I had high hopes for this because I enjoyed Lock Every Door and Home Before Dark. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy Survive the Night as much as Sager's previous installments. Going into this, the premise was interesting. I enjoy a good cat-and-mouse game but it fell short. The plot got repetitive because Charlie's thoughts kept circling over the same topic over and over again with no resolution until about halfway.

I wasn't a fan of how Sager writes his female protagonists. They are too underdeveloped and I did not connect with Charlie. Besides her love for movies, there are no other traits I can pick out from her. Charlie was the textbook definition of the “not like other girls” trope - a trope I dislike personally. I also was not a fan of the end. I found it too cliché. The character's motivations were a bit questionable and I found it difficult to understand them.

Overall, this was a solid read and I still enjoyed it. I would recommend if you're a fan of thrillers with references to movies.

This novel tells the story of a college student catching a ride with a highly suspect person and her struggle to stay alive during the course of one fateful night. A crazy thrill of a book!

Let me start by saying that I will gladly read anything that Riley Sager writes. He's an auto-buy author for me and did not disappoint me with his latest book, Survive the Night.

Casey is struggling with college life after the surprise death of her roommate and longs to return home. When Josh, a complete stranger she's met at the ride board, offers her a ride home, she accepts. But Casey's roommate was murdered by the Campus Killer who is yet to be found. What does she know about Josh? Could he be the Campus Killer and Casey be his next victim?

The premise of this one is so perfect, I could see it unfolding perfectly as a horror film and I loved it! Casey is a great character, if a little lacking in common sense - would you really accept a lift from a stranger when your roommate was recently murdered? But, this is a typical horror trope (girls who run upstairs instead of out of the door, anyone?). I knew that the story had to have more to the extremely obvious and the twists and turns along the way we're perfect. I couldn't put it down, which is just what I wanted.

It's difficult to go into this one more without spoiling it but it was perfect and I can't wait for Riley Sager's next book.

A huge thank you for allowing me the chance to read in exchange for an honest review!

I remember reading Sagers first book – Final Girls knowing it was a book I had to tell everyone about. I have enjoyed every book since, but I think this one is easily competing to be my favourite.

I just couldn’t stop reading, when I started the book It didn’t feel like something new, it felt easy. Sometimes the first few chapters in a book can pass really slowly because you’re learning about the world, the characters and the storyline begins to grow. This felt like I’d dived into a cool pool on a hot day, welcoming and morish.
This story is all about Charlie. She lost her parents years ago and now shes living alone on campus because her roommates been killed but the local serial killer. Charlie has a great boyfriend in Robbie who is supportive and loyal but Charlie just cant cope anymore.

She has an over active imagination which leads her to play movie style scenarios in her head, sometime the line for reality blurs a little with the imagination fairies. Charlie just wants to go home, to forget about her dead best friend, to get away from the room that they shared and the memory that they made so when she looks for a car pool home shes both relieved and cautious when a stranger offers her a ride.

Straight away we don’t want to trust him, who is he really, why cant she see in the trunk, and could he be the campus killer. The ride home is going to be longer, tense and awkward! Charlie uses her movie knowledge, and trivia to help navigate the journey that she needs to make.

The story is fast paced, its informative, and despite the easy potential for confusion due to Charlies movie episodes the story is easy to follow, I couldn’t read quick enough!

4.5 stars!

Charlie can no longer cope with her reality and needs to leave university and visit her gran. Charlie innocently hitches a ride but will she survive the night?

First off, I am not one of those people who seeks out the plot twists when reading a thriller. I read the story for what it is. With that being said, I expected this to be a quiet, straightforward thriller. Don't ask me why but well done to Riley Sager for that red herring.

The story starts off innocently enough and I thought it was going to be a straightforward read, until about the 60% mark. All of a sudden, Riley hits us with twist after twist after twist and it was a ride! I absolutely loved it.

The writing is great as always and the story setting is quite atmospheric. I loved how Riley was able to have me think one thing and then making the reality to be something completely different.

I really enjoyed this book! There are plenty of twists and turns throughout the book, always leaving you guessing what’s going to come next. Very fast paced, struggled to put it down as I was dying to know what came next. What I loved most was that the book was set in such a short time frame there was no time for it to be boring! Also the fact that it was set in the 90’s was a major plus for me I just really enjoyed that.

However, one of the only let downs was that the ending of the book just seemed a bit strange fitting to the rest of the book.
Overall though a very fast paced enjoyable read I would recommend .

Thank you, Author, Publisher, and NetGalley for the copy.

