An interesting read and not as expected. With some twists and turns and a surprising ending. However, a little confusing at times, and a little hard going in places.

Another amazing Riley Sager book!

When I first heard the premise of this book, I knew it would be completely up my street! As a horror movie buff, it was everything I expected and more!

I absolutely loved it! The whole story had me on the edge of my seat and the twists and turns kept me wanting to read more! The characters (although there wasn’t many) had me rooting for them and I wish there were more books like this out there!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC.

I am a huge Riley Sager fan and was thrilled to be approved for this book. I immediately jumped into reading it, and I’m so disappointed. While I loved the 90s timeline that this is written in, the main character, Charlie got on my nerves, and was just stupid. I also got bored with the endless dialogue between her and Josh in the car. NOTHING else was happening. I did feel a sense of claustrophobia while reading this, which may be what the author intended. I just did not enjoy this at all.

I have enjoyed Riley Sager's novels in the past but i struggled to even finish this one. What begins as an interesting book, soon becomes repetitive, predictable and even boring. It was hard to connect to the protagonist and the movie script like narrative technique didn't help, evwn though i get it that it supposedly complements the protagonist's love for movies.

The book felt tedious after a point and i skipped many pages and descriptions just so that i could finish it. The idea behind the book is interesting, the execution not so much. Towards the end, i was realky disappointed. The book left me feeling underwhelmed.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for providing me a copy in exchange of an honest review.

5 stars
Enjoyability 10/10

After losing her best friend to a brutal murder, Charlie decides to leave her college life behind and go home to heal. She feels like she can't wait and arranges a ride with a stranger she met on the post board. This is the 90's way before rideshare and cell phones; keep that in mind.

As the drive goes on and they exchange stories, Charlie starts to notice there is more to Josh than meets the eye and panics as she suspects she might be riding with the Campus Killer. Will she survive the night?

Nothing I can say about Survive the Night will do it justice. It feels that with every Sager I read, I think that's his best yet, but seriously THIS is Sager's best novel so far. I kind of feel bad for him. It must have been so painful to wait so long to share this book with the world. Hopefully, his torture has an end date - June 29th.

The opening chapter is one of the strongest I have read in a long while, definitely in my top 10 of all times. I was hooked from the first word. Sager set the pace, and it never slowed down. The quote from All About Eve was eerily accurate, and I am glad I listened and fastened my seatbelt!

Survive the Night is a book that doesn't take itself seriously on the surface: It's a bit campy, and it pays homage to some of the best movies of all time. This book is heaven on earth to any movie buff! As an homage, it is a quilt of the most beloved tropes. In the hands of any other author, this would be a disaster. But what Sager achieve was a novel that, at its core, is tightly plotted, intentional, fast-paced, witty, intense, scary, vertigo-inducing (see what I did there?), and very interactive. I was literally talking to (okay, yelling at) Charlie through the whole book. I believed her, I doubted her, I was mad at her, I worried for her. When I finished reading the last word, I dropped the book started clapping as I thanked Sager out loud for such a fantastic experience.

Disclaimer: I first read it as an ARC. In exchange for an honest review, I am thankful to Hodder & Stoughton, Riley Sager, and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of Survive the Night.

This book would make a FANTASTIC movie! 🍿

It is written as screenplay, with each scene, depicted by its camera location:
INT (interior, inside of) or EXT (exterior, outside of)

In fact, this time, I think this story would be better as a movie, than as a book.

So, after reading some “less than enthusiastic” reviews for this one, I decided to approach it, by actually picturing what I would be SEEING, if this screenplay was on the BIG SCREEN! And, that worked for me.

It’s 1991-cars have tape decks, and if you want to call someone from the road, or CALL FOR HELP-you will have to find some coins and a pay phone….

Charlie is a film theory major who feels like she cannot stay at college for another day! Her roommate and best friend, Maddy was the 4th Victim of a serial murderer referred to as “The Campus Killer” and Charlie feels responsible. The little orange pills aren’t working, and she is retreating into a movie-like World and starting to wonder what is real and what is hallucination.

She searches the Campus ride-share board and as luck would have it, a guy named Josh Baxter is also looking for someone to share the 6 hour drive to Ohio. She says goodbye to her boyfriend Robbie and climbs into the car.

INT Grand AM-Night

The Snow is smacking the windshield, the fog is receding, and as Josh and Charlie begin making conversation, she becomes increasingly convinced that she may have just accepted a ride with the Campus Killer!

In order to SURVIVE THE NIGHT, Charlie must:
BE SMART. BE BRAVE. and BE CAREFUL.

But, sometimes you need to choose one!

