May 7th --- Be there! reads the text that Cassidy never wanted to receive. It’s from her high school friend Amaya, and it serves as an annual reminder of the tragedy that bound her to nine of her former classmates when the vans carrying them home from a service trip crashed into a stormy ravine. While Cassidy and eight others made it out alive, clawing their way up a rocky cliff to safety, at least a dozen of their peers and two teachers did not survive.

To make matters worse, one year later, a fellow survivor died by suicide after the memorial service, cutting their number down to eight. In an effort to keep an eye on one another and preserve the inimitable connection forged by death and destruction, the remaining survivors have reunited every year since, holing up in a beach house rented by the wealthiest of them for a week.

"There’s always a tendency with writers of Megan Miranda’s caliber --- those who never disappoint, never stagnate, never let you down --- for readers to say that each new novel is their best yet. However, in the case of THE ONLY SURVIVORS, that statement is truer than ever."

To say that the survivors of the original tragedy are scarred is putting it mildly. They suffer bouts of depression and disconnection, with many bouncing from dead-end relationship to dead-end relationship, and others succumbing to addiction. In recent years, Cassidy has wondered why they cling to this memory when it may be doing more harm than good. In fact, this year she took preventative measures to avoid the reunion --- changing her number, deleting her contacts and sending emails to her spam folder. Still, though, she received that dreaded text.

When Cassidy arrives at the beach house, she faces the usual discomforts: adults living totally different lives who have to both catch up on everything that's going on and return to the identities they shared as teenagers. As usual, the awkwardness is visceral at first, but it soon fades away as the adults catch their stride. However, there’s one huge difference this year: Ian, one of Cassidy’s favorite members of their sad club, has died of an overdose, and she is the last to know. There are now only seven remaining survivors, and Ian’s loss has an obvious effect on everyone. Cassidy can’t help but notice that Amaya, usually the sheepdog who rounds all of them up, is unusually distant, even going so far as to take off soon after they’re reunited. Cassidy is assured that Grace, the kindest and sweetest member of the group, has texted with her, but she has a feeling that Ian’s death is a portent of something much darker.

Cassidy’s suspicions are soon confirmed when she learns that the number that texted her the invite is not Amaya’s, but Ian’s, and the phone has been abandoned on this property. Someone wanted to ensure that Cassidy joined the group this year, as if they knew she had long been considering breaking ties with her past. But why? As Amaya continues to stay missing and a storm closes in on the beachfront property, Cassidy and her former classmates are plunged back into the terrifying conditions of their friendship origin story. It becomes clear that while there were survivors, there were no heroes. They know exactly why.

Alternating between “then” and “now,” bestselling author Megan Miranda sets a tantalizingly tight stage of seven characters over seven days who once survived a horrific ordeal over seven hours. The symmetry is deeply satisfying, but that is the only safety net she guarantees readers. With a deep, dark past and a collective of adults who know one another’s most intimate secrets but don’t actually know one another, THE ONLY SURVIVORS is shocking and unrelentingly twisted as Miranda asks readers to piece together what really happened a decade ago, and why Cassidy and her friends are being forced to answer for it now.

Fans of Miranda’s previous works won’t be surprised by her skillful timing of twists and turns, but even longtime readers will appreciate just how tautly plotted this thriller is. She doesn’t just employ the use of alternate timelines and perspectives; she breaks the mold entirely, using mirrored settings, dynamics and secrets to both expose the errors of her characters’ past and highlight the effects of the allegiances they’ve formed. The result is a masterwork of craft artistry, so clever that you could almost read it twice --- once for the plot and once to appreciate the technical acuity of its author.

There’s always a tendency with writers of Megan Miranda’s caliber --- those who never disappoint, never stagnate, never let you down --- for readers to say that each new novel is their best yet. However, in the case of THE ONLY SURVIVORS, that statement is truer than ever.