Survive The Night had an intriguing premise but was ultimately let down by its weak characters and absurd plot threads – not to mention the ending.

Charlie blames herself after her best friend is brutally murdered. Their shared room at university only deepens that feeling, day after day. She needs to leave. It’s well known that a campus serial killer is lurking around, but she decides to post a flyer looking for a ride. She immediately meets a stranger who just so happens to be heading in that direction – so she takes him up on the offer.

Charlie has absolutely no sense of self-preservation. It’s difficult to believe a woman whose best friend was just murdered – who was told she might be targeted because of what she saw – would then get into a car with a stranger. After she realises something strange is going on, she’s given opportunity after opportunity to get out of the car and refuses. Oh, and she has ‘movie scene’ hallucinations sometimes, because what thriller is complete without this overdone and often ableist trope. Not to mention it isn’t relevant to anything other than an attempt to make her unreliable. Even with this ridiculously clueless main character the first half of the novel was enjoyable, slightly repetitive at times, but the potential was there. Then reveals start to happen, and they’re surprising, yes, but only because they’re so utterly ridiculous. The character motivations make no sense, their actions make no sense, the tone of the story makes no sense – it was entertaining, if only for how strange it was. Then the last few pages come along, and it turns what was a silly but occasionally fun book, into a groan-worthy waste of time.

I am a big fan of Riley Sager’s books and was absolutely delighted to get this e-arc!

He’s done it again! What a killer thriller!

I absolutely blitzed through this, I just couldn’t get enough. Literally, every single page had me hooked.

I liked the 90’s theme because, lets be honest, it’s unrealistic today to assume someone would get into a strangers car for a 9 hour road trip after a recent murder by an unknown serial killer.

It’s mainly Charlie’s pov but I did like that it flicked to other characters to get their thought processes for the same scenes.

I loved the ending - that last chapter was fantastic! That little extra twist that was completely unexpected.

I thoroughly enjoyed it and I am so looking forward to Sager’s next book!

This book is like a combination of all of the tropes from all of the trashy horror films you've ever seen bunged together in a fast-paced road trip cum slasher romp. If you come in prepared to suspend your sense of disbelief and leave any preconceptions at the door I can guarantee you'll be entertained and surprised for the few hours it takes to rattle through Riley Sager's latest novel.

My first time reading a Riley Sager, I have a few more lined up after this. Apparently, this is his weakest book, but I enjoyed most of it. This book is set in 1991 and I am sucker for anything set in the 80s/90s. This book would make a good film, especially as parts of the books are written similarly to movie script.

The logic of the main character is frustrating because it’s not there! I haven’t read much by an unreliable narrator but this case was taken a step too far here I feel. Some of the decisions she was making were beyond any reason which was very frustrating and caused me to eye-roll a few times!

I did enjoy the end when the tempo lifted and plot twists were revealed. Some I predicted, some caught me off-guard. This is an easy thriller to read, it doesn’t go too deep on the psychological aspect and could be read in one or two sittings.

Thank you netgalley for the opportunity to read survive the night.
Great story idea, was my first time reading this author and I enjoyed the book enough but feel this may make a better film. 😬

EXCERPT: She thought she'd eventually become a professor at a school similar to Olyphant, teaching film studies to the next generation of cinephiles.

What she hadn't planned on was Madeleine Forrester swanning into their dorm room that first day of college on a gust of cigarette smoke and Chanel No. 5. She was beautiful. That was the first thing Charlie noticed. Pale and blonde and voluptuous, with a heart-shaped face that reminded her of Vivien Leigh in Gone With the Wind. Yet she seemed slightly worn around the edges. An intriguing exhaustion. Like a hungover debutante dragging herself home the morning after a cotillion.

Framed in the doorway, teetering on three inch heels, she surveyed their room and declared, 'What a dump!'

Charlie got the reference - Maddy was impersonating Liz Taylor in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? impersonating Bette Davis in Beyond the Forest - and her whole body fizzed like a jostled bottle of champagne. She'd just met a kindred spirit.

'I think I adore you,' she blurted.

ABOUT 'SURVIVE THE NIGHT': Charlie Jordan is being driven across the country by a serial killer. Maybe.

Behind the wheel is Josh Baxter, a stranger Charlie met by the college ride share board, who also has a good reason for leaving university in the middle of term. On the road they share their stories, carefully avoiding the subject dominating the news - the Campus Killer, who's tied up and stabbed three students in the span of a year, has just struck again.

Travelling the lengthy journey between university and their final destination, Charlie begins to notice discrepancies in Josh's story.

As she begins to plan her escape from the man she is becoming certain is the killer, she starts to suspect that Josh knows exactly what she's thinking.

