THE BITTER END

In this closed-circle thriller, a group of teens become stranded on a Colorado mountain during a snowstorm while a killer picks them off.

After all their original preferences for the Senior Excursion trips offered by moneyed Warner Prep fall through, a group with a history of bad blood find themselves stuck in a remote cabin with their hard-nosed guidance counselor, Ms. Silva, for an enforced technology-free weekend. The students smuggle in illicit booze, and the very first night, they drug Ms. Silva with Ambien so they can party. By the following morning, someone is dead. A volley of first-person narration alternates among the perspectives of Piper, Willa, and Delaney; third-person interludes focus on each of the other teens—Eden, Camille, Liam, Wyatt, and Declan. The multiple voices make for an intricate setup. Donne also switches the narrative back and forth in time between the present and another night of alcohol- and drug-induced chaos three years earlier—one that resulted in tragedy—further contributing to an unsettled feeling. Many in the large cast of lightly developed characters are image focused, self-involved, and not particularly likable, and this element works in favor of this plot-driven thriller. Readers will be kept guessing until the end about which of the duplicitous, secretive people in question may be the murderer. Most cast members present white, Liam is cued as having some East Asian ancestry, and Piper is asexual.

A twisty whodunit filled with unreliable narrators.