subplots were a joke. I'm pretty sure you could have come up with something more convincing writing a bunch of things on a dart board and throwing a dart than what happened in this book.
THERE ARE SPOILERS TO FOLLOW. THEY WILL NOT BE MARKED.
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The yellow hat dude. I'm sorry. These idiots had no idea where they were going. Got lost mutiple times. Even doubled back along an old route and this random dude JUST HAPPENED TO BE IN ALL THOSE PLACES TOO? No. That's not how it works. That's not how any of this works. They go off on some random side road that no one has any business driving on AND YELLOW HAT DUDE FINDS THEM THERE? On Christmas Day? No. Absolutely not.
The gas station scene. I've never in my entire life rolled my eyes as much as I did as this whole disaster played out. First of all. Did they not to think to ask ANYONE at the gas station for money? They talked about all the people stranded there, but then I guess those people just vanished?
Second. They drove for awhile, then doubled back, ended up somewhere completely unexpected and that's where gas station man found them? I'm sorry. No one is going to drive around town for hours looking for some idiot kids who stold $40 worth of gas. It's absolutely not worth anyone's time. And especially not in a freaking blizzard.
Third. The major car accident scene. I. Just. The non-chalance in which they drive away, not concerned about anyone else. Brushing off the idea that there's nothing they could have done to help. Okay. Sure. Whatever.
Fourth. The stuff disappering. I'm honestly not sure how that was supposed to work out. I'm not going to back to read any of this again, but it never felt like ANYONE had enough time to not only steal something but then plant it in someone else's stuff.
Fifth. The idea that no one could hear anyone else talking. Ever. People have full-fledged conversation at the back of th SUV with the hatch open and NO ONE hears anything? Please. Everyone whispering around and keeping secrets. It was all so stupid and dramatic.
Sixth. Everyone's backstories were pathetic. A druggie (supposedly). A precious little rich girl. A pretentious rich boy. And a stalker. Cool. Cool. Cool. Throw a few generic descriptions at them, a sob story or two and we're done here folks. No further character development needed.
Ugh. I honestly don't even know what to say. To be competely upfront, I read spoilers about this book before I read it. I knew it was going to be terrible. I knew who the stalker was the whole time. At one point I desperately hoped I was wrong (and so did the book) but of course, no. You get the most obvious person (even had I not read spoilers it was pretty clear who the stalker was early on - and no I'm not saying that to pretend I'm smart. The book is pretty heavy handed with everyone, except one characters).
Here's how it would have been better. (Aside from scrapping the whole project)
Cut all the gas station hijinks and the crap about the guy in the ball cap.
Create some actual tension between the characters. Maybe someone does resort to violence in their desperation to get home. Cut all the weird creepy stalker stuff (the letters were sooooooooo stupid). Make the stalker show a genuine interest in Mira. Gaslight her a bit when she starts to question things. Have everyone be a bit on edge from the start.
Make Mira's connection with her parents actually mean something. She might as well have been calling the info number for the local time and weather for as much emotions as there was from her parents. Give Mira a REAL reason to need to get home. A reason she had to book as last minute Christmas Ever trip. Her aunt is in the hospital NOW and she wants to be there in time to say good bye. All the whining and moaning about the dead aunt and her weak mom just made Mira sound childish.
Have more opportunties for the strangers to connect. Maybe they get stuck in the traffic at first. They talk. Share things. Now I'm invested becuse these people seem real. I never cared about Harper's dad getting busted for illegal business practices. I couldn't care less about what's his name failing his stupid classes. The other girl being a druggy. It was all so shallow and pathetic. Josh had absolutely no personality outside of 'I like to read thick books'.
Get rid of all the weird Boomer humor. The druggy girl (I literally just finished reading this book and can't remember half their names) kept attacking Harper and rich dude and criticizing them for not having cash becuse they wore nice clothes. Because that makes sense. It's 2020 (when this was published) not 1990. Not having cash is normal for a lot of people (most people, I'd assume). There were weird phrases and incompetent actions. Harper didn't know how to clear the ice off her windshield (playing into the whole you kids these days are useless/helpless vibe or most of the book). The idea that 5 stupid kids would all willingly get into a car with strangers was the most annoying part of all of this.
