An apocalyptic horror told from three different perspectives. This story was more gruesome than scary with walking dead and a high body count. A decent tale to pass the time but the characters were under developed and the plot twists predictable.

ARC was provided by NetGalley and Random House, Ballantine in exchange for an honest review.

Ok, uh, wow. I loved this book and it actually freaked me out (The Whistlers). Did not see the “connection” of the characters until the end, and it makes me want to go back and reread it now that I know what I know! Loved. 4 stars

"you're either a good guy or a survivor-- the earth is filled with dead good guys"

wow! this book was so intense. I like to go in blind with thrillers so I am surprised when I get to the "twist" and this one definitely surprised me from the beginning. This is a dystopian/post pandemic thriller. Think I AM LEGEND, meets THE MAZE RUNNER meets THE COLONY, but add in all the secrets, murders, survival.

I loved how this book was written-- 3 POv : Hannah, who woke up in a crashed bus buried in snow. Meg, a former cop on her way to the retreat as a volunteer, who woke up in a broken down cable car with a group of strangers. and Carter, who lives at the top of the mountain at the retreat. The best thing about this one was trying to figure out how each timeline pieces together. Are the just 3 POV happening at the same time? are they different timelines? how do the characters connect ?? do they ever ?? sooo mind boggling that I just needed to keep reading to see what was gonna happen! Also, the horror aspect of this book was amazing. I always tell my husband I love watching movies with deadly viruses, etc but have yet to find a book that I could be into like that and this one was definitely it !! Like I said, this I am Legend, a deadly disease wipes out the whole population leaving human looking "whistlers", The maze runner (you'll see why) and the Colony - dystopian world but in the snow !! The setting was like a whole other character... not only did they have to figure how to get out of their situation, but how do they beat the blizzard going on outside and the extremely cold temperatures. Such a good book!! I will definitely be reading more of CJ Tutor soon !!

CJ Tudor does it again! What a twisty story! I think that this is a story most people will love. I do feel that there were a lot of characters to keep track of and each differing story was hard to follow at first. I really loved how the ending came together and I certainly did not see the twist coming. I will recommend this to everyone for a winter thriller!

Thank you Netgalley for an advanced copy!!

Published by Ballantine Books on January 31, 2023

Following too many years of zombie novels, pandemic novels seem to be the new thing. After experiencing the reality of a pandemic, I suppose readers want to be comforted by reading about how it could be so much worse. Pandemics that kill almost everyone would meet that desire, but what about a pandemic that produces zombies? The Drift has a little something for every fan of trash fiction.

A world-ending virus is killing most people it affects, although a small percentage survive as Whistlers. Whistlers aren’t exactly zombies, but they are not entirely unlike zombies. The ones infected with the Choler variant are mindlessly violent like zombies, but they don’t shamble or eat brains. At least, they don’t appear to do so. The Whistlers are never developed in enough detail to make their nature clear, although it’s clear that living as a Whistler would not be a lifestyle of choice.

Blood plasma from infected people can be used to manufacture a vaccine that confers short-term immunity, so naturally infected people are kept alive and imprisoned so their blood plasma can be harvested for the benefit of the wealthy and powerful. One place where harvesting occurs is called the Retreat. It’s on a mountaintop. If there were ever good intentions underlying the Retreat, they have given way to producing the vaccine for a criminal organization that supplies it to wealthy people. The criminals presumably immunize themselves so they don’t get sick and die like everyone else, but the benefit they receive from wealthy people in a world that is filling up with dead people and Whistlers is one of many gaps in logic that the novel doesn’t seriously address.

Part of the novel follows characters at the Retreat who are dealing with the theft of plasma and the disappearance of workers. Whistