Five Total Strangers by Natalie D. Richards
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
**3.5-stars rounded up**
Mira lives in California, while her mother lives in Pittsburgh. It’s Christmas and Mira wants nothing more than to be over on the other Coast with her Mom.
Last year, her Aunt, her Mom’s sister and closest friend, passed away. They both took it hard, but her Mom really struggled.
Mira is concerned about her mother’s mental health as she tries to cope with that loss around 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 to her.
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 and they are heading in the same direction, so Harper offers Mira a ride. It would sure beat any of the other options, like sleeping at the airport.
Mira accepts, but she has her reservations. She doesn’t know these people at all.
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 is ratcheting up.
They’re now at each other’s throats and it’s not pretty.
Anything that could possibly go wrong, does for this group. 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 or 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 the story. 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 with 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 of this 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!!
