The Only Survivors

By: Megan Miranda

Narrated by: Alex Allwine, Erin Moon, Andre Bellido, Inés del Castillo, Michael Crouch, Priya Ayyar, Greg Chun

Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

Seven hours in the past. Seven days in the present. Seven survivors remaining. Who would you save?

A decade ago, two vans filled with high school seniors on a school service trip crashed into a Tennessee ravine—a tragedy that claimed the lives of multiple classmates and teachers. The nine students who managed to escape the river that night were irrevocably changed. A year later, after one of the survivors dies by suicide on the anniversary of the crash, the rest of them make a pact: to come together each year to commemorate that terrible night.

To keep one another safe.

To hold one another accountable.

Or both.

Their annual meeting place, a house on the Outer Banks, has long been a refuge. But by the tenth anniversary, Cassidy Bent has worked to distance herself from the tragedy and from the other survivors. She’s changed her mobile number. She’s blocked the others’ email addresses. This year, she is determined to finally break ties once and for all. But on the day of the reunion, she receives a text with an obituary attached: another survivor is gone. Now they are seven—and Cassidy finds herself hurling back toward the group, wild with grief—and suspicion.

Almost immediately, something feels off this year. Cassidy is the first to notice when Amaya, the 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 waters…again. Then Amaya stops responding to her phone. After all they’ve been through, she wouldn’t willfully make them worry. Would she?

And—as they promised long ago—each survivor will do whatever he or she can do to save one another. Won’t they?

A propulsive and chilling locked-box mystery filled with the dazzling hairpin twists that are the author’s signature, The Only Survivors is New York Times bestselling author Megan Miranda’s best novel yet.

©2023 Megan Miranda, LLC. (P)2023 Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Highly recommended for fans of Alafair Burke, Gillian Flynn, and Lisa Lutz, and for all readers who like their female characters clever and resourceful, even when their best friends become their worst nightmares.”—Booklist

"Fans of Gillian Flynn, Chevy Stevens, and Jennifer McMahon will devour this relentlessly paced and deftly plotted thriller... The story moves at a feverish, unfaltering pace, keeping readers just as perplexed as the characters."—Publishers Weekly

“And, oh boy, does [Megan] ever know how to write a twisty-turny ending (or two, or more).”—Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review

Painful to get through

This book took too long to get to the point. You don’t get the story of what happened to the main characters until the last 15 minutes. This book should have only been half its length. It was painful to get through but I was determined to see it through.

Excellent plot twists and suspense.

As with many of her previous books, Megan Miranda writes with a poetic tone, creating a feeling of eeriness and intrigue, and a looming sense of mystery. I constantly felt something bad, or worse was coming next. She reflects on the past for each character, the background story for how things got to the final point, which created the suspense evenly throughout the novel.

The Only Survivors is written mainly in the present, but as the plot unfolds the author reverts to the past using subtle items and events from 10 years ago to create a connection between then and now.

This is the first novel I’ve ever listened to with 7 narrators, making the narration sound so much more “real”. The main character, told in the first person by Cassidy, allowed the reader insight into what really happened, some concrete facts to solve the mystery. The other perspectives were told in the third person, accounting for what they did but not what they thought, adding to my suspicion of each of them.

There are a few reasons I took off a star:
1. Megan Miranda writes with too much repetition, such as “what have you done?” or “who would you save?”. Also, a lot of repetitive thoughts of self-pity, characters blaming themselves unjustifiably, an implausible motivation to keep deeply deceptive secrets. This repetition only served as filler, without furthering the plot or unraveling the mystery. It became an annoyance, a distraction as I listened intently to piece together the mystery.
2. Too many NOW settings. A second, and then third setting was thrown in midway through the story. The original beach house setting was so perfect. Going back to the home town, and then the crash site, just added confusion as I tried to piece the mystery together.
3. I felt there could have been more clues throughout and less “explanation” by the characters at the end to reveal the truth. Particularly I would have liked more clues pointing toward one of the main antagonists.

I choose my books by READING honest reviews, therefore I WRITE honest reviews.

So sad about this book

I love Megan Miranda’s books, but this particular book was so hard to listen to.

Save your credit!

This is the most bored I have ever been listening to an audiobook with a full cast. They all sounded monotone throughout the entire thing. For a thriller it took WAY too long to get to any sort of point. This book spun it's wheels for 85% and then decided to tell some story, but at that point it wasn't worth it. Use your credit on something else. Total snoozefest.

Terrible narration, bland story

Extremely long for the plot twist in the last 20 minutes. Definitely not worth a credit. Narration is super boring and bad. Couldn’t wait for it to finish!

Not worth the listen

Very boring. I waited hours for it to get better and it never did! No storyline whatsoever!

First, but not my last

This was the first book I listened to by this author and I really enjoyed the listen. It was well written and it kept me wondering. It was my first but won’t be my last to listen of hers. Bravo

Great!!

Megan Miranda never disappoints, her books are my favorite. This was truly a great book.

slow and boring

hard to listen,..narrators were horrible, very monotone....took a long time to get to the story.

Boring

Slow, boring. A disappointment, I excepted it to be way better. Didn’t care about the plot or anything else about this book. So hard to keep it going…