Well written, is geared more towards fans of thriller reads. This is great for a Book Club, and a friend of mine actually read it for this purpose. My library has bought this title, and it would be a great addition to our list for Book Clubs.

Josh Baxter, the man driving her home, 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 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. There’s something suspicious about Josh from the holes in his story. As they travel an empty highway in the dead of night, an increasingly worried Charlie begins to think she’s sharing a car with the Campus Killer. Is Josh truly dangerous? Or is Charlie’s suspicion merely a figment of her movie-fueled imagination? What follows is a game of cat-and-mouse. review: I always look forward to Riley Sager’s latest book and this one certainly didn’t disappoint! The premise itself, a girl getting into a car with a virtual stranger, is nothing new. However Sager did a fantastic job of setting the scene of the night and making the premise feel fresh and new. There are some chilling moments and plenty of twists throughout the book.This is certainly a bingeworthy summer thriller that will leave you on the edge of your seat. I loved the elements of suspense that this book provided and I’m already looking forward to his next novel. rating: 4.5 out of 5 ⭐️

Riley Sager's books are quick, fun reads. I sometimes categorize them as 'junk food' books to my students. Compelling, easy escapes that you can just relax and settle into for a few hours. Survive the Night is no exception. It's pretty clear from the get-go that he's going to milk all the 90s references (great for a reader like me who was in high school & college for the decade) and he's going to set us up for those cringy "What the heck are you doing Charlie?!" moments. Sager always has a twist or two waiting for you, and while surprising, I wasn't exactly sold on the ending for this one.
I wouldn't rank this as one of his best books. It would be on the lower end of the scale for me (I've read all but 1), but for a quick summer escape, it was fun and a page turner.
Thanks for the ARC!

This is my first Riley Sager book and I enjoyed it. I will definitely be reading more from this author. I read this book super fast because I just could not put it down! It had me on the edge of my seat a lot, and the unreliable character had me second guessing myself as much as she did. There were times I wanted to scream at her for being such an jdiot though. I liked the writing style, but a lot of the plot just seem far fetched or a bit predictable to me. Overall, I enjoyed this book even though it wasn't my favorite. It would make a great movie, though!

Thank you Netgalley and Penguin Group Dutton for the digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

3.75⭐

First of all, before I review any further, I want to point out that Riley Sager is the author that got me into reading thrillers. I was so in love with 𝐋𝐨𝐜𝐤 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐃𝐨𝐨𝐫 and have since read all his books but one.

That being said, I am so utterly disappointed with Survive The Night and will no longer support this author. Beyond the pretty cover and the premise of having to ride with a possible murderer, there is absolutely nothing good to say about this book.

The main character, Charlie, was the most stupid lead I have ever read in a book. Her BFF just died going out with a stranger. Who in their right mind would do it again themselves? What bothers me even more is, Sager’s main female leads are very similar in being unintelligent. It’s getting to be insulting.

The plot was so linear and boring with a lot of plot holes. I couldn’t say much more without revealing spoilers. But iykyk.

There are only a handful of characters, 2 being constantly portrayed as the possible killers and 1 already dead. That literally leaves you with 1 of 2 remaining others who are actually likely to be the killer. You can just bet 50-50 you’ll be right.

Finally, there is a part in the book where it says there’s a special place in hell for women who don’t look out for each other. What a judgmental and misogynistic statement from a male author. As if we haven’t been told what to do by men for centuries, do we really need such judgmental statements that don’t even drive the plot forward?! The irony isn’t lost on me that this is coming from an author who goes by a unisex nom de plume to cater to a female audience.

Nope, I cannot recommend this book.

This book delivered. Not my favorite from Riley Sager but a definite contender. Found myself consistently questioning reality and per usual Sager left me with a good twist. Would recommend

Huge disappointment. Was excited to read this. That excitement vanished pretty quickly after I started.

