I tried, but I just couldn't get into this book. Part of it was the non-Gen X language at times, which is me being very picky - but we didn't overuse super or shady back then. But mainly it was a lack of connection to the characters. I felt bad for what Charlie had been through, but it didn't translate into me caring what happened to her in the way it should have. I'm sorry, I know this isn't particularly helpful, but it just didn't happen for me.

Well, it hurts me a little to say this, although it was bound to happen, this is my least favorite Riley Sager book. I love Riley Sager and of course one of the books will have to rank last but I was hoping it wouldn't be this one because the premise was so good and I was so excited to receive an ARC from Netgalley. While I did enjoy the book, I found some of the situations that our narrator put herself into so ridiculous and hopefully unrealistic. This was not my biggest gripe though because maybe she was meant to be written that way. My biggest shock and surprise was how quickly suspected the things that I felt were supposed to be shocking twists. Now...I can admit that maybe I just read so many psychological thrillers that it takes more to surprise me so don't take that as a reason not to read it. I am still a huge fan and will anxiously await the next book. I recommend this book to fans of Sager and if you are newer to psychological fiction, I think you will really enjoy this one. The rest of you can enjoy it too...just maybe not as much as you would his other books.

Main character Charlie had some pretty significant issues, so I didn’t blame her for wanting to head home. She didn’t go about it in a smart way, though. Think of every possible bad decision she could make, and she pretty much made it. I was frustrated with her, as well as scared for her.

In the hands of any other author, this story could have been a complete bust; however, it’s Riley Sager so the writing is superb. There are enough unexpected moments to keep the momentum all the way to the end. Although I figured out the twists in advance, it was a fun ride.

When I think Riley Sager, I think thriller! Twists, suspense, realistic characters, all of the above. But somehow new release, Survive the Night, missed the mark for me. It is a classic cat-and-mouse game with sketchy characters. Let me back up...

Charlie and Josh met through a campus ride board, looking to share a drive home to Ohio. Charlie wants to leave campus and go home to grieve her best friend, the third victim murdered by the Campus Killer. Josh needs to go take care of his sick father. But immediately, Charlie is skeptical of Josh. His stories don't add up and he's not letting Charlie see whatever is in the car's trunk. Oh, did I mention the year is 1991? There's no help or pay phone for miles on the dark road.

The main female character was dumber than dumb. If your best friend was recently murdered and there is a serial killer on the loose, why in heaven's name would you accept a 6-hour car ride from a stranger?! She was the perfect example of an unreliable narrator; I questioned her point of view and actions from the very beginning. Had her parents never taught her the basic rules of safety above? The only cool part of Charlie was her ability to replace reality with cinema in her mind.

I should have went into reading Survive the Night with low expectations but I usually love Riley Sager's novels. About halfway through, I checked Goodreads to see if I was the only one disappointed. At quick glance, I was indeed not. Many readers (especially fans of the author) share my opinion. So it's not just me. Bookhearts, pass on this one.

Happy Belated Pub Day, Riley Sager! Survive the Night is now available.

~LiteraryMarie

Survive the Night is a page-turning thriller set in 1991 where the female protagonist decides to do a ride share road trip with a strange man just two months after her best friend was murdered by a serial killer still on the loose. Since she’s such an unreliable narrator, both she AND readers are prime targets for gaslighting.

The story is fine. I was never bored. While the writing in this one is still good, it’s not oozing with atmosphere the way I hoped it would. The last few chapters were a bit too complicated for me. The motives and character actions weren’t very realistic, and I personally expected something with a bit more depth.

Overall, this is a decent read that kept me engaged but it lacked the WOW factor.

Riley Sager does a wonderful job in all his books of capturing the feel of a certain trope or tropes, and running with the What Ifs. I have read and enjoyed all of his books but I particularly enjoyed this one because it felt more....warm, more personal, more tailored to my life experience of self blame and anxiety. He really captured the dissociative experience well. It was VERY meta, which at first I wasn't sure about but in the end I really liked it. No spoilers, but there are some signature Sager twists.

Thank you Penguin Group and Dutton Books for my copy of Survive the Night for review. All thoughts are my own.

