Ten years ago, Maggie and six of her primary school classmates were kidnapped by their bus driver. He held them in a cave, with a nefarious plan in mind. She lived to tell the tale and has moved on in her life. Now sixteen, she is back in the same area in the Scottish Highlands, but this time with her dad and others from her high school.

Her father is in charge of the trip, experienced and knowledgeable in the wilderness and keen to take these teens on an adventure. Tension is high as Maggie signed up for the trip with her boyfriend Ben. But Ben is now with Stephanie, also on the trip. Maggie tries to focus on her father and ignore Ben and Steph’s relationship along for the ride.

Twin brothers Lawrence and Seb are part of the group, and their never ending bickering and all out fighting drives Maggie crazy at the best of times. Away from school, they seem even worse. Luckily Maggie’s best friend Ant is there too, making things a little more bearable.

Despite the extensive planning by her father for the trip, things go wrong very quickly and he is separated from the group. Torn between wanting to after her father, and fleeing a vicious incoming storm, Maggie holes up with the others in a hiking hut. Hoping her dad will find them in the hut and that the storm will pass, is the last normal hope on her trip.

Strange things begin to happen. A huge hunting knife. Stolen supplies. Nature has turned on them too, and the very ground they are standing on defies them. When the strange becomes the deadly, accusations fly, nightmares return, and impossible connections are made between the trip and the abduction ten years before. Is someone hunting them down?

A school trip going wrong is a common premise, but Seven All Alone is so much more. These characters have already had trauma in their lives and when this wilderness adventure turns into a horror show, minds are reeling.

I enjoyed the slow unravelling of their past and the events that brought them together. Main character Maggie has had to deal with more than her peers as she alone was left to deal with her abductor as a child. Now she’s older, strong, capable with her father’s survival skills, and determined to survive again.

Obstacle after obstacle are thrown in her way however, building confusion and intrigue into who or what is responsible for the resulting carnage.

I became hooked into the story early, intrigued as much as the characters, as to what the heck was happening.

Author – Kirsty Mckay

Age – 12+

If you like the sound of this, you might like Flight of the Fantail

Publisher – Source Books / Penguin NZ

Set in – Scottish Highlands

Viewpoint – 1st person

Orphan? – No

Violence – Yes

Real Life – Yes

Fantasy – No

Sex – Alluded to

Blend – YA / Action / Thriller

(2025, Source Books, Friendship, Action, Adventure, Betrayal, Conflict, Courage, Crime, Murder, Kidnap, Cave, Escape, Storm, Cabin, School Trip, Tramping, Intrigue, Rafting, Wilderness, Captives, Survival)