I was very happy when I was notified that Hodder & Stoughton approved me of an ARC of this. I loved Riley Sager's Lock Every Door and was looking forward to reading Home Before Dark for Halloween this year.

Compared with Lock Every Door, I didn't like this one as much. I think it was a fun book, and the premise is very interesting but sadly it didn't reach my expectation. I also didn't really the main character in this. As much as I think Riley Sager is a wonderful mystery/thriller author, his main characters are always stereotypical to me. I'm looking forward to reading his next books, but I hope there will be some development of his main characters in the next one.

What a joy to get your hands on the new title by one of your favourite authors!
For old fans and new ones alike, you will be on the edge of your seat, shouting instructions and rooting for the good guys. A fast-paced thriller that delivers to the last page.

I have read all of Riley Sagers books and have enjoyed some and not enjoyed others. But this one was by far the best one yet.
I was grabbed by this straight away and couldn't put it down. This is the true definition of a read in one sitting book.
Gripping, tense, a cat and mouse game and an unreliable narrator all worked perfectly.
And I didn't see the twists coming which is unusual for me in this genre.
This had the feeling of a screenplay and would make a great movie.

After her best friend at college was murdered, Charlie wants nothing more than to get away and go home immediately. She could wait ten days for her boyfriend to drive her, but she doesn’t feel like she can wait that long, so finding someone to ride share with seems like the best option. While putting an advertisement up on the ride share board, she meets Josh. He’s driving the same way as her and they arrange to leave together the next night. But as they start the drive, Josh says some things that make Charlie think he’s not the person he says he is. However, she often sees movies in her mind that warp reality – so, is what she’s seeing real?

I mean, I don’t want to victim blame here, but could Charlie be any dumber? Your best friend has been murdered by a stranger near campus, but you get in a car with a complete stranger you met there? And honestly, how many perfectly good opportunities can you possibly miss, to get yourself out of a situation, and instead just do NOTHING? It honestly made it hard for me to sympathize with her. The whole time I just kept thinking Just 👏 tell 👏 someone 👏 and don’t get back into the damn car! However, this turned out to be a fun story with a ton of twists that was reminiscent of 90’s teen thriller flicks. Despite my frustration I couldn’t stop reading, because I needed to unravel exactly what was going on and who these characters were.

This was the type of thriller that didn’t have me thinking too hard but still had me intrigued, and to be honest, sometimes that is exactly what I’m in the mood for! I read for entertainment after all. So, I wouldn’t say it was anything amazing, but it was an addictive read to curl up with for sure.

The epilogue was…I don’t know….a bit unnecessary? The plot was already asking us to suspend our belief in reality a little far and it almost felt like the author realised this and tacked the epilogue on. I don’t want to spoil anything but, yeah, I felt like those last few pages detracted from the story a bit.

This was my first Riley Sager book and I’ll definitely check out more to see what I think!

What a thrilling albeit dangerous ride! This book made my heart jumped out of my chest!

Boy! I never felt fear — but reading this book? Of Charlie being inside a ( possible ) serial killer’s
car on a road trip?? I am about to lose my sh*t!

This book was probably one of the best suspense thriller I’ve read to date. I love everything — how it grabbed all my attention , how it made my mind go “Oh no! Nooo sh*t!” Honestly, I never swear! Well, maybe occasionally.. like this very moment???

I love all the twists and turns — it kept on coming! It did not even give me a little time to catch my breath! Then, Bam!! Another “revelation”! Wha-aat??? Noooo way!!

My friends, it was like that until the very end. Unpredictable. Curious?? Go pick this book. Totally worth it!

Unfortunately this is my least favourite Riley Sager book to date. I did not find Charlie to be a believable main character and thought her decisions were absolutely ridiculous. I do not know a single woman who would have reacted the way she did in those situations. Sadly saw the final plot twist coming a mile off as well. While it was a fast read, sadly it was just not quite up to the great standard of Sager's other thrillers for me.

I loved Home Before Dark, a wild and exciting right. I enjoyed this one but it's not as exciting and the previous book.
Charlie is an interesting, unreliable narrator and you never know if she living in her mind or in the real world.
Well developed character, a plot that flow.
Unfortunately I guessed the final twist quite early in the book and this limited my fun as I spent the book trying to check clue.
A good book but I missed the exciting part.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

This is my second Riley Sager book and, in a way, I kind of knew what to expect. But I also really didn’t.

Sager is a master at making you doubt everything you read and Survive the Night is the ultimate proof of that. From an unreliable narrator to unexpected twists, Sager didn’t hold back.

I liked the story and the main idea but the execution left me on the fence. I wasn’t able to predict any of the parts of the book - except one towards the end, and I honestly don’t know how I feel about some of them. Especially the ending.

I was satisfied with what we were given up till the last chapter. This really surprised me and left me a bit unsure about how to feel. I liked it, but I also resented it in a way. It’s a bit of a weird one - which is very Sager now that I think about it.

I think Survive the Night is a book that will not only divide thriller fans, but also simply Sager’s readers. I still want to recommend it because it’s a wild ride and, in the end, Sager is simply really really good at what he does.

Yet another thrilling read from Riley Sager! As exciting as prior novels, and I thoroughly enjoyed the twists and turns.
An addictive read, visual impacts which sparked a need to read ‘just one more chapter’. A real page turner and I would definitely recommend this book!

Big thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

Sadly I didn't really like this book as much as I expected. It wasn't really bad but it was kinda boring and not really entertaining. I also didn't like the way the author wrote the female character. Girl-on-Girl-Hate is so out of fashion and not cool.

This was an absolutely thrilling read, another superb piece of writing from Riley Sager. I was on the edge of my seat as soon as Charlie sat into the car more or less. And the story just got better and better as she began to notice little discrepancies in the driver, Josh's story. The tension was unreal. I really couldn't put this down and missed many hours of sleep because of it. I loved it!!!

I loved this! Really enjoyed the 'movie' elements to the writing. Charlie was a great protagonist, kept me guessing with her all along. Brilliant twists that I did not see coming!

3.5/5
It's been a while since I felt this conflicted on a thriller.

On the one hand, I loved the tension and the forced proximity / isolated setting. It was very gripping, and towards the end, I struggled to put it down. I also liked how there were a couple of twists I didn't see coming (some things I did suspect but I didn't mind).

This book felt like a 90s slasher movie and I could visualise exactly how it would play out on screen, which I really liked.

I enjoyed my time reading it, but there were also a few aspects I couldn't ignore.

This is the 3rd book I've read by Riley Sager and I've noticed this author has a tendency to write weak and frustrating female main characters. This is the first of their books where it affected my overall enjoyment. Charlie is an unreliable narrator because she sees these hallucinations that play like movies in her mind, and I think I would have enjoyed the book more if this hadn't been included.

I'll definitely continue to read other books by this author but this wasn't my favourite.

Thank you NetGalley for this advanced copy. I ended up reading this book in book form before being approved on NetGalley. This was a good book. I haven't enjoyed Riley's last two books as well as the first couple, but this ended up being good overall. I felt parts were very predictable, but still had enough suspense to draw me in. The ending threw me for a huge shock.

I'm really not sure how to rate this book as I really enjoyed the first third of it and then as the plot developed it just felt further and further away from believable and it unfortunately took away from the reading experience.

I enjoyed the back and forth between Charlie and 'Josh' during the first part of their drive, where she's unsure if she can trust her own perception of things and if he's actually more sinister than he appeared.
But I ended up having a few issues with how mental health was portrayed throughout the book.
Starting with the fact that it has the cliché disdain for medication for the sake of plot.
This was further compounded later on when in the last few scenes Charlie is able to talk her self out of a hallucination and infers that they could be possibly gone forever after she does that.
To me this just seemed like a naive view of how mental illnesses and responses to trauma work in reality.

The more I reflect on my experience reading, the scenes of Josh and Charlie in the car is the only point I can really admit to being truly engaged with the story .
I had found Charlie's character a little annoying from the start. Due to the constant film references. Which for me personally I just have no interest in so perhaps this wouldn't read as repetitive to someone else. And also the pity party that was near constant and the over-exaggeration that she had murdered her friend.

