Title: Breakout
Author: Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk, and Nicola Yoon
Genres: Contemporary/Thriller
Pages: 353
Publisher: Quill Tree Books
Review Copy: ARC from publisher
Availability: Available Now
Summary: For Thurgood Marshall Academy’s best and brightest–five friends who’ve been thick as thieves since kindergarten–this spring break is all about forgetting: they want nothing more than to wash away last year’s tragedy, and the human-shaped hole it left in their friend group.
It’s a hole the new kid, Anthony Brooks, seems to fit right into. So when he invites the Five to join him on a private island for a week at his dad’s luxury resort, they agree with zero hesitation. No one’s counting on a freak tropical storm swooping in and killing the vibe. And speaking of killing, they’re also ill-prepared for the mounting collection of dead bodies… including (another) one of their own.
As their dream trip unravels, everything they tried to leave behind–secrets, lies, betrayals, dead best friends–seems to be washing up on the shore of their lives for everyone to see. Will any of them make it out alive?
Review: Having reviewed and loved Blackout and Whiteout, I was so excited for this newest novel from The Six (that’s what I call them). All of these authors have such different writing styles that come together, seamlessly, to tell a gripping story. Both novels were completely different so I was intrigued on how they would work together to create a thriller. And having Tiffany D. Jackson as one of the writers, I was expecting a bomb-dropping plot twist (which did happen). For the most part I believe it worked, but the ending left me with more questions than answers so that marred my reading experience a bit. That doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it; I was just left wanting for more at the end.
The novel is told in a mix of present day chapters, where the kids are at the hospital after their ordeal, and flashbacks to the events on the island. The story is told from multiple perspectives, of all the kids of course, but also the detective in the hospital, and various workers at the hotel. There is murder as well and the reader is privy to the last moments to at least three of the murder victims. With having these multiple POV’s, specifically between the kids and the workers, as to how the two saw each other. We learn about the complex nature of the kids relationships with each other individually, as a whole, and even in the absence of their deceased friend Keisha. The island trip happens to coincide with the 1 year anniversary of Keisha’s death, which all of them were present for, so when Anthony turns up dead, all the kids are triggered and act out accordingly. In addition, Anthony had dirt on all of them, secrets they are hiding from each other, so they all are trying to find where he hid the info while playing innocent. It’s a lot for high school kids that I almost didn’t want to believe such young people could be so dirty, but the reality is that many high school kids are involved in some crazy nonsense, especially when you have kids who have access to power as all the teens in Breakout do. Because of this, all the characters were unreliable narrators so I have to applaud the authors for pulling this off. None of the characters, both the kids and the staff, were very likable so there was no one to root for. The mystery, however, is what really drew me in. As each body was revealed, each character began to act more and more irrationally and the psyche breakdown was masterfully written. It was a study on what happens when people are trapped and dealing with stress. Folks become selfish and turn on each other. New relationships are formed and some are irrevocably broken. All of this happened in Breakout.
Breakout was an intense and crazy novel where so much happened in such a short amount of time. It was a fast-paced novel but also took the time to be a character study. Another solid novel by these fabulous authors who I hope continue with the “out” series.