I am a huge fan of Riley Sager's book and this did not disappoint me. The writing style is just what I love and I find I get lost in these novels.

We meet Charlie who is being driven across the country by a stranger - yeah the character of Charlie is incredibly stupid and naïve but nonetheless people this is a made up story and does not have to be read as legit.

Anyway Charlie is slightly depressed with grief and living on campus, she is trying to get to her final destination and accepts a lift off Josh, he is wearing a campus sweater so he must be a college boy??? You will need to read this as I feel you can not get the full story from a review.

I really do not want to give too much of this novel away, but if you like gripping/anxiety inducing books then do give this a go - ignore the many negative reviews and go on this incredibly amazing/crazy journey.

Thanks to Riley Sager, NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me a copy in exchange for my honest review.

I can never resist a new Riley Sager book and have been eagerly anticipating this one. I picked it up and read it all in one day as it was written in such a way that I just didn’t want to put it down. We’re following Charlie who is really struggling after her best friend was murdered and now she’s leaving Uni. She finds Josh on the ride share board at school and says goodbye to her boyfriend. We find out that Charlie has had a tough life and when things are really bad she sees movies in her head overlaying what is really happening. The first half of this novel was gripping, I was unnerved with suspicions (and to be honest hopes) of where the novel might go as Charlie becomes increasingly unnerved by Josh. Unfortunately, the novel instead went in a much more predictable direction and ultimately left me feeling a bit disappointed. Having said that, I couldn’t put the book down so it was clearly gripping and it was enjoyable enough for the most part.

Charlie isa grieving the death of her best friend, Maddy, who was killed by a serial killer nicknamed the campus killer.
Charlie deals with her grief by escaping to watch movies in her mind but when that's not enough she decided to leave college and hitch a ride with a stranger.
Once in the car with Josh, although possibly not his real name, she realises she might be in danger. Charlie must survive the night at any means necessary.
This book had such a retro feel to it being set in 1991 with no mobile phones or easily accessible Internet. Jumping into Charlie's "movies" also makes it a bit of a mind bender. This fast paced thriller had me racing towards the end but unfortunately with so few characters the ending became a little bit predictable. I still really enjoyed the read though and would recommend to my customers.

So this book felt a bit like a hot mess.... but in a good way. Is that even a thing? The main character, Charlie, is super unreliable which is actually something I enjoy in a thriller. So she wants to leave campus and go home as there's a serial killer killing girls on campus. How does she get home I hear you ask. Well, she's sooooooo worried about the serial killer that she accepts a ride from a male stranger! Part way home she convinces herself that her ride is actually the killer. BUT..... and here's where things get a bit shaky, Charlie has a habit of zoning out and having super realistic daydreams to the point where she isn't sure if what happened is part of the daydream or IRL! So like I said... a mess! I think the gaslighting and unreliable narrator was written so well that I hadn't a clue what to believe or what to expect.
I really enjoyed Survive The Night and can't wait to read another by Riley Sager.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy of this book in return for an honest review.

An emotionally fragile student is desperate to get away from college after her room mate becomes the latest victim of a local serial killer.  Charlie cannot stand to be at the college any longer.  She is not even able to wait a couple more days until her boyfriend can drive her the 400 miles home, and so she accepts an offer of a lift from an older guy, Josh, who is heading off in the same direction the next evening.  It means driving through the night with someone she knows absolutely nothing about but at least she can put college behind her.  However, it doesn't take long for Charlie to become suspicious of her handsome chauffeur, so much so that she begins to wonder if Josh himself could be the Campus Killer.  

Over the last few years Riley Sager has become a firm favourite author of mine and I look forward to his new books with great anticipation.  Sadly this latest book fell a little bit flat for me.  It is a decent story but the authors previous books, in my opinion, have much more depth. Maybe my expectations were just a little too high. 3.5 stars

Really enjoyed the author's previous works, but this seemed different. Good, but not great. Would it have worked better for me if I was a film buff?

Also, did not appreciate the character throwing out her meds at the start of the book. Pretty much signals that an aspect of the storyline would not have been an issue if she'd just taken her meds as prescribed.

An easy five stars.

Something about an unreliable narrator (or two), a switching narrative and movie references drew me in on this one and holy hell. Wow.

Side note, how have I never read a Riley Sager before..?!?

This book made me gasp out loud in disbelief and shock and kept me guessing. I LOVED IT.

2⭐️
A new author to me. I was keen to read as he is a very well respected author in the psychological thriller fb group I’m a member of.