Suspenseful and entertaining cat-and-mouse thriller!

This was one of my most anticipated reads of this year! I loved all the books by Riley Sager. I enjoyed this one as well but not as much as the previous ones.

I was hooked from the first page. The suspense of what will happen next was huge! Charlie's delusions added to the tension. What was real and what wasn't! Even I was confused but in a good way! Set in the 90s, the lack of technology that we have, made it more thrilling.
The twists and turns were subtle but did make me go WOW! One of the main revelations was quite shocking and I had not seen that coming at all. But that made the ending predictable. I wasn't a fan of the climax.

Also, I couldn't relate to the movie references but that is on me. I think movie lovers would love them.

Riley Sager is one of my favorite authors and I would recommend this and get a physical copy too. I cannot get enough of his writing. It is brilliant. This would have been a 5 star read if I had read this before his other books.

3.75 rounded up to 4
Survive the Night was a pretty quick read for me. I read through it faster than I had thought I would. And maybe it's because I love stories that make you feel so much unease. Riley Sager's writing does it quite well in this because I was on my toes waiting to know what would happen. But that was only the case in the first three quarters of the book. The last quarter of the book felt a little disjointed and the ending, as much as I wanted to like it wasn't suitable at all. The fact that the whole thing ended on "it was all a movie" was something that really put me off.

Still, Sager's writing made Survive the Night a fun read and it made me wanna pick up his other books as well (given that I've only read Final Girls)

I read this in one great gulp of a sitting, an edge of the seat road trip where there may be a serial killer or maybe not but you'll race through this brilliantly written thriller in order to find out.

In an utter homage to the movies, Riley Sager offers perhaps his best psychological thriller to date.

Full review for publication.

Riley Sager is easily one of my favourite thriller authors and each of his books have so much well-built tension that I just can't put them down, and this book is no exception.

I pretty much read this book in one sitting because I constantly needed to know what happened next. One thing I adore in thrillers is the idea of the unreliable narrator/protagonist and this fulfilled everything I wanted from that. Charlie was a strange character that I ended up more attached to than I initially expected, especially after the ending.

Overall, I will say that this isn't my favourite Riley Sager book because I was able to guess a lot of the twist a bit earlier than felt right, but it was still a joy to read and I'll definitely be picking up his future books!

I have read lots of good things about this author but as yet I am still to experience that good feeling myself. This is the second book I have read by this author and again I have failed to feel any enthusiasm or enjoyment for the novel. Not really sure what it is but although there were hints of a good read I never really connected with the characters or the premise of the novel.

Set in 1991, Charlie is struggling emotionally after her best friend was the latest victim of a serial killer known as the Campus Killer. In an effort to save money she decides to lift share with a stranger named Josh to go home to Ohio. Once on the journey home it is not long before Charlie starts to suspect Josh may have a secret and that she is lift sharing with the Campus Killer himself.

Not sure whether I will continue reading this author in the future but although this book did have promise at the start, it failed to win me over.

I would like to thank both Netgalley and Hodder and Stoughton for supplying a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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.

A game of cat and mouse is about to play out. In order to win, Charlie must do only one thing . . . survive the night. What another gripping read from Riley Sager! It was captivating… I was absolutely hooked from the first page to the last. I had a complete shock at the twists… Love, love, loved all the characters!!!… I would love to see this made into a movie. Can’t wait to see what this author brings out next! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Charlie Jordan has been through a tough time and just wants to leave her college and go home. When she meets Josh Baxter at a ride share board, it seems like the perfect opportunity to get a ride home. As the long journey begins, the two chat and get to know each other. As time goes on, Charlie begins to question some of the things Josh has said and notices discrepancies in his story. Eventually she starts to suspect that he may be the 'Campus Killer', a serial killer who has killed several girls around the college, including Charlie's best friend. Trapped in a fast-moving car in the middle of nowhere with a possible serial killer, Charlie must do what she can to survive the night...

Another brilliant book by Riley Sager, I loved this book. It was tense and thrilling right from the beginning and Riley made it so interesting even though most of the story took place in the car. Full of shocks and excitement, I really recommend this book.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of the book in return for my honest feedback.

This is the second Riley Sager novel I've read and wow, it's been a wild ride! Survive the Night follows Charlie, a film student, who recently lost her best friend, decided to drop out off college and is about to get a ride home with a stranger. Josh, the guy who offers to drive, may or may not be the so-called Campus Killer...

