I took Survive the Night camping with me last weekend because Riley Sager has never let me down. But, ya’ll, he scared me this time. I was a hundred pages in thinking I don’t like this. I thought I was going to be stuck in the woods with a bad book, but he turned it around. So let’s talk about it.
November 1999. Josh and Charlie met at a campus ride board, both looking to share a ride to Ohio. Charlie is leaving school after her best friend was murdered by the Campus Killer. Josh is leaving to tend to his sick father. But the longer she rides with Josh the more suspicious he becomes. Is he the Campus Killer, or are her nerves just on edge?
My thoughts on Survive the night
Ok. Let’s start with the fact that Charlie makes horrible choices. If my best friend was murdered by a random killer I definitely would not take a road trip with a stranger. This whole story starts with her making a bad decision. And then, the plot is moved forward by more bad decisions. She had countless opportunities to leave, or get help, and she didn’t use them. It really got tiring at the beginning.
The only reason I kept reading was because she was an unreliable narrator. I wanted to see how that played into the story. Plus, I know that Riley Sager has a tendency to twist things in an unexpected way, which is exactly what he did. There was one defining moment where Charlie took her power back and I thought this is going to get good.
It was like Sager kept all of his writing talent hidden to the end. There was plot twist after plot twist. I was so happy to see them. The ending broke my heart, but it blew my mind all at the same time. I’m so glad Sager didn’t let me down.
My Rating: 4/5
I need to read this one asap!! Great review!
I hope you love it!