We Won’t All Survive

We Won’t All Survive by Kate Alice Marshall (Affirm Press) Novel RRP AU$22.99 ISBN 978 1 923 293 977

Reviewed by Robyn Gillies

Eight contestants are recruited to participate in a reality TV survival show set in an off-grid location. Last the game, and you win a massive cash prize. But when the gates close, something doesn’t feel right, and when one of the participants turns up dead, it’s no longer a game.

Wow, from the very first pages this novel draws you in. The action-packed pace makes it a page turner and its clever use of words offer rich visual images that make you begin to feel as though you are there with them trying to survive.

Each of the characters are compelling with individual voices that create the necessary tension between them to make their reactions and behaviours with each other believable. Their backstories are cleverly woven into the narrative, each providing their personal motivations for participating in the game. And the key protagonist, Mercy Gray’s backstory was critical to her role.

Mercy had been marked by media as a hero for her role in saving lives during a shooting two years earlier, and she carries the fragment of a bullet lodged in her back as a result. But it’s not the physical injuries she sustained that trouble her, it’s the invasive thoughts, the nightmares and her inability to trust again. But it’s trust that she will need to survive this event. Her character is rich and complex.

The author has skillfully and convincingly described characters in a way that are moving and insightful, which helps the reader to understand the long-term effects of trauma on people’s lives.

There are multi-layers to this story, such as the dangers of obsession or of cult-like following but it is also a story about courage and compassion. And peppered amongst it all, some clever humour, targeted for the intended audience, showing how the human mind copes under challenging situations.

This novel would suit mature young adult readers and is one that I highly recommend for those who enjoy a story about survival, murder and understanding the human condition.