Riley Sager's new novel is dark, tense, surprising and full of twists and turns. As a film lover, I very much enjoyed Charlie's references to many classics, including Psycho, Rear Window or E.T and how she found her film knowledge useful in, well, surviving the night. What's very exciting about this book is that it all happens within several hours and is super fast paced; I could not put it down. Survive the Night s a story about guilt, grief, but above all it's a celebration of life and movies.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for letting me read an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

Survive the Night, Riley Sager.

Charlie is being driven cross country by a serial killer. Maybe. Josh Baxter manning the wheel driving Charlie who was desperate to escape college. They met at the collage ride board and embark on a journey littered with careful conversation. Tiptoeing around the topic of the campus killer, a serial killer who has been stalking and killing women, three in total, not long striking again. As Charlie begins to get suspicious of Josh a long game of cat and mouse begins.

This is an ambitious outing for Sager. Whilst each novel since debut Final Girls has had a unique twist this one is the most exciting since that first novel. It dips in and out of classic film genres with noir and early 90’s slasher atmosphere carrying the story through. Charlie and Josh provide complex and intriguing leads with both as deceitful and compelling as the other. As ever Sager litters each chapter with jaw dropping moments but a twist of Charlies personality means you can never quite be sure what to believe.

The whole novel is cleverly framed as a movie bringing full circle the homage to the classic silver screen and with a 1991 setting this throwback includes plenty of nods that readers will enjoy.

I seem to find Sager a bit hit and miss.
When he gets it right,I race through his work,on the edge of my seat.
This was more of a miss.
Just from the very beginning it made me roll my eyes at the behaviour of the characters,and seemed a bit too easy to guess some of what was coming.
Whilst all of this sounds negative,it's not,I will continue to read his books,because they're entertaining.
That's mostly what I'm asking from a book.

Riley Sager is an auto-buy thriller author for me so it came as no surprise that I really loved this book and rated it 5 stars. Survive the Night made use of the unreliable narrator trope in a way that I really enjoyed; Charlie, our protagonist uses her imagination or “movies” as a way of escaping real life and dealing with traumatic events by altering or embellishing them. This in turn leads to Survive the Night having a “is it real, is it not” juxtaposition that I found thrilling and unique. The second half of the book is where it really kicked off for me, once that first plot twist dropped I was on the edge of my seat, I can say with honesty that I didn’t predict any of the twists and that’s a sure sign of winner in my book! The way this novel ended for me was just perfection, it warmed my heart but also had a bite of sadness to it too. I truly think this could be my favourite Sager thriller to date. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and Charlie as a main character was...well, she was just everything. *end scene*

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for giving me an arc in exchange for an honest review.

After her best friend is murdered by the campus killer, movie student Charlie decides to leave college and go home for good. She arranges a ride with Josh, a stranger she meets at the college ride share board. But as they journey to Ohio, Charlie starts to believe Josh may be the killer. With no means to escape she decides she must outwit Josh and try and survive the night.

After adoring Home Before Dark I was excited to read this next book from Riley Sager. I was hooked from the start and couldn't put it down. I loved the way Charlie saw movies in her head and setting the book in '91 was a great idea. The book kept me guessing throughout and I think I would have rated it higher if not for some of the questionable choices Charlie made toward the end of the story.

Thanks to Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the chance to read this book.

3.5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for access to this book early. I was captivated by this fast paced thriller. I enjoyed how the book was formatted. I liked the ending. Perfect fast paced read.

I will start by saying that I am a massive Riley Sager fan. I have read and adored every single one of his books up until now, with Lock Every Door being one of my favourite books of all time.
So I went into Survive The Night with the highest of expectations and even though I enjoyed it, it was definitely my least favourite of his books so far.
An unreliable narrator can often frustrate me, as more often than not what they think they are seeing is real life and they are often gaslit or don't believe that they are right about what they've seen/experienced.
The 'movie's that Charlie sees were a unique and interesting take on the unreliable narrator trope but they did frustrate me almost immediately. If anything they detracted from the story for me as you knew that they weren't real.
I didn't find myself in Charlie's shoes like I had with all of Sager's other heroines, as she behaved in the exact opposite way to any normal person quite a few times throughout.
Once we get the twist re. Marge I struggled to see her as the true villain. And what she was doing didn't make a whole lot of sense.
The ending also wasn't the strongest that I've seen from Sager or similar books.
I did like the twists, ones that I didn't necessarily expect and how it really did feel like a movie playing out. I could definitely imagine it up on the big screen.
It wasn't Sager's strongest for me but it was still worth a read, especially if you're a horror movie fan.
I can't wait to see what he does next.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.