Of course, this is a MOVIE and our VICTIM will not always choose wisely, or we wouldn’t have a story.

We wouldn’t have a reason to SCREAM at her, ROOT for her, or PEEK between our fingers while covering our eyes! What fun would that be??

And, the ending…Maybe only in the movies!

So, while I agree that the story doesn’t translate as well to the page as it would to the screen-it did offer some surprises once it got going and it DID kept me entertained!

It’s not my favorite by this author, so if it’s your first time reading his work, I wouldn’t judge his work, by this book alone.

3.5 ⭐️ rounding up!

I would like to thank Hodder and Stoughton for my gifted ARC provided through NetGalley! It was my pleasure to offer a candid review!

Available June 29, 2021 in the U.S
Available December 23, 2021 in the UK

Survive the Night has a great concept: it's 1991, and Charlie accepts a lift from a stranger to get home from college. However, she becomes increasingly suspicious of her benefactor, Josh, as they drive through the night. Could he be the Campus Killer who has murdered three girls already? And if he is, how can she get away from him on the lonely roads?

This is definitely my favourite Riley Sager thriller so far, with the caveat that the only other two I've read are Final Girls and The Last Time I Lied. I'd become wary of his work because his books start well but tend to become too silly for me by the end; this one almost jumps the shark as well but, in my opinion, just manages to avoid it. Sager makes good use of his setting, with atmospheric set-pieces in a diner, a lodge, and on the road itself, and just about manages to make Charlie's actions plausible, although not without resorting to some psychological plot devices. The book takes place in the course of a single night, which makes it especially gripping to read.

Survive the Night is not without its own problems. The ending seemed to only serve to make meta excuses for the rest of the novel, and I wish it had felt more like it was set in the early 90s (there's no sense of the decade apart from a few popular culture references, and I got the sense that Sager only made this a historical novel to stop Charlie having access to a mobile phone). Nevertheless, I'm pleased that the execution of one of Sager's thrillers has at least got closer to what its blurb promised, and it's made me more interested in catching up on the rest of his books. 3.5 stars.

Another solid Sager read, where you suspect one or two of the details thrown your way and are just feeling quite satisfied when another detail is slipped in that throws a curveball. I’m not going to pretend all the film references worked for me, and there is a rather superior tone to this that occasionally had me feeling it was all about being just that bit cleverer than your readers, but I devoured this book. It’s a definite 4.5 stars for me, but I can’t go all in for reasons I’ll explain later.
A gripping read, that depends on some twists coming at you from the darkness so I don’t want to give away crucial details.
We know the book centres on Charlie, a student who is struggling to come to terms with her part in the murder of her room-mate at the hands of the infamous Campus Killer. She is in a car with a relative stranger, Josh, who has offered a lift. Understandably nervous, Charlie cannot decide how much of her fear about Josh is in her head. As they drive, little details hint strongly that Charlie might be right to be afraid. Why won’t he let her see in the trunk? Why does his driving licence have a different name? Why does he follow her out of the diner when she tries to call her boyfriend?
The growing sense of unease as Charlie and Josh travel along quiet roads is palpable. Deliberately slow, but it reels you in. Just when we - and Charlie - think we’ve worked it out, there’s an abrupt shift.
Things pick up the pace after this point (almost too fast on occasion) and we soon find ourselves in a technicolour drama. Charlie’s obvious mental health issues and obsessive film referencing made it difficult to know to what extent she could be trusted at times. There’s a couple of moments where - when you’re not caught up in them - things seem just too convenient. While it was good to get some answers and be vindicated in some judgments, the big revelation rather came from nowhere.
I’m, once again, very grateful to have been given the opportunity via NetGalley to read this prior to publication.

Yes I may have done a little happy dance when I was approved for this... I do love Riley Sager ❤️ It was a drop everything and read for me ... and I smashed it out in just a few hours. I could not stop reading it. I have seen some mixed reviews on this one but I throughly enjoyed the ride.

I think the key is to go in with an open mind and be ready to suspend belief. Take it fo what it is and enjoy. Think of it as a movie, one that you cannot stop watching even though you think you know what I said going to happen. I did pick a few of the twists but that did not take away from the story. It was fun and addictive and an escape from reality for a few hours... work for me.

A 6 hour road rip with a complete stranger? Not for me, but Charle is that desperate to leave her life at college behind. Her best friend has been murdered by the Campus Killer, who has not been caught yet, an she feels so guilty. So she packs up her room and says goodbye to her boyfriend and gets into the car with Josh, he stranger. Things start. Feel off and he seems to know things about her and the meet that he shouldn’t know... stranger danger in the extreme.

