Wow! Hang on film lovers... because Mr. Sager has returned to his film noir roots and outdone himself.

I've never related so deeply with a character on a personal level, and that's saying something considering I'm a huge fan of each Riley Sager title. Every heroine he writes is different. And I've felt for them. Loved them. I've known them. But I never was them. Until now. I am Charlie. I'm the 90s college girl who sees life as a movie. Sometimes it's a drama. Sometimes it's a comedy. But too often it's a noir with a twisting gray area of irony and tragedy.

Charlie has a habit of imagining worst-case scenarios the way others daydream of destinations. But these vivid and dark hallucinations, or movies as she likes to call them, throw her off-track so she tends to dismiss them, pretending everything is perfectly fine. But this time, Charlie should've listened to her gut.

I can't thank Dutton Books enough for allowing me to read this absolute page-turner! It has amazing 90s vibes set along a dark road where Charlie is trying to get home from college, immediately. She agrees to a ride from a guy named Josh but her stranger-danger sensors are on high alert after the recent murder of her dorm roommate Maddy. Is he really a concern, or is she just letting her imagination take control?

I kept thinking of Lost Highway and those words, "We've met before, haven't we?" David Lynch gave me chills, but Riley Sager gave me one perfectly raw shiver after another. Putting two characters into a car alone for a long time could be suicide for some writers but he used it to elevate tension and had me begging her to pull the handle and jump out.

The trouble is that Charlie is the best friend even in her own story instead of the femme fatale. She doesn't see herself in control of anything and apologizes for moments when she might tread over the line. But a woman can only take so much before something breaks. And I loved being there when Charlie finds her power.

This book leans into the nervousness and distrust we all feel right now, which is at the heart of what made noir come to life in the 40s. The main character is either being subjected to the will of others or they're subjecting their will on them. There's no middle ground. Riley is onto something new while bringing back the old and I'm here for it 100%. Don't miss this book! It's a wild ride you will never forget.

Literally every single book I read by Riley Sager is unique and amazing. Thank you so much to Dutton Books for this fun throwback thriller! It’s set in the 90’s which is completely fantastic and is about Charlie, a girl looking for a ride home from college. She meets Josh at a ride-share board and they decide to travel together, since they are going the same way. Charlie is very wary of people though, after her roommate Maddy was recently murdered by The Campus Killer.

Charlie has a habit of treating real life like a movie, and imagining vivid scenes that seem real. Her therapist calls them hallucinations, and she has suffered from them since both her parents were killed in a car crash. Now, on a road trip with a stranger, Charlie isn’t sure who she signed up to be in a car with and begins to suspect that there is a lot more to Josh than she originally thought.

Thoughts: I LOVED the setting and time period of this book. The 90s nostalgia was amazing and so much fun to read. Charlie was a fantastic main character, remnant of Quincy in Final Girls. Adding the film aspects and movie references made it so enjoyable for me. I loved how the tension built throughout the book and you couldn’t help but yell at Charlie at some points. BE WARY OF STRANGERS! RUN! She is both a strong and weak character, with many flaws that made her likable.

The car ride basically puts the characters in a locked room setting, and with so few main characters, there were only a few things that I could imagine happening. It helped that there would be things you thought happened, but then it was just a movie playing out in Charlie’s head. A very poignant storyline was the idea that women are too scared of being impolite to get out of unsafe situations. Women fear inconveniencing others in case they are wrong, so they neglect to stand up for themselves when something doesn’t seem right.

This book was full of twists, some of which I guessed immediately and some I had no idea about! Riley Sager is a master of surprise, turning each situation into a heart-pounding game of cat and mouse. I am forever a fan- 4.9999 stars for this nostalgic and tension-building thriller!