Yes, yes, yes. I don’t read thrillers. They’re not my thing. But every once in a while, I get FOMO and want to see what all the fuss was about. I read Home Before Dark by Riley Sager last year and actually had a ton of fun with that reading experience. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen with Survive the Night. I…really didn’t like this book. Not sure if it’s personal preference, my lack of experience with thrillers, or the overall book, but this was not the book for me. If you love it or are planning on reading it, I hope you had/have a different experience!

Synopsis: “It’s November 1991. Nirvana's in the tape deck, George H. W. Bush is in the White House, and movie-obsessed college student Charlie Jordan is in a car with a man who might be a serial killer.Josh Baxter, the man behind the wheel, is a virtual stranger to Charlie. They met at the campus ride board, each looking to share the long drive home to Ohio. Both have good reasons for wanting to get away. For Charlie, it’s guilt and grief over the shocking murder of her best friend, who became the third victim of the man known as the Campus Killer. For Josh, it’s to help care for his sick father—or so he says. The longer she sits in the passenger seat, the more Charlie notices there’s something suspicious about Josh, from the holes in his story about his father to how he doesn’t want her to see inside the trunk. As they travel an empty, twisty highway in the dead of night, an increasingly anxious Charlie begins to think she’s sharing a car with the Campus Killer. Is Josh truly dangerous? Or is Charlie’s jittery mistrust merely a figment of her movie-fueled imagination? One thing is certain—Charlie has nowhere to run and no way to call for help. Trapped in a terrifying game of cat and mouse played out on pitch-black roads and in neon-lit parking lots, Charlie knows the only way to win is to survive the night.” —NetGalley

What I Liked:

The Pace—One thing I can get behind in thrillers? Quick reads. I finished this one in less than 24 hours because it was a solid length, the chapters were short, and the suspenseful aspect kept me reading. The twist surprised me to an extent as well, but if I was an avid thriller reader I probably wouldn’t have been (which isn’t a bad thing, sometimes it’s fun to guess and be right!)

What Didn’t Work:

The Execution—I think this book had potential but just got off course somewhere, like it was trying to do and say too much.

The Unreliable Female Narrator Trope 🙄— I think this is a big reason why I don’t like thrillers.

Something about it just made me feel…icky. The killer’s motive, the things this book was trying to say about women as a means of support but still felt so weird, forced, and off, I don’t know. Ultimately, it just wasn’t the book for me.

TW/CW: murder, gore, mention of rape and sexual assault

Character Authenticity: 2.5/5 Steam Rating: N/A Overall Rating: 3/5

Survive the Night by Riley Sager is a twisty thriller that takes you on a ride with a serial killer. The twist keep coming and coming, some I could foresee but others will change the way you read this novel, making you go, What! Just happened!?!. Every character in this book has a major change of how the reader perceives them. He ending is non-stop the last 150 pages are on the edge of your seat as the twists keep coming. The climax is very satisfying, I saw the final twist coming for a while but the actions after that were very satisfying. The flaw of this novel is the beginning was hard to get into, it takes a little time for this book to get into rhythm, but when it does it is really hard to put down. I have read all 5 of Riley Sager’s novels; I look forward to them every summer. He is the king of summer thrillers. Sager’s writing hooks me in by taking a horror trope and making it into a thriller, he as explored slasher, summer camp horrors, creepy apartments, haunted house and now a psycho-like road trip. A big thanks to Netgalley and Dutton publishing for giving me an Advanced Reader’s Copy of Survive the Night. Survive the Night is published on 7-29-21.

The Plot: Charlie is leaving school, she can’t handle the pressure of school and her roommate and best friend getting murdered by a serial killer. The Campus Killer has killed a victim every year and Charlie’s roommate was murdered two months ago. What makes it worst is the last conversations was a fight late at night between friends saying words they will regret the next day but there is no next day. Charlie saw or thinks she saw the killer or at least the last person to see her alive, but cannot seem to make out the face. Charlie has breaks in reality like she’s in a movie, and she can’t know if this is reality or a movie. She post a ride share flyer and is approached by Josh a handsome stranger who is a little bit older. She agrees but once she’s in the car, she feels that something is not right, and that Josh might not be who he says he is, he might be a killer, or is it all in her head?

What I Liked: I liked that I was surprised of the direction this novel took, there were point where I thought I knew were it was going then thrown a curve ball. The novel was all about finding your own power and not being the victim. The non-stop back half of this novel is so fast paced an intense, I loved almost every minute of it. I liked a lot of the movie references being a movie buff and having seen most of the movies referenced. I enjoyed the 90’s references especially Nirvana. I liked the twist and how character’s actions were explained after the fact. Charlie took a while to warm up to but I did root for her at the end. Marge the waitress was my favorite character. I liked the final twist in the prologue that explained the events we witnessed.