Charlie is leaving college after her friends sudden death at the hands of a stranger leave her unable to cope in that environment. She is taking a ride with a stranger sharing expenses. To add to the situation Charlie suffers from dreamlike trances where she doesn’t know what is real and way isn’t.
Josh also comes over as an unreliable character.
I’m afraid I struggled from the outset with the premise of the story, it pushed the boundaries of poor decision making too far for me. I couldn’t go with the concept.
The movie references I found irritating, even though that is Charlie’s whole life.
I didn’t engage with the characters,so it didn’t matter to me which one survived the night.
It gets a creepy scary feel during the journey as there are more revelations. The whole book just gets weirder and wackier.
To enjoy this one you have to be able to suspend belief and go with the flow. By the time the whole thing clicks it’s really too late to appreciate it if that makes sense. That’s even if my interpretation is correct. I’m afraid this one really wasn’t for me. It has also put me off trying other books by this author, as I see it’s still pulling in 4 and 5⭐️ reviews so it doesn’t look like his style is for me.

I was hooked on this book, grabbed my attention. From the beginning and totally different to the books I’ve read recently! Brilliant read.

After loving Sager's previous novel 'Home Before Dark', this honestly felt like a completely different writer!
I was rather confused by the premise- why would any character get into a car with a stranger after her best friend is murdered by a serial killer?!?! WHAT?
Unfortunately, the air of unbelieavability just shone all around this book and I found it so difficult to fathom the actions of the characters. I was just spending my reading time getting annoyed and frustrated.
If an author goes down the road of an unbelievable situation and centres the whole book around it, you've got to convince your readers why you do it, and for me this never happened.

Riley Sager books never fail to entertain and keep you fully entertained from beginning to end. He takes a plot which you feel you know inside and out and gives it originality and enough twists and turns to keep you unbalanced until the final pages.

Survive the Night is his nod to the film noir genre and setting it in the 90’s is pure genius as we are in a world without cell phones which gives it some extra tense situations. Taking a leaf out of classic films such as Shadow of a Doubt, Double Indemnity, etc, we follow Charlie as she is does a ride share to leave university after the murder of her roommate and good friend. We see most of the world through Charlie’s eyes though Sager does add some red herrings to keep the reader off balanced.

The characters are very well developed and the reader is fully invested in them as the plot twists and turns along the highway. There are some interesting character developments which include Charlie getting lost in her head as she thinks she is trapped in a film and not in real life. I truly admire this plot point because this really shouldn’t work but Sager turns it up and makes it believable.

The plot has its twists and turns and though there is a slow start, Sager keeps this interesting because you really want to see how this really turns out. The novel is basically a story of five characters and this keeps the plot rolling on. There is not a wasted scene or plot device and fully rewarding when the exciting conclusion takes its toll on the characters.

This is another exceptional, highly entertaining book by Sager which I personally look forward to with each and every release. This is the future of dark fiction genre as he takes a classic plot and twists and turns it into a unique experience. Survive the Night demands to be read and be experienced. The only fault is waiting for the next Sager book to be released. Excellent.

After the murder of her best friend, Charlie finally decided that enough is enough and she wants to leave college.

Her boyfriend is unable to take her so she looks on the lift board where she meets Josh who agrees to drive her.

Well that wasn’t what I was expecting! There were plenty of twists and turns - enough to keep you on your toes and keep guessing.

I did find it a bit slow paced in some parts and I didn’t really ‘get’ the movies in her head when she was reliving various events.

The final twist though - that was a surprise! I had no idea that it was going to end up like that but it was a very clever ending.

I’d definitely read more of his novels and although this wasn’t something I’d rush to read again, i wasn’t able to put it down

Content warnings: car accident, grief (parents and close friend), murder, stabbing, suicide, kidnapping, torture.

This book. Wow. I actually listened to the audiobook of this one, which is an experience that I highly recommend. I was hooked to the last page, and even when I finished work I kept listening while I did my chores so that I didn't have to leave the story until I was finished.

Survive the Night is a compelling page-turner of a story, a YA thriller that leans into the fear of being trapped with a stranger to create a claustrophobic sort of fear that left me so, so worried for our main character, Charlie. Charlie is running away from college, trying to get some space and get home to Ohio so she can recover from the guilt and grief she feels about the loss of her best friend, the most recent victim of a serial killer called the Campus Killer.

The time setting for this book was a perfect choice. With no mobile phones, Charlie is truly stranded the moment she gets into the car, so when she starts to realise that Josh might be lying about his identity, she has nowhere to go but onwards. Additionally, Charlie suffers from intense visual hallucinations. These are described in the book as 'movies in her head', but are very much a trauma response that Charlie is coming to terms with. I really enjoy the way these are portrayed. I haven't had hallucinations in a hot minute, but it felt authentic to me in the way it was shown and the way Charlie handles them, and I loved the depth they added to this book as Charlie had to work out whether it was Josh or her brain that was gaslighting her, and by extension the reader. It took 'unreliable narrator' to the extreme, and I really enjoyed it.

