Natalie D. Richards

"Five Total Strangers" was a suspenseful read from cover to cover. It reminded me of one of those high-octane, far-fetched movies that your can't tear your eyes from. The tension in the car between the five strangers was palpable. The creepy letters that appeared throughout the novel and the blizzard conditions just added to the atmosphere. However, like most disaster movies, the ending felt rushed but it didn't detract from the rest of the story.

From the start, "Five Total Strangers" was gripping, fast-paced and captivating. My heart was in my throat on more than one occasion as Mira's sense of dread intensified and, like her, I had no idea who to trust. True, this is never going to win any literary awards and there were a number of plot holes, but it was addictive and entertaining.… (mer)

To me, one of the signs of a good book is one that I can't put down. This book fits that description perfectly. I would have read it in one day but it was a little too creepy to read really late at night, so I had to put it down.
Five strangers end up riding in a car together on Christmas Eve during a snowstorm to try and get home when all the flights get cancelled. Mira is the main character and she accepts the ride from Harper who she got to know when they sat together on the plane. She assumes Harper also knows the other people in the car. They run into all kinds of problems along the way and things of theirs start disappearing, things that they need to contact people or to get home. You don't know who's taking the stuff. There are also letters in between the chapters to Mira that get progressively creepy.
I didn't know who the bad person was until the end. I thought the author did a good job of making them all look suspicious.
There was only 1 F-bomb that I remember, but there was a fair bit of other language. Mostly sh**.
One thing I found super annoying was that guy in the yellow hat. At the end there was no explanation, he didn't even make sense. He made the story really creepy but it should have had a logical explanation and there was none. I didn't like that.
Overall though it was a good book and it stayed with me after and had me thinking about it, which to me is also the sign of a good book.
This book was reviewed on The Literary Club Podcast https://www.buzzsprout.com/1984185/episodes/12736247… (mer)