As ai said, it is an addictive read, heavy in the movie quotes and talk. I loved that.! Highly recommend

Thank you so much up Hodder and Stoughton and NetGalley for my advanced copy of this book to read. All the stars ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Well this isn’t going to be pretty ....

Survive the Night is Riley Sagers latest thriller . Firstly I would like to say I loved some of Sagers previous books but wow, this one isn’t good.

We follow a young woman at university who decides to leave and go home mid semester. She posts on a board looking for someone to drive her to where she needs to go. Out of no where a random guy offers her a ride and she goes the next day. It all spirals from there.

Here is the problem .... our main characters best friend was recently murdered by the Campus Killer who had also killed two other young women.

What woman would get in a car with a complete stranger knowing there was a killer on the loose?

Throughout the journey , Charlie (our main idiot - sorry I mean woman) makes so many idiotic choices it’s unreal. She begins to quickly suspect her driver may be the murder. At one point she can escape him and doesn’t. Another point of escape quickly arises ...and she decides not to.

Sorry but Riley Sager knows nothing about women and cannot write them. This book is just insulting .

Unfortunately the cast of this book it’s so small , it was quite obvious who everyone turned out to be . Oh and the happy ending? Only complete because she gets married..... to the guy who drives her! Agghhhhhhhh!!!! Just no.

Given two starts purely for the fast pace and unique idea

I started off really enjoying this book, the early 90s setting, the serial killer and the road trip was really gripping but then it took a turn at the diner and for me it just got too far fetched and although there wer lots of turns and twists you don’t see coming it’s just got too comic book rather than movie like. Even though I didn’t love this book I would still read others by Riley as iv heard such good things about them.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the read of this proof.

3.5 stars
The novel opens in 1991 on a campus college where Charlie's best friend Maddy has been killed by the 'Campus Killer'; a serial killer that has killed young female students for the last four years. With Charlie's guilt over her friends death she wants to leave the campus immediately and accepts a ride from Josh a student on the campus who she doesn't know but who wants someone to share travel expenses with. once the journey home begins strange discrepancies in Josh's story begin to appear; is it Charlie's state of mind or is Josh not what he appears?

The sense of mistrust and both of Josh and her own memories/thoughts that Charlie had made this a thrilling read. The story was suspenseful but the end f the novel with the twists and turns were compelling and i couldn't put it down until I knew the truth.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review

For a book that is set within a six hour time frame with two main characters this is a surprisingly detailed novel.

Charlie is travelling home from college and is in a ride share with Josh, who is possibly a serial killer!
Charlie found Josh on the campus ride share board and now we have six hours of them in a car together.

It is best to go in to this book as blind as possible and prepare yourself for the twists. There are more than you are expecting.

This isn’t my favorite Riley Sager book but it it still great.

Thanks to #NetGalley for providing me with an eARC in return for a fair review.

I really enjoyed the premise of this book, a protagonist obsessed with films who relates everything in her life to the films she has an encyclopedic knowledge of. Charlie is an unreliable narrator - she can't even fully trust her own recollection of events. However, this novel didn't really work for me.

It's November 1991, Charlie is a film student, dropping out of college following the death of her best friend at the hands of a serial killer 'The Campus Killer'. After posting an ad on the college ride board, Charlie accepts a ride from Josh, a young man who appears to be a student also returning home. Throughout the road trip, Charlie keeps seeing things that make her question Josh’s identity. Is Josh who he says he is? Did she accept a ride from the Campus Killer?

This novel is let down by an unbelievably stupid plot point - who would voluntarily get in a car with a stranger when a serial killer is on the loose? Add to that the stilted dialogue, a young woman quite clearly written by a man and this novel was a chore to read.

This novel has a very small cast, so the mystery isn't terribly mysterious. Most of the story takes place in the car, so it becomes quite repetitive with a lot of internal dialogue from Charlie - who I remind you is an unreliable narrator. Charlie rapidly becomes suspicious of Josh, but fails to take any of the opportunities to safely get away from him.

This is the first Riley Sager novel i have picked up, I'm unlikely to try another.

Wow ! Riley Sager does it again. I flew through this book in one sitting just could not stop reading !!
Did not see the twists coming at all really enjoyable fast paced Thriller.

College student Charlie is contemplating dropping out after her best friend is murdered by the college slasher serial killer. Agonising over the murder, Charlie decides to go home early in the semester, and agrees to a rideshare with a stranger.

Survive The Night is a patchwork of cliches stitched together, for better or worse, like the girl who does everything contrary to surviving, she’s occasionally an unreliable narrator and there’s something special about her. There is very little here you haven’t seen before, and Sager’s too practised not to know that, so I don’t think it’s a stretch to assume Survive the Night is meant to be satirical, in addition to being an appreciation of the genre.