I'm sorry, I'm off on a tangent. Forget about making this better. HOW THE F*CK did stalker boy know Mira would be on THAT flight at THAT time? There is no way in heck he would have known that. And if he did, I need to know HOW? Because if Mira's posting her travel plans on social media for the whole world to see she deserved to be stalked (I'M JOKING - but she needs a lesson not being an idiot online). How did this dumb stalker plan any of this? Did he just magically know they'd all end up in the same car? Where did he hide those dumb letters? They all searched thorough everyone else's luggage before the letters showed up. Where had he hid the stuff before that? (Yeah, there was that stupid scene where he 'dropped' his wallet, but please, don't tell me had was hiding stuff under the SUV the whole time). There is no way that he could have planned all that stuff out so well not knowing how things actually played out. What if Mira had stayed at the airport? What if her Mom drove to get her? Was he going to kidnap her from the airport with thousands of random people watching?
And how convenient that the stalker ends up dead so the actual reasons don't have to be explained. We'll never actually know how he planned everything or who was really responsible for the gas station incidents (the stealing and the running over).
There were some good moments here. The writing (when it was ad nauseum about poor Mira's mom) was terrible. The scene where they're almost in the car accident was written with tension (for the most part). The basic premise isn't even awful (just badly executed). But honestly, this was a mess. The more you think about it the less everything makes sense.
Like the pills the druggy girl was taking. Why was she so surprised about who had taken her pills when Mira tells us that that stalker must have been giving her a few at a time to make her compliant to his plans (if that's what really happened why her outrage about him being the one who stole them???).
I honestly think this would have been so much better had Mira just been gaslighted to heck and back by everyone. Stalker could have kept taking her things. She makes a scene. They search the car. Look, Mira it's right here. You're paranoid. Everyone would buy into her being a bit scattered. She would start to question everything. It would have been better than randomly stealing everyone stuff hiding in some random place and then magically sneaking it into her bag later.
Okay. I don't want to think about this any more. The book was bad. The characers were flat. The plot was FAR to convenient. I'm disappointed.
Rating: really liked it
Overall a really engaging book. I liked the storyline and the suspense building but the ending felt so rushed. It was over before it really started to sink in. And what happened to the mysterious guy from the gas stop? Did I miss something?
Rating: really liked it
[Loss of loved one, stalker, car accidents in snowy weather. (hide spoiler)]
Rating: really liked it
It had a creepy factor given that it's set in PA and I live in PA. I loved the freaky letters and the tension but I saw the twist coming and I was left unimpressed with the overall plot and character development. There was such build up to the finale of the book and then BAM, it was over. I'm not the target age demographic but I'm looking for a little more meat from my thrillers. Still, it did have a "vibe" that I could get down with.
Rating: really liked it
Five Total Strangers by Natalie D. Richards is a young adult thriller read. Being the second book by Natalie D. Richards I have come to enjoy her action based thrillers but do not find them without a few flaws each time.
In this book we meet eighteen year old, Mira, who has been living in California and wants to travel to spend the holidays with her mother in Pittsburgh on the east coast. Of course with Christmas holiday travel along the east coast you just may run into some delays with snow impacting the area and that is just what happens to Mira during her journey.
Stuck in New York due to a snowstorm in the area Mira wants to find another way to get to her mother knowing that this holiday is going to be a tough one for her mother. Mira finds that the girl she had met on the plane is in the same situation and Harper plans to drive the rest of the way with her friends, Brecken, Josh and Kayla. While these strangers seem to know each other Mira can’t help but be a little wary of going but she doesn’t seem to have any other options.
Five Total Strangers certainly is a parent’s nightmare, your teen to just hop into a car with people she doesn’t know with of course a snowstorm that “can’t be that bad”. As a reader it is obvious the storm would be that bad but I was still curious as to what else would go wrong for the young protagonist. In the end I did find that this one was one of those books that seemed a bit obvious to me leaving me to rate a little lower at three and half stars. However, loving an action packed escape I would read this author again in the future.
I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.
For more reviews please visit https://carriesbookreviews.com/
Rating: really liked it
None of this makes any sense and it is intensely stupid.
Rating: really liked it
10/06/2020: Happy publication day to this book! (The weather is much more caught-in-a-snowstorm appropriate now than when Sheena and I read this back in August 😂)
I’ve learned to pay attention when the hair at the back of my neck prickles—when a carnal, bone-deep instinct tells me something is wrong. And that’s what my instincts are saying now.
Five Total Strangers was a compulsively readable and quick read that immediately swept me into its story. While not necessarily complex, this didn’t fall into cliché, either; I’d heard good things about Natalie D. Richards’ writing, and after reading this book, I’m down to try more of her work.