For the entire review, check out this video: https://youtu.be/Q8K-LmY_a1I

A fun time warp with a great soundtrack. Lots of cool twists and interesting and unreliable characters. Riley Sager always comes in with a fun and interesting thrill ride.

LOL I think this is the first time I read one of Sager's novels. All the other ones I listened to on long road trips. The writing was just as compelling as I have found the previous audio versions. I am of an age where ride sharing is just too close to hitchhiking and brings inherent fear to my mind. So I knew this one was going to high me in my anxieties and it did. Hard-to-put-down, twisty and turny...I had a really late night finishing this one. Overall it was quite the ride, pardon the pun!

Thank you Netgalley for providing this ARC.

Film is Charlie's life. She grew up watching old movies with her Nana who raised her after her parents died. In college, Charlie's one and only roommate, Maddy who, also a theater buff, is an aspiring actress. A couple years later, Maddy is murdered by a serial killer who has killed two coeds before, and whose signature act is to pull a tooth for a souvenir. Charlie was the last person to see Maddy alive. She also saw the killer, but her brain creates hallucinations when she is stressed so she doesn't really know what he looked like. No longer able to focus on school and wanting to go back to the safety of her grandma, chocolate chip cookies, and old movies, Charlie accepts a ride back to Ohio with another student looking for company at the campus ride board. But once in the car with Josh. Charlie finds out he isn't who he said he was. And she starts to wonder if he is in fact the Campus Killer and will she survive the night?

Twists and more twists--really too many at the end. And how much of this story really did happen?

Wow, this book was a breath of fresh air. The book was a slow paced thriller that keeps you guessing.

After the passing of Charlie’s best friend, Charlie is riddled with grief and guilt. Her best friend was murdered by the Campus Killer, who now has three victims. Charlie decides to make her way home to Ohio, to get away from everything. She ends up meeting Josh Baxter at a campus ride board where they both seem to be headed to Ohio. With slight hesitation, Charlie ultimately decides to ride with him. Josh says he’s visiting his sick father, and that’s why he’s going to Ohio. But Charlie starts to be suspicious of Josh. She’s seen too many movies to know when somethings not right, and she’s having that feeling about Josh. After too many coincidences, too many slip ups and irrefutable moments, she knows somethings wrong. Who is this man she decided to get a ride with?

This was a book that I could not put down. I was always trying to figure out what was going to happen next, and it had me on the edge of my seat. Charlie is a character to root for, you want her to survive the night. But will she?

Well this book was a little of a let down. It was just a little much for me. I rolled my eyes at every twist.

Wow wow wow this was a fast read! I thoroughly enjoyed it, buuuuut I predicted the ending (which tbh doesn’t happen that often). For the first half, this was an easy 5🌟 read, but the ending was both predictable and very unrealistic, maybe it’s just me 🤷🏼‍♀️⁣
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Charlie, a movie-lover college student, is headed home after her best friend, Maddy, is murdered. She decides to take a ride from a complete stranger, Josh, who seems completely innocent, until he says a few comments that make her think he might be the same serial killer that murdered Maddy. Then loooots of stuff goes down after. Yeah, it’s a pretty wild ride 🤣⁣
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Why I enjoyed this one:⁣
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✨This is a fast paced read with short-ish chapters and multiple POVs⁣
✨Unique plot that takes place in the early 90s (I loved the references!)⁣
✨This story involves a serial killer and made me double check that all of my doors were locked⁣
✨I was immediately hooked⁣
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Honestly, if you are in a reading funk and want a fun quick-paced read, this is a great one to pick up!

Liked it but didn't love it. It definitely kept me turning the pages, and I needed to know what happened, but Charlie pissed me off so many times with her stupid behavior and decision making. She's afraid Josh is the murderer, so she WILLINGLY gets back in the car with him?! Who does that?! But, I will say that the very end part was pretty cool and unique.

“Not bad. Not great, but certainly not terrible.”

Sadly, this quote describes exactly how I felt about this book. I never thought I’d give a Riley Sager thriller less than four stars, as he’s one of my top favorite authors, but Survive the Night is definitely not his best work. It would’ve worked better as a short story; the content is too simple for a 256-page novel...

