I turned once again to Freida McFadden. This time, I chose One by One.
A night spent sleeping on dirt and leaves is not how Claire Matchett expected to spend her vacation.
She thought this would be a break from the stresses of work and raising her young children. A chance to repair her damaged marriage. A week of hiking and hot tubs with two other couple friends. It sounded like heaven.
Then Claire’s minivan breaks down on a lonely dirt road. With no cell reception, the group has no choice but to hike the rest of the way to their hotel. But it turns out the woods aren’t as easy to navigate as they thought.
Hours later, they are lost. Hopelessly lost.
And as they navigate deeper into the woods, the members of their party are struck down mysteriously one by one. Has a wild animal been hunting them? Or is the hunter one of them?
But as more time passes, one thing becomes clear:
Only one of them will return home alive.
This book was really intriguing to me. I love a good lost-in-the-woods story. And this one reminded me of one of my favorites from Darcy Coates – Dead of Winter. It had a similar vibe. Something bad happens to the group, and they end up dying one by one.
This one had some great twists in it. It also had two different perspectives: Claire and Anonymous. I knew Anonymous was someone in their group. But I guessed wrong, which made it even better. Among the group, there was so much betrayal. Claire is cheating on her husband with his best friend. And it turns out her husband had kissed another woman. Neither of them is guiltless. But do they deserve to die?
In the end, everyone got what they deserved, I think. I really didn’t see some of that coming, and I love it when a good story catches me off guard.
I thought the setting was great, too. Being stranded and lost somewhere is always a scary thing, and Freida did a great job building the group’s anxiety. I was anxious for them!
And, there’s such great inner dialogue when the character is conflicted with information she’s been given from multiple sources. It’s so easy to manipulate people.
It was also a really quick read, which I always appreciate.