What I Disliked: The beginning took a while to get into; I thought it was too much exposition, right at the beginning, which gave me a detachment to Charlie at first. I saw one of the major twists coming really early about the Campus Killer’s identity, It was a man I wish I’m wrong about who this is, but I was right.

Recommendations: Nobody writes thrillers like Riley Sager, you have to experience this intense novel. The only drawback is a really slow beginning but man is this book setting you up for a fast-paced ending. I rated Survive the Night by Riley Sager 4 out of 5 stars. My ranking of every Riley Sager novel from highest to lowest is: The Last Time I Lied, Home Before Dark, Final Girls, Survive the Night, and Lock Every Door.

3.5 stars...

Overall, kind of mehhh/blahh/cheesy? I didn't like the plot, and then when I found out more, I was just underwhelmed. Probably my least favorite Sager book :(

For reference, my ratings for the past books:
Final Girls - 5 star
Last Time I Lied - 4
Lock Every Door - 3.5
Home Before Dark - 4.5 (less)

Thank you to the publisher & netgalley for my gifted copy

I received an ARC from Penguin Random House International in exchange for an honest review.

I buddy read this book with my good friend Pam @ Pam's Shenangians --> Please subscribe to her Booktube Channel

Survive the Night left me with mixed feelings. I was thrilled on the first part but its ending BADLY MESSED UP. I have no issue on the writing style because it was great and the unreliable characters keep me on my toes even if her actions are dumb that you want to palmed your face hard. It has a lot of plot twist that I didn't see coming but am I surprised? No. I was hoping for a different direction.

Charlie Jordan's roommate, Maddie, was murdered by the so called "Campus Killer" and she feels guilty for not being a good friend to her. It triggered her visual and auditory hallucinations due to her traumatic experiences. She agrees to ride with the guy she met on the campus. You see, Josh was a stranger to her. Isn't it dumb of Charlie to go on a ride with him despite of the campus warning to NEVER go with a stranger due to these killings?

Charlie and Josh played mind games. It got me excited and you can't trust any of them because one has unreliable thoughts and one is a liar. Could Josh be the suspect of these killings? What's the motive? I cannot talk much more for a potential plot twist.

What makes this book disappointing? I felt mental illness is glorified in a bad way. I am not convinced with the suspects motives at all. It's unrealistic and anticlimactic. I assumed Charlie has mental illness even if she's not diagnosed. To be honest, the last part ruined the book. I would take that one in a different direction.

One of the things I look forward to every summer is the latest thriller from Riley Sager. This summer’s offering, Survive The Night, does not disappoint!

After the murder of her best friend, Charlie Jordan wants nothing more than to leave her lonely college dorm room and go home to her grandmother, who taught her how to channel her grief through watching movies. While her boyfriend wants her to wait until Thanksgiving break, so he can accompany her, she decides to take a ride from Josh Baxter – a complete stranger she met at the campus ride board. To add to her anxiety about riding with a stranger, Charlie is prone to realistic hallucinations, fueled by her movie-fed imagination.



Set in 1991, Survive The Night takes place over just six hours and mostly in Josh Baxter’s car. Although most of the novel is just Charlie and Josh, their conversation and mental fisticuffs are enough to keep the plot rolling between action scenes. As someone who was only a couple of years younger than Charlie in 1991, the music and movie references took me back to that time, when my friends and I would just get into the car and drive and talk.

But the book isn’t just a nostalgia trip. There are twists and turns, and due to her hallucinations, Charlie isn’t the most reliable narrator – she’s not sure she can trust her own perceptions of what’s going on. And Sager has several surprises in store for the reader.

Survive The Night literally takes just one night to read, as it’s quite the page-turner. Coming in at 4 out of 5 stars, it’s not my favorite Sager novel (that title goes to Home Before Dark), it’s still a great read for a lazy summer day.

⭐⭐⭐ / 3 stars

Okay, so I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it either.

It starts off interesting but quickly turns annoying with a little too much "it's real/it isn't real" which took away from being able to fully submerge into the story.