And I think it’s really dependent on the readers mood and preferences how these will be received. In one sitting it might irritate you by how unoriginal it all is, but then in another sitting it’ll be thrilling and entertaining. The point is, you’ll either love or hate it.

The story mainly unfolds through Charlie, but there’s the occasional perspective from Josh and other characters. Charlie is the typical horror heroin: she has a painful past she needs to conquer, has questionable credibility, yet is plucky and underestimates herself until she realises she’s got inner strength and can face off against a serial killer. Then there’s Josh, the stranger who’s agreed to drive Charlie. He’s quick to befriend Charlie and wants to get her chatting, and in the process, Charlie realises some things don’t add up. I really liked the tension building in the car between Charlie and Josh, and enjoyed the intermittent alternating perspectives as it livened up and made the book more engaging seeing what was going through both Charlie and Josh’s minds.

On the whole the arc of the story was thinly veiled. It was clear where the threads led and what their direction would be. But the most questionable element was Charlie’s awareness of knowing something was off, yet never seized multiple chances to escape. Impressively, Sager does attempt to provide flimsy justification to make Charlie’s actions acceptable, but I suspect, it wouldn’t be enough for seasoned mystery readers to accept why Charlie remained in the car the minute she had doubts. However, where unsurprising and unconvincing plot developments would usually frustrate and disappoint me, Sager manages to save the read by how readable and charismatic the story was.

My favourite part of the book was the aesthetic vibes it had. I’m talking college dropouts, late night driving, mysterious stranger, 90s music Nirvana, snowfall/bad weather, isolated/remote showdown location and a quirky end. It was just so movieish.

Survive The Night is a love letter to classic horror films. It’s a great pick to get lost in if you’re looking for a late night binge or when you can’t settle on what to read, or you want something quick. Unfortunately I do feel it is the weakest of Sager’s novels to date, but it was still a whole lot of fun. It’s reminiscent of a guilty pleasure flick. You can critique it but you nonetheless tune in again and again into the early hours of the morning because it’s undeniably entertaining.

If you liked this, then you should check out No Exit by Taylor Adams, there’s a really good chance you’ll like that too!

Thank you kindly to the publishers and Netgalley UK for an e-ARC in exchange for this honest review.

I had such high expectations for this book, the synopsis sounded amazing and I've heard great things about Riley Sager's other books so I was very excited to read a good old fashioned horror. Survive the Night had all the right components: unreliable narrator, a serial killer at large, tension filled setting, suspense in spades and enough hitchcock references to satisfy any classic horror fan but the execution left a lot to be desired unfortunately.

I really liked the use of the nineties setting, taking away internet and phones was a great way to heighten the tension and makes it more intense given the fact that Charlie finds herself in a car with a total stranger, no GPS tracking here folks. I did find it kind of unrealistic that Charlie's best friend was murdered by a stranger not long ago but Charlie jumps at the chance to get into a long car ride with a stranger who could easily harm her, it just wasn't clicking. I get that the whole plot of the novel kind of requires a certain level of suspension of disbelief but there were definitely some head scratching moments and decisions in the novel.

The last sections of the novel is where things got really questionable to say the least and it just wasn't the big conclusion that one might expect and it felt a tad cartoonish at times. I really don't want to spoil it for anybody who might want to read it still but it was underwhelming. It's a shame considering there were some parts of the novel which were really good for sure.

Overall, it was a mixed bag and while the horror nerd in me appreciated certain elements of the story, it wasn't enough to make this book more enjoyable for me. However, I know certain readers will probably love this one more so still give it a chance.

A well executed paint by numbers horror tale, that was a *literal* wild ride! Once I’d suspended my belief and got over some of the more ridiculous elements, I enjoyed this a bit more than I had done.

I'm a huge fan of Riley Sager and was so excited to get an ARC of this book. As expected, it is a gripping read, and takes a unique take on a serial killer/victim story. Charlie is a very well drawn character, and you find yourself rooting for her to overcome everything the book throws at her

I have loved every single one of Riley Sager's books. However, this for me has been his weakest outing so far.
All of his books have a slightly nostalgic slasher/ghost story vibe which I loved. I'm a huge horror film fan and I can see his inspiration behind the books he writes. And even when they are close to other storylines I've seen, I appreciate what he is trying to do. His books touch on 5 stars almost every time. This one wasn't close to that.

I like the idea, I like the premise, I was intrigued by the ending for sure. But it just felt too cliché for me and too much like a bad 90s horror movie. But I love Riley Sager and I will continue to read this author's books no matter what.