Stuck in the middle of a terrible blizzard, Mira Reynolds is desperate to make it home for Christmas—even if it means getting into a car full of complete strangers. Strangers who are just as desperate as she to be reunited with their families… except one. Turns out while everyone’s keeping secrets, there is one person hiding much, much more.
Not only do the five of them have to contend with car accidents on icy roads and escaping from gun-toting gas station owners, someone in the car is acting with sinister motives. Things begin to go missing. Their snow chains and charging ports have been tampered with.
Someone doesn’t want them to get home alive.◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️
I really think the author did a good job of weaving in other elements beyond just the mystery/thriller/survival-in-a-snowstorm plot. Mira grapples with immense grief for her aunt Phoebe’s death, a grief she’s suppressed for an entire year as her mother fell apart and Mira found herself having to be strong in her stead. At the same time, Mira’s just beginning to patch up a shattering friendship-breakup with her best friend, Zari, and the book also talks about Mira’s passion for art.
I wish we’d learned more about each character, and that the culprit’s backstory was fleshed out more! I found it a little hard to picture each person in my head (apart from Harper, who’s East Asian, poised, and wealthy) because their initial descriptions were paltry, and eventually everyone’s histories are sketched in somewhat… except for the stalker’s.
I also have mixed feelings about the letters from the stalker to Mira that are interspersed between chapters; on the one hand, I liked that they injected novelty into the narrative and revealed just how long he’s tracked her. On the other hand,
they were so generic??? Very “we are meant to be together I just know it”? I guess I just felt it was a story I’d heard (many times) before.
Finally, what cemented this as a three-star read for me was the fact that
I found the ending somewhat rushed. I had to triple-check I hadn't missed a chapter or two at the conclusion because I felt like there were still plotlines to be revealed and character stories to be tied up; definitely didn't get a sense of closure with this one! 😭
Nonetheless, there were some truly chilling moments (no pun intended). A burst of unexpectedly unsettling violence in a rest stop parking lot to keep you on your toes. A strange man who keeps showing up along their journey. And of course, the sabotage that seems to be happening under Mira’s nose.
Buddy read with Sheena!! 💖💖
Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
Rating: really liked it
Had high hopes for this, but it fell really flat for me. I didn't gel well with the overwhelming amount of talk and description about the car journey in the beginning, and the characters arguing about which road to take, etc. The resolution felt a bit too obvious too. This book just did not work for me.
Rating: really liked it
If nothing else, this book was highly entertaining. I sat down and read it in one sitting and I couldn't keep turning the pages fast enough. But...I knew that the ending would make or break it. Unfortunately, it broke it.
This is the kind of book where the more I thought about it, the more everything seemed to fall apart. At the end of the day, despite its pacing and despite how fast I devoured the book looking for answers, the answers themselves were lackluster, along with the characters. Other than the main character, Mira, none of the characters are really fleshed out. In fact, they're so one-dimensional that after the big reveal at the end...we don't even find out what really happens with the other characters? The things that were apparently driving them throughout the book don't matter as soon as we have the answer.
The big reveal itself was...lacking. Not because it wasn't a big surprise, but because it wasn't really explored? We don't find out the motivations of the antagonist past something that was very surface-level. I also had to wonder what the antagonist's end goal was, because it wasn't really explained?
I also found the little reveals throughout the book about different characters lackluster. Again, I think this was less to do with the reveals themselves and more to do with how they actually didn't do much to develop the characters or make us sympathise with them? It's like the reveals were there solely for shock value...and so they didn't even shock me because I didn't care about the characters enough.
All in all, this was a very entertaining book, but so much stuff didn't really add up at the end. I was left with too many unanswered questions. All the characters, except for Mira, were underdeveloped. The book also ended quite abruptly.
(view spoiler)
[Some questions I was left with at the end of the book: why was Harper so worried about the police? Presumably if her father did commit fraud...the police already know? It didn't make much sense. Also we didn't even find out what happened with that at the end of the book, so what was the point?
The same went for Brecken. How did things conclude with his family and him having to drop out of med school? Apparently, it doesn't matter!
I also wondered about the man in the yellow hat. We didn't get any answers about him? It was far too big a coincidence that he kept showing up, and he asked the kids for a ride but had managed to show up to places they were at before they even got there? (hide spoiler)]