Meaning that she could very well end up as his next victim.

MY THOUGHTS: I had heard so many great things about author Riley Sager, and started Survive the Night in great anticipation, which soon waned. This book is just NUTS! And sorry, but I don't mean that in a good way. I struggled to finish this.

I love an unreliable narrator, but Sager has taken this trope a step or two too far. At first I was intrigued, then I became disgruntled, and finally bored by the whole 'is this real?/is this a hallucination/dream?' minefield.

The story has oodles of potential, and there was one twist that I didn't see coming that earned this read an extra half star. Sager's description of Charlie and Maddy's first meeting is absolutely superb, but honestly? I could have done without the endless movie references. And yes, I have watched and enjoyed the majority of the movies referred to but, as I am fond of saying, sometimes less is more, and these were overdone.

Will I read more from Riley Sager? Yes. But I won't be recommending Survive the Night to anyone.

⭐⭐.2

#SurvivetheNight #NetGalley

I: @riley.sager @hodderbooks

T: @Riley_Sager @HodderBooks

#historicalfiction #mentalhealth #murdermystery #psychologicaldrama

THE AUTHOR: Riley Sager is the award-winning pseudonym of a former journalist, editor and graphic designer who previously published mysteries under his real name.

A native of Pennsylvania, Riley now lives in Princeton, New Jersey. When he's not writing, he enjoys reading, cooking and going to the movies as much as possible. His favorite film is "Rear Window." Or maybe "Jaws." But probably, if he's being honest, "Mary Poppins."

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Hodder & Stoughton via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of Survive the Night by Riley Sager for review. I'm just sorry I didn't like this more. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

This review is also published on Twitter, Amazon, Instagram and my webpage

After hearing some mixed reviews for this one I was dubious going into this but I was pleasantly surprised.
Don't get me wrong there are issues in this book - the main character Charlie's logic in the majority of this book is pretty much non existent, that is something that was very apparent to me whilst reading.
But the characters themselves and the plot I really enjoyed, I was intruided the whole way through and although I did predict a couple of the plot twists I still enjoyed the ending.
It is very twisty and I really enjoyed that - The plot wad different to anything I've read before so I think that added to my enjoyment.
I will be definitely bumping up my other Riley Sager books on my tbr.

Trying to escape her campus life after her best friend was murdered, Charlie gets on a road trip with a stranger that, along the way, seems to know way too much about her life.

There are so many unbelievable twists in here but I was hooked because that’s what I was in the mood for, an escape from the reality with so many old movies quotes and some of my favourite music songs from the 90s .

Unpredictable twists? Not so much, but that never stopped my enjoyment.

It was my first book by the author and I can see why his books are so loved/hated. I got one enjoyed it a lot and I’m looking forward to read more in the future.

Very grateful to the publisher for my review copy.

Well I did it!! I finally got round to a Riley Sager book (ridiculous, I know…) but I can tell you right now, it won’t be my last.

Loved it. I hurtled through this one in the space of a day and a half. Starting off with a tantalising beginning, the story slowly and teasingly unwrapped itself to produce a satisfying and deviously twisted ending. The unreliable narrator was masterfully executed - Sager plays with the reader like a cat plays with a mouse… toying shrewdly until the final swoop.

Charlie did get my goat a few times and I wanted to grab her and give her a good shake, but I love it when characters evoke emotions in me.

If you haven’t read this one, then get a wiggle on. I certainly will be for more Sager books!

Charlie Jordan really needs a ride home. She's desperate enough to take a ride with a stranger, even though there is a killer loose on her campus. When Charlie meets Josh by the ride board she decides he seems nice enough, and has as good a reason as she does to be leaving campus mid-term. As they start their roadtrip they share their stories, but as they get further from campus Charlie starts to notice discrepancies in Josh's story, and before long she is convinced that he is the Campus Killer. Worse yet she could be his next victim.

I've only read one Riley Sager book before so don't have a lot of experience with his writing. I did enjoy that one so was looking forward to this one. Unfortunately I didn't enjoy this one the same way.

The biggest issue that I had with this whole book is Charlie. I just couldn't get to grips with the decisions she was making, and so couldn't relate to her at all. In fact she's quite infuriating and not remotely sympathetic because of this. On top of that she's a highly unreliable narrator, but the method used to show that here did't appeal to me at all. Charlie has a thing she calls 'movies in her mind' where she sees events playing out differently to how they really are when she is stressed. I didn't really like the way the author used this as often as he did to keep replaying the same scenes with slight differences. I also thought it was playing on mental health issues to benefit the story, and didn't seem overly sincere.