I was *completely* taken in by every single one of the plot twists in this book. It had me screeching into Andee's DMs the entire time, as Riley Sager dragged me along for the ride. I finished this book and immediately put a hold on another Riley Sager book at the library because I was sold on this excellent writing style and clever plotting. The ending was a little... out of the blue, but it didn't detract from my enjoyment of this book, a lot of which came down to Charlie herself. I *adored* Charlie as the main character. She has strong final girl energy, and I loved how brave she was when I would have just immediately given in and died. It made it so easy to root for her the whole way through, and I was ready to see her kick ass by the time I started getting suspicious of Josh.

My lowest rated Riley Sager! Saw quite a lot of the twists coming so nothing was a surprise but the story was fast-paced and kept me hooked. Sometimes I just want to know that I’m right!

Still really enjoyable and Sager is an auto-buy author for me.

This was the first book I’ve read by this author and I really enjoyed it.
I actually think it would make a really great movie.
Set in the 1990’s my favourite era so I had high hopes for it and it did not disappoint.
Girl gets in car with stranger and bad things happen. All sounds very familiar but that is where you would be wrong with this one.
I found myself getting anxious and very keen to keep reading to see what was going to happen.
This was a real page turner for me.
Thank you to Hodder & Stoughton and Netgalley for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was my first Riley Sager book, but I have been recommended them a lot so was really excited when I got approved for this on Netgalley. I now wish I had read Riley's works a lot sooner! Absolutely gripping storyline, struggled to put it down, and was so annoyed when I had no choice but to when life got in the way. I will definitely be reading more books by this author that's for sure.

This was an absolute wild ride of a book, I ended up enjoying it much more than I expected too. It was a book that I thought for the first 60% it was going to be quite predictable but then a few surprises at the end made me realise how clever the book was. I found this to be a very gripping read and I was hooked form page one and couldn't put the book down.

I enjoyed the plot of this book and the main character was a pretty interesting person. She just wants to get away from her grief and constant memories of a friend who was murdered. But what she gets in a very long night that changes a lot about her life forever.

I like that the book does discuss blame women get blamed for doing the wrong thing rather than the man who actually killed them. It does point out in the book that this shouldn't be the case but it is something that really happens.

I really enjoyed the book and all the twists and turns that made me question what I had believed for most of the book. I wasn't too keen on how things ended but it was a gripping read and ended up being more clever than I expected. Overall a really enjoyable thriller with some clever twists and I'm looking forward to reading more by this author.

Set in 1991, this follows a girl, Charlie, who is in a car with a man who might be a serial killer? Can she survive the night?

This had ALL the twists!! I thought the plot twist had happened, and then there was another, and another! What a wild ride and I cannot put it down.

The main character was utterly frustrating like every stereotypical female protagonist from a horror movie, and the writing wasn’t amazing but this was just so much fun to read.

It was written in a screenplay style and all takes place across 6 hours which make a gripping story.

I enjoy Riley Sager’s books for the escapist quality they have, and this follows type.

AD - This copy was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Every year I eagerly wait for Riley Sager's newest release and was so excited to read his latest book 'Survive The Night'. But honestly, I have mixed feelings for this one.
In the darkness of the night, two strangers are travelling together in a car, the man behind the wheel might be a killer which means the girl sitting on the passenger seat is in great danger. Will she be able to see the morning light?
The story is fast-paced and thrilling but not as entertaining. The second part of the story is where all the action takes place. And though I couldn't see one of two big twists coming, I had my doubts about the second one where the killer's identity is revealed. But then again the motive behind the killings didn't really make much sense.
Our protagonist Charlie is a highly unlikeable, unreliable and naive character who took the worst kind of decisions throughout the story and completely ignored all the red flags in plain sight.
Despite this I read this book in one sitting and enjoyed my time reading it.
I would be looking forward to the next Riley book.
Overall 3.5 stars.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

Am I missing something?? I am still pondering if this story being worse than a story line in a B movie is deliberate, but the writing style just did not land it for me. .

You can’t talk about this book without bringing spoilers into it. What I will say I did not like the use of hallucinations as a plot device, I did not like the “silly young girl” troupe, the ending or that the characters did not act in anyway relatable as a women who was a twenty something in the 90s.

Saying that I kept on reading as the plot was so ridiculous I had to find out what happened. I kept waiting for an amazing twist. For me that did not come.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read the book.