Survival Instincts

A Novel

By: Jen Waite

Narrated by: Jen Waite

Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

By the best-selling author of A Beautiful, Terrible Thing, a haunting thriller about a mother and daughter who must draw strength from each other when they find themselves trapped in a cabin with a stranger who wants to either control them - or kill them.

Fourteen years before the cabin: 20-something Anne meets the man of her dreams right out of college, but after they get married, Anne notices that her husband begins acting differently. Why is Ethan suddenly so moody? And will their marriage endure?

A week before the cabin: 10 years later, Anne and her 12-year-old daughter, Thea, are safely living in Vermont. Anne is a successful therapist, Thea has friends at her new school, and they receive an endless stream of love, support, and baked goods from Anne's sweet mom, Rose. When Thea takes to brooding and showing classic signs of teen angst, a trip for the three women to the White Mountains of New Hampshire seems like the perfect chance to bond.

The cabin: A man follows the three women on a hike at a nature reserve and drags them at gunpoint to an abandoned cabin in the woods. And just like that their peaceful weekend away turns into a fight for survival. It isn't clear what this man wants from these women or how he is connected to them if at all, but it is increasingly clear that they won't all get out of the cabin alive.

Survival Instincts is a captivating and terrifying novel that brings to life one of the scariest truths of all - that people's inner monsters come in various forms, some more recognizable than others, and that we are all one random encounter away from tragedy.

©2020 Jen Waite (P)2020 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Tense, tightly plotted and gorgeously written." (Riley Sager, New York Times best-selling author of Lock Every Door)

"A beautifully written, masterfully paced thriller with kick-ass female characters who have to face insidious, and sadly plausible, abuse. Every woman with a mother or a daughter will recognize something of themselves in this book." (Melanie Golding, author of Little Darlings)

“Survival Instincts is a shocking, layered thriller about the unthinkable acts women will commit to protect their own. With breathless pacing and twists that never stop coming, this book is the definition of unputdownable. Jen Waite has fast become one of my favorite writers.” (Robyn Harding, internationally best-selling author of The Swap)

great book!

I loved this book! looking forward to a new release. great narration as well

Another excellent unpredictable book

Both titles by this author are unpredictable and captivating! Loved both!!! Please bring more works like hers.

Scary and Deep, a great listen

I don’t normally listen to fiction books, but I did this one because I enjoyed Jen Waite’s memoir. I found the story to be deep (I think about the mental illness in characters, the family dynamics, the background and how those can all overlap) and scary - super scary at the same time. I also enjoyed Jen’s narrator voice so I recommend it!

Excellent story!

Well-written and thought-provoking story! A professional narrator would have made it even better…

Story Good

Good story but narrator needs a lot more experience. Narrator doesn’t know how to change her voice to match the characters and doesn’t know how to make her voice match the words. I think with more experience she could be a better narrator. The story was good.

Poor narration, dragging story

Many times I wanted to return this book, but I have returned others recently so I stuck this one out. I did not enjoy it at all. The narration was very bad, The story was disappointing. It was much more about domestic issues and not a thriller at all. At the end I was totally confused about all the relationships and very dissatisfied overall.