The plot has some good aspects to it, but did get really out there towards the end. A few of the twists were a bit too far fetched to be believable, and things started to seem rather contrived to get it all wrapped up in a nice neat bow for the end of the book.

I did like the idea of the main story actually being a movie script, with the intro/outro detailing Charlie's thoughts on the movie of her life. This was an interesting idea, and maybe something that could have been played up more.

All in all this missed the mark for me, I didn't feel the thriller vibe and didn't connect with the characters. I've seen some cracker reviews of it though so maybe have a look at some of those too before you make a call on reading.

Thanks to NetGalley and Hodder and Stoughton for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

As soon as I read the blurb of this story, I knew it was right up my street!
Although the story was gripping at times, I feel it lacked a little something. The thing that keeps you up at night reading until 3am!
Thank you to Riley Sager, NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Survive the night by Riley Sager.
Behind the wheel is Josh Baxter, a stranger Charlie met by the college ride share board, who also has a good reason for leaving university in the middle of term. On the road they share their stories, carefully avoiding the subject dominating the news - the Campus Killer, who's tied up and stabbed three students in the span of a year, has just struck again.
A very good read. Great story and characters. 4*.

This was entertaining and fast paced but compared to the author's other works I found this very lacking.

Charlie is a very polarising main character and some of her actions were highly questionable and stupid. The story also came across as predictable and in general failed to create a sense of danger and urgency. However, the thing which really bothered me was Charlie's mental health representation, which wasn't executed well and left a lot of loopholes in the story.

Overall, great setting but the execution was not done well. I just expected more.

I cannot call myself a real movie buff, but I've seen most of the movies main character Charlie mentions in this story. Seen them more than once actually so I could really relate to her thoughts on them - and on what you can learn from them.
What (young) women are supposed to learn from movies, is never enter a dark room without turning on the light immediately, or accept a drink from a stranger - or get into a car with one. And Charlie does this willingly. Well, Charlie has every reason to do so, and why not? Not every stranger is out there to harm you, just as not every friend is a real friend. The real lesson here for Charlie is this: as in the movies, sometimes things are not as they seem.
Of course you cannot begin reading a book like this without suspecting the story will go a whole other way and luckily it does. There are some small surprises and some big ones, and the biggest ones turned up just I was starting to lose interest. The largest part of the book is rather slow with way too much internal dialogue from Charlie, dialogue that sometimes went nowhere at all.
For this unbalance in the story, I gave it three stars where it could have been four. But all in all, I'm happy I've finally read it, because it was on my Kindle a long time already.
Thanks to Netgalley and Hodder for this review copy.

It's going to be a bit hard to review this without spoilers as I really can't say too much. Bottom line though is that whatever you think about the main character, who she is journeying with, where they are going and why, just stick with it... you might just find yourself a bit surprised at the end.
So Charlie Jordan is quitting school after the death of her room mate at the hands of the Campus Killer. Wracked with guilt she just wants to go home. Can't even wait a couple of days for her boyfriend to drive her so she checks out the ride share notice board. Ride share... what could possibly go wrong on a long drive with a stranger when there's a killer still at large...? But that aside, she does accept a ride from Josh who works at the college and is going home to look after his ailing father. Or so he says...
And that's all I'm saying about the story apart from the fact the Charlie also sees the big red flags all the way through but kinda justifies why she doesn't just stop. I say justifies, bit flaky to say the least but it'd be a short boring story if she just said "you know what, I will wait for my bf to drive me, but thank you". So... pinch that salt, suck it up, buckle up and just enjoy the wacky ride, and if you must, side-eye and eye-roll as you go...
And the end, when it eventually all gets exposed, is well worth all the pain you might go through getting there... I just fear that many will not survive the whole journey and give up...
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

Totally gripping, unexpectedly twisty, absolutely brilliant. Survive the Night is a page-turning treat for thriller fans, set across the course of one night as Charlie tries to escape her guilt after her best friend is murdered. Highly recommend!

My first taste of Riley Sager, and I’m already hungry for more. What an exciting read this was — a slow burn to start with but building to a crash, bang, wallop of a finale that left my nerve-ends fizzing. .

The premise is one to set your heart racing before you even open the book.

Absconding from college midway through term, troubled student Charlie accepts a lift across country from friendly stranger Josh. A short time into the journey, she becomes convinced that she’s sharing a car with the notorious Campus Killer, who has claimed three victims in the past year, including her roomie, Maddie.

I love that this story is crammed into a few short hours and takes place mostly (until the thrilling ending) within the confines of a metal box moving through the night in hostile weather. The atmosphere and tension are electric, and grow ever more so as Charlie’s fevered suspicions take hold.

