We Won’t All Survive

Gr 9 Up–A fast-paced YA thriller centered around eight young adults who are recruited to participate in a new reality survival show with a large cash prize sponsored by tech billionaire Damien Dare. Each contestant has already endured a significant traumatic event, ranging from a train wreck to being stranded at sea after a ship sinking. Damien Dare is a YouTube sensation whose life philosophy revolves around what he has termed Core Crossroads principles. He believes that humans are at the precipice of an evolutionary crossroads and only people who are strong enough to escape their cages of comfort will survive the coming apocalypse. Events snowball quickly once the contestants reach the abandoned town of Landry’s Gap and realize that Damien Dare has removed all the safety nets of civilization from the show. Mercy Gray, one of the contestants, swiftly emerges as a trusted leader; she survived a mall mass shooting that left her with a bullet fragment in her back. Marshall provides a wide and varied group of believable young adult characters, ranging from a plus-size fashion influencer to a Black transgender student from Texas to an East Asian runner to a white body builder, all whom have their own traumas to get past to reach the show’s finale. The tension steadily builds throughout with a surprising final twist that will shock readers.