Review: "What We Did to Survive" by Megan Lally

What We Did to Survive by Megan Lally
Published March 2026 via Sourcebooks Fire
★★★★

It's spring break, and Hannah is living it up with her friend Emmy at a beach resort in Mexico. And everything's great...right up until Emmy's latest crush invites them, and Emmy's brother, to go sailing. On a random boat whose owner he's paid off. With a storm on the horizon...

I'm not a fan of boats, but despite (because of?) this, I'm fond of locked-room murder mysteries taking place on boats. This isn't a mystery per se—when the first body falls, Hannah (and the reader) knows exactly what happened. We might not have the details of why, but we know what and who. The question becomes what the limits are...and of course what Hannah & co. will have to do to survive.

Lally's first book, That's Not My Name, won me over partly for the tight pacing and partly for the twists that kept things surprising, and What We Did to Survive manages something similar. I don't want to get into plot details, because they're more fun if you go in blind, but I love how much of this ends up being about Hannah and Emmy's friendship, and them figuring out to stay close, stay relevant to each other, when they're heading off in different directions.

Also, have to love this dedication: For all my fellow anxious travelers. This book probably won't help your anxiety much, but your next vacation can't possibly go as badly as this one... (loc. 29*)

*Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.