However, by the end there was some redemption with clever twists and an HEA I was secretly rooting for.

I had read Final Girls back in 2018 and given it a 3 star rating as well so perhaps this author just isn't my particular cup of tea.

Thanks to @netgalley and @duttonbooks for providing a post-publication digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

This one was tough for me. It was a little hard to get into and the pacing was super slow for the most part, but there were things thrown in here and there that kept me interested enough to keep reading. The jumping back and forth from reality to what happened in Charlie's heard was a bit confusing at times but I loved the idea behind it. The twist at the end was surprising and definitely unexpected. Overall this is a good thriller and if you don't mind a slower paced book you'll love this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC which I received in exchange for an honest review!

Unfortunately for me, this book was a little too predictable and because of that, my level of enjoyment was significantly lowered. I enjoyed the atmosphere that was created for this story and the main character was interesting. I liked the serial killer subplot. The main thing this book made me feel is gratitude for being born when I was and I didn’t have to deal with going to college without a cellphone.

I have read other Riley Sager books and have enjoyed them but this one was definitely my least favorite so far. I plan to still read more by him in the future though.

This was such a disappointment after becoming a fan of Sager's work. It's an understatement to say the characters acted unbelievably, and the only surprise for the "twist' at the end was the author would take such a cheap way of wrapping up the story. One thing I appreciate about Sager's work is the use of an unreliable narrator, and we certainly had that in Charlie. Unfortunately, it just didn't work. There were enough twists and turns to keep reading, but ultimately the story just fell flat. Looking forward to redemption in Sager's next work.

A film theory major at college, Charlie Jordan thought she could put the past behind her, but when her roommate is murdered, she begins to question her choices and decides to return home. Getting a ride from a stranger, even though the campus killer is still at large, sets a Charlie on a detour.

"It changes things, the darkness. It makes the familiar foreign. The innocent suspicious."

What transpires is a combination of doubts, fears and vulnerabilities as the tension builds. Until a certain point in the plot, knowing Charlie’s choices drove me crazy and the feeling of being confined in that car is tangible. But before it all starts to come together, there are unexpected shifts.

The trajectory of this plot kept me intrigued. In addition to the thriller elements, the level of manipulation and inclusion of famous films layered the narrative. Though there was a part of the ending I didn’t think was necessary, I was still entertained.

I have a lot of feelings about this book. On one hand, I liked the actual ending, tying it back into the movie element (something I also loved throughout the entire novel.) Conversely, the "whodunit" aspect was a miss for me, especially the reasoning behind it. Spoilers going forward:

Some of the choices Charlie made were horror movie-inspired, which I appreciated. It felt like when you were watching the final girl make all the wrong choices, screaming "DON'T GO OUT THAT DOOR!" when you know the killers out there. It's only in hindsight that I can appreciate that because as I was reading it, I was annoyed that she kept going back and forth between smart and stupid.

I also just don't understand Robbie's reasoning still. I get that Charlie doesn't think she's special, and therefore she is to Robbie, but just seems like some connection could have been made to movies.

While I can appreciate Josh/Jake going back, there's no way that could have really happened. I almost wish he really was the Campus Killer, it would have made things play out completely differently. Just having him be the hired help for Marge (which also came out of nowhere, make the cop who came to the diner his brother or something) fell flat.

This book was a fun read, don't get me wrong, but I think that there could have been way better character development and choices to increase the movie aspect. Not my favorite Sager, but as always, a good time.

Riley Sager does it again! I could not put this book down! The tension in the car was fantastic. I called one of the twists at the end, but not the big one after "end scene". This was such a creepy read, it was just what I was looking for. I really hope this book gets made into an actual movie. The setting in the 90s was just perfect. I seriously cannot say enough good things about this book!

What a great summer thriller. Sager loves movies and this book shows just home much. Sager stuffs this book with enough twists and turns to make the reader’s head spin, right to the very last page. My customers will love this!

Another great Sager novel! Overall this was a great, intense read and it definitely makes you want to re-think the whole ride share thing. What I love about all Sager novels is his use of where the book takes place, the setting. And STN is no exception, taking place along a desolate highway and the inside of a vintage 90s Pontiac Grand Am. And the endings are always mind blowing. Sager does a great job of leading the readers in one direction with one character and then, at the very end, changing it so completely that readers are left stunned when they realize who the actual culprit is. It's always the person you least suspect.