Five Total Strangers by Natalie D. Richards

This was hands down my favorite read in awhile!! I read it in twenty-four hours and couldn’t put the damn thing down.

Summary:
Mira is travelling for the holidays when a terrible snow storm forces her to get stuck for the night during a layover in Newark. Harper, Mira’s slightly older and unflappable seatmate from the flight, has decided she can’t wait out the storm, so she hatches a plan to get a rental car and continue on.

Soon, Mira finds herself in a rental car with Harper and three other young strangers from the flight. As they attempt to drive through Pennsylvania in the middle of a terrible blizzard, strange things start happening. People’s belongings are disappearing. Alliances seem to be forming. And someone in the car is clearly lying. 

If she wants to make it home alive, she’ll need to uncover the truth about these strangers before this nightmare drive turns fatal.
---
This is a read that will keep you on the edge of your seat!! It is like the Young Adult version of No Exit. Or perhaps even an updated, dark thriller version of The Breakfast Club. 

It happens almost in real time, following what seems like just a few hours of a treacherous drive during the middle of the night in which one bad thing after another happens, forcing Mira and the others to make difficult -- and potentially deadly -- decisions.

It was especially fun to watch Mira attempt to get a read on these four strangers, while her opinions, suspicions and alliances continued to shift. Each of the characters was pleasingly complex and specific, and their lives and secrets were revealed in a slow and intriguing way, giving the reader -- like Mira -- reasons to suspect and fear each in turn. At certain points, you just sort of suspect EVERYONE.

Overall, I REALLY felt like I was in the hands of a very capable writer. This is the first book I’ve read by Natalie D. Richards, and it will NOT be the last. I intend to go back and read others now!!

Also, this needs to be a movie, STAT! Who’s working on that? Is anyone working on that??

I really can’t recommend this one enough. It’s such a fun, wintery thrill!!

​