Speaking of friends, the toxic female friendship in this was just aggravating. It didn't seem believable based on what was written that Charlie had such a deep friendship with someone like Maddy, who continually used and flaked on her, unless she was obsessed. I'm sure unbalanced friendships like this no doubt exist but I didn't feel the believable sympathy for someone missing their friend that the reader was supposed to feel.

To vaguely talk about the plot twists briefly, I found Marge's plotline to be quite a stretch and as soon as reading that reveal my engagement with the book just dissipated further.

About halfway through I had made a guess as to the final reveal of the murderer, however not because of well laid breadcrumbs but more in a 'oh no, please don't tell me where this is going' kind of way, unfortunately.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publishers for an e-arc of this book! Definitely the weakest of Riley’s books so far. It felt like I was reading from a different author. I found the whole storyline to be such a stretch. The movies in her mind thing was a bit odd and the other characters seemed to be so accepting and non questioning of this?! The twists weren’t that thrilling either. I adored the concept but the execution just missed the mark for me unfortunately.

I've only read one Riley Sager title previously but having devoured and adored Final Girls, I was excited to try another - especially when I read the blurb!

I'm a sucker for any narrative, be it a novel, film or play, set over a short time period. In the hands of a talented writer, this is one of the best devices to to make sure that every emotion your reader/viewer experiences is dialled all the way up to 100.

Survive The Night, as the title suggests, mainly takes place over the course of a single evening, though flashbacks to further the plot are included. Trust me when I say this is a book you won't want to put down, so maybe don't start it at bedtime like I did!

This novel also features another of my favourite devices: an unreliable narrator! Charlie, traumatised and guilt-ridden following the murder of her college roommate and best friend at the hands of a notorious serial killer, the Campus Killer, accepts a ride home from a total stranger in her desperation to get back to her hometown. She'll be spending several hours on lonely stretches of road with Josh, who almost immediately piques her suspicion.

Is Charlie trapped in a car with the very man who killed her best friend just months ago?

Charlie's definitely one of the more frustrating characters I've come across, constantly making life-threatening decisions at worst and extremely questionable choices at best. This is what makes the book so fun! Of course Charlie doesn't handle anything the way I would but if she did, there wouldn't be a novel. Yes, she's reckless almost to the point of self-destruction, but she's also brave and noble and you will find yourself rooting for her.

And, just like Charlie, you will be second-guessing everything. There are so many twists and turns that I would be amazed if you could correctly predict the outcome, which is just as dramatic and ridiculous as you'd hope.

This is about as much as I'd like to say because it's best if you read this book with as little knowledge of what to expect as possible.

Enjoy the ride!

A gripping, fast-paced read with a brilliantly original viewpoint and a recognisable-but-fresh setup. It took a little while to get going, but when it did I didn't pause for air. Highly recommended.

With its love letter to the movies and the 1990s, Survive The Nights is an addictive, visually impactful cat and mouse thriller that kept me totally entertained and invested! I wanted to read it hiding behind a cushion-just as I do with horror movies on the tv-as I became completely caught up in the car journey from hell. Full of twists and turn (many of them unexpected!) this book really delivered for me. I read it within a few hours, much as I would watch a film and loved every minute of it!

‘Survive the Night’ is so reminiscent of the classic, teen slasher flicks with twists, gore and humour all in one!

Movie obsessed Rachel is trying to figure out what to do with her life after the murder of her best friend, a murder that still has not been solved.
In order to get home, she hitches a ride with good looking, unassuming Josh, who seems harmless enough! But looks can be deceiving.

As a big horror/slasher fan, I loved the ideas behind this book! It brought me back to the movies I used to watch in my teens and was really entertaining. The story had enough twists and turns to keep me intrigued, but not overly complicated. We’re they the most unique twists ever? No. Did I guess a good amount of the twists? Yes, but I still enjoyed my time reading it!
I also loved the music and movie references scattered throughout the book. If you are a child of the 90s, you will definitely pick up on lot of them.

Some of the decisions by our leading lady were questionable and that’s putting it nicely! There were moments were I genuinely wanting to throw the book and say “HOW can you be so stupid?”, but let’s be real, that’s a lot of female figures in horror. So, I can’t be too mad at it.

This was my first time reading anything by Riley Sager and I gotta say, I am excited to read more by them.