I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Two years ago, Mercy Gray was hailed as a hero for saving lives during a mall shooting. She still carries souvenirs from that day: the fragment of a bullet lodged in her back, a mountain of medical debt, and guilt for ignoring her sister’s warnings that the sweet boy next door was anything but.

So when billionaire turned TV host Damien Dare recruits Mercy to compete on his new survivalist reality show, she can’t turn down a chance at the whopping cash prize that could send her sister to college. But when she and the other contestants arrive at the off-grid location, something isn’t right. The set is empty. The gates close without warning, trapping them inside. And then one of them turns up dead. What appeared at first to be a tragic accident quickly transforms as more contestants start dropping like flies. With time and resources running low, surviving this show takes on a whole new meaning. Mercy must figure out who to trust. Before she’s next.

Short and Sweet Review

Two years ago, Mercy was able to save some lives in a mall shooting and since then she’s been hailed as a hero. But for Mercy she lives with a fragment of a bullet in her back and some guilt for not listening to her sister when she said the boy next door was anything but sweet. When Damien Dare a billionaire TV host comes up with a new reality survivalist show with a large grand prize, Mercy knows she can’t pass by the opportunity to win the money and send her sister to college. When Mercy arrives to the off the gird location for the show she knows something is off but her intuition becomes correct when her fellow contestants start dying off. Mercy needs to figure out who to trust before she becomes the next target.

I’ll start off by saying this was such a good book, and if you like thrillers and books with suspense this book is for you. Our main character is Mercy and she survived a shooting two years ago but it’s not something she can forget about especially because she knew the shooter and gave him the benefit of the doubt, but that obviously didn’t end well. I did like Mercy as a character, she was looked at as the leader but she also knew she had weaknesses. We do get to see her thoughts on the incident that happened two years ago and why she would have guilt. Mercy’s main motivation for getting through life is her sister, we don’t see her sister but she is mentioned often. When Mercy gets to the location of the site where the show is being shot everything just feels off, it’s very desolate and almost like a ghost town. There’s seven other contestants there and they all have their different personalities but we have. When the automatic gates lock the contestants in they know something isn’t right, they try to find supplies and a way out but it becomes evident they’re stuck there. When one of the contestants is found dead and it looks like a murder we find out that we don’t know who to trust. The remaining contestants try to work together to figure out what’s going on and how to get out of this nightmare. I just loved the idea that this was supposed to be a tv show about being a survivalist and I’m sure it would have made a great show without the murder, but this book definitely read like it could be something we see on tv. I like the relationships between all of the contestants because they really don’t know each other but have to work together and see if the person they’re working with is even trust worthy. The further we get into the book some things are unraveled and I think those revelations are the best part because, why were this kids brought to this place and what went wrong or right?

Overall, this book was well written and will have you rooted in place trying to finish it in one sitting. I liked the dynamic between the characters and seeing them work together to get out but also at the same time contestants are still dying. If you’re looking for your next young adult thriller look no further.