Books with a slowly shrinking cast
I really like stories where an ensemble cast slowly shrinks throughout the course of the story, until there are only a few survivors left (Danganronpa, Squid Game, or And Then There Were None to name a book example). There's something I enjoy about the dread of no character being safe, and my favourites always being at risk of dying.
It doesn't even necessarily have to be about characters dying, the whole elimination aspect is a lot more important to me, so something about a reality show for example could also work