Going from point A to point B, some people die – books

Super specific request here. I'm looking for books with a dynamic cast and high stakes. ANY genre: sci-fi, zombie, slasher, fantasy, romance, YA, children's, speculative, historical– anything.

Something with major character death and a tight plot, ideally not a series, but if you have a series in mind, BY ALL MEANS SHARE.

Plot is basically: characters go from point A to point B and some people die on the way. It can be a deadly game, it can be a deadly maze, it can be a deadly race, it can be a series of Colosseum matches, it can be a tournament arc. It can be a you-die-in-the-game-you-die-in-real-life plot. It can be an exploration story, it can be an apocalypse.

I'm looking for books that have a dwindling party but really stick the landing and wrap up in a satisfying way. I'm specifically looking at when and how characters are introduced. Also how character death is incorporated and made surprising, or meaningful, or both. Just trying to figure out why some stories work and some don't. Feel free to share books that disappointed you as well.

Some examples: Suzanne Collins is very good at this – Gregor the Overlander and the Hunger Games series. Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah. Homer's Odyssey, Watership Down Richard Adams, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Life of Pi by Yann Martel, nonfiction – Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage (though no one dies), Alone on the Ice by David Roberts.

Some movies too just for example purposes: Mad Max Fury Road, Snowpiercer, Alien, Aliens

Personal taste wise: I think nihilism is boring and hope is hard and will always prefer a story with some hope. I love complicated characters. I also love really over-the-top wild characters and over-the-top wild story lines. A sense of fun is always appreciated, but I also understand that it can be very hard to have in more intense stories. LGBTQ+ is always appreciated.

Thank you for reading all this if you have, would love to hear suggestions even if they don't fit exactly the form I'm proposing.