Sager is a master of obfuscation and misdirection, and it’s a skill he displays here with a brilliant twist on the unreliable narrator trope.

The story is told mostly from Charlie’s point of view, but it’s a view warped by her emotional instability. Since the trauma of losing both parents in a tragic car crash, she has been plagued by fugue-like episodes, where she experiences an alternate present. So, the reader can never be sure about her narration of events.

This emotional state lends huge credibility to what might otherwise be seen as dumb decision making, when Charlie repeatedly rejects opportunities to escape her “captor.” I totally bought into her flawed but entirely plausible and forgivable reasoning.

I’m not the kind of reader who tries to second guess the plot of a thriller; I prefer to sit back and enjoy the ride. So when the pace picked up and exploded towards the end, I reveled in every single, action-packed twist.

A hugely enjoyable, satisfying read.

Firstly, thank you to Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
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It’s 1991. Nirvana's in the tape deck, George H. W. Bush is in the white house, and movie-obsessed college student Charlie Jordan embarks on a long drive home from college when there is a killer at large. The only thing is she might be in the car with the serial killer! (Sounds like a perfect 90s horror cheesefest right? I LOVE IT!)
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It certainly isn’t my favourite @riley.sager book that I’ve read, unfortunately, I felt some parts of this book were overly predictable and a lot of the book was character inner monologues which I honestly wasn’t a massive fan of.
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Despite this, there is something about Riley’s writing that makes it basically impossible for me to put it down. This book was fun, it’s filled with pop culture references - especially movies. Speaking of movies, the chapters were written very similar to a screenplay/script including having chapters named after screenplay locations which was different to anything I’ve ever read.

A killer stalks the university campus & has just killed their third victim. Currently on campus is Charlie Jordan, who ever since the deaths of her parents in a car accident, has allowed her life to be consumed by movies, to the extent that she 'sees' movies playing in her head whenever things become too stressful or sad. Now, following the murder of her best friend, Maddy, at the hands of the Campus Killer, all Charlie wants to do is go home, so she decides to use the college ride share board to get a lift home to Ohio. She meets Josh Baxter there, a stranger who works on campus, but is going home for a family emergency. As their car journey begins, they start talking & it isn't long before Charlie realises there are things about Josh that don't add up. Is it just her imagination, is it her guilt at leaving her best friend alone that fateful night, is she really seeing what she thinks she is seeing, or is Josh the Campus Killer?

I do so look forward to a new Riley Sager book & this one is a belter of a read. It starts off quite slowly, but as things pick up, the tension mounts, & I found myself flying through the final 40% of the book. It is written mainly from Charlie's point of view, but there are short chapters from other characters, & it all adds to the build-up. Yes, you do have so suspend your disbelief that Charlie would get in a car with a stranger mere weeks after the murder of her best friend, & with a killer on campus, but if you can do that, the twists keep on coming, & you won't be disappointed.

My thanks to NetGalley & publishers, Hodder & Stoughton, for the opportunity to read an ARC.

Set in the US in 1991, the story introduces us to Charlie. Charlie is a college student looking to get home to Ohio. She ends up taking a lift from a stranger, Josh, she meets at the campus ride board (note: something I’d never heard of before..)

Both have reasons for wanting to leave. Charlie’s best friend was recently murdered by the ‘Campus Killer’ and she can’t escape the memories living in their old dorm room alone. Josh has an ailing father he needs to get back to. Things seem fine as they start their journey together, until suddenly they don’t.. Who is Josh really? And can Charlie really trust someone she’s just met?

I was really intrigued by the premise for this one. And it starts off great – Sager builds the tension really well as the car drives along dark highways with Charlie becoming more and more suspicious about Josh and if he is in fact who he says he is.

Adding to the tension, we learn that Charlie sometimes goes into a sort of trance or daydream which means you as the reader are not always sure what’s real and what’s not real. I’ve read other reviews that said they found this confusing but I actually really liked it. It adds to the tension.

For me, and it’s often my issue with these kind of novels, is that about two thirds of the way through the story, it just goes completely off the rails. I can’t describe it too much here without giving it away but the story becomes like something out of a Veronica Mars episode (and not in a good way). The psychological thriller aspect that works so well at the start disappears and it just becomes kind of ridiculous?

It’s very readable and by the end I can see what Sager was trying to do with the novel but I feel like there was just a better story in there that got lost just after the diner scene (if you’ve read it, you know).

If you’ve read it, I’d love to know what you thought? Am I taking it all too seriously? Should I just go along for the ride and enjoy it?

* Survive the Night by Riley Sager will be released here on 23 Dec 2021. Thanks to the author, Hodder Books & NetGalley for an advance digital copy in exchange for an honest review *