Review: Five Total Strangers by Natalie D. Richards

Five Total Strangers by Natalie D. Richards
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

If you are looking for a relatively fast paced YA thriller, check this out.  It takes place over the course of about 24 hours, and just about everything goes wrong for these 5 strangers.  I do feel like younger readers will really enjoy this and that I am not the target demographic for this type of thriller.  I do enjoy the occasional YA thriller, but the characters here were a bit too immature for my taste.  I think some of the things that bother me about the characters (immaturity, poor decision making, panic in certain situations) would really appeal to a younger reader.   I don't identify with that demographic, so those character elements don't appeal to me.  That being said, this did keep me interested and engaged.

This follows Mira, a high schooler on her way home for Christmas.  She makes it from California to New Jersey when her next flight gets grounded due to a winter storm.  Her seatmate from the plane offers to let her catch a ride across Pennsylvania so she can get home for Christmas.  Mira, opts to go along with her despite being slightly put off by riding with 4 strangers.  What is the worst thing that could happen, right?  Not only is the weather taking a turn for the worse, but at ever step of the journey things go wrong on the drive.  This puts the passengers on edge and starts to make everyone suspicious of one another of sabotaging their drive to get home for the holiday.  The thriller aspect wasn't too bad, the author keeps giving us different breadcrumbs to mislead us as to who the culprit could be.  Mira and her four new friends are all really stressed out and that really comes through.   Each of the characters has a good narrative of why they aren't at fault for the things that are going wrong on their journey.  I don't want to spoil it, but if you are looking for a decent YA thriller that doesn't have sex or gore, and is relatively non-violent, give this a go.  

I did appreciate that there were mentions of places that I knew in this book.  I grew up in Pittsburgh, very close to Beltzhoover, this is where our main character Mira is from.  This location plays no part in the story other than it is Mira's destination, but it was kind of cool to see a place I know mentioned in a book.  

Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire to providing me a paperback copy of this book.  I did end up listening to the audio version during the The Big Library Read in November 2021.  Whether you read the print book or listen to the audio, the execution of the creepy letters from Mira's "admirer" is done really well.

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