The pros:
- It’s a quick, satisfying suspense novel

The cons:
- It’s repetitive (Most of the book takes place inside a car. The dialogue gets less and less engaging/relevant with every chapter)
- Predictable (The culprit is most likely exactly who you think they are)
- Unlike Sager’s previous books, there’s no twist ending!

With that said, Sager still remains one of my favorite authors and I’m looking forward to what he writes next.

From the beginning of this book we are told that our primary narrator is an unreliable storyteller, due to no fault of her own. But Sager takes this to an annoying level, by making every perspective there on out completely unreliable. This gave the book no real grounding. Charlie has "movies in her head" or hallucinations that make her often confused and have to slowly parse out what is actually happening and not. But the "rules" Sager sets up around this often get broken down, and the fact that towards the end it's suggested that now that she's resolved something that the visions will all go away now. Like that's not how that works...? I did like that the cover artist makes a nod to Sager's earlier book "Final Girls" because Charlie falls into that category. Over all this just wasn't it for me. I prefer Sager when there is a larger cast and a creepy location.

Special thanks to Penguin Dutton and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Wow this slasher/final girl trend is giving me a headache! Jeez! Who else is going to ride the wave? Its not a slasher book though, just the chapters are written like well movie scenes. The main character Charlie has a warped sense of reality, like she's living in a movie. Anyway, she needs to go to Ohio, and there's A serial killer loose, so school has sets up a ride share type thing, safety in numbers. But Charlie rides along with Josh, who SAYS, he's going to Ohio for a sick relative. But she doesn't know Josh from a hole in the wall.

As the night goes on, things get more and more weird., Josh is saying things, he won't let her look in his trunk. I started not to be able to separate what was real or in Charlie's head. I think that I was hoping for a twist because the clues were so in your face, but it never came. I was hoping for a little something more from Riley Sager.

Sorry, this was a disappointment for me and if you're A Riley Sager fan, and you're looking for Lock Every Door quality, you won't be likely to find it here. Darn, I wanted to love this book! I think I expected more, so 2 stars

I don’t know if I’ve read a book this frustrating in a while! It was a tad slow, repetitive, illogical, and predictable— but I couldn’t stop reading. The “mental movies” also just didn’t do it for me; they seemed too gimmicky and added nothing to the overall plot and just frustrated me further. The movie talk got a bit heavy handed too. Again, I couldn’t stop reading though, and I had to know how it’d end! I did predict all of the twists fairly early on, which is rare for me with Sager’s books; I like to be surprised, so I was a tad disappointed there.

I can say: this book was definitely a journey to experience. I love when slashers get meta (Scream), but I’m not sure that aspect worked here 100%, especially the ending. I admire everything this book wanted to be and do, but like I said— I mainly was frustrated and found it predictable while reading, and the middle was repetitive. If you’re a big Sager and/or thriller fan, I still suggest this one though! It’s worth the ride, but maybe don’t expect it to be Sager’s best. 4/5 stars.

Survive the Night by Riley Sager, was a very simple and quick read. Short and sweet. I was captivated instantly with the story, as some one who is college in 2021, I thought it was so much fun seeing the ride board, and how college students used to get home in the 90's when they are ways away at college. I think this book paid great attention to the detail which I always appreciate. My only real issue with this book, was that although I love detail, I feel like Riley Sager really over explained a lot of things, and I found myself irritated quite a few times while reading this book. I will also say that the motives in this story where a bit unbelievable as well as the decision making grated on my nerves. Overall I think this is a solid three star read, that some people will love, others will despise and I just felt meh about! It was a fun story and it kept me on my toes.

This book was great! I was not sure if I would like it because the beginning was hard to get into, but I couldn’t put it down. I did not the protagonist in the book all that well because I kept yelling at the book while I was reading!!! I love Riley Sager so much and his writing style keeps me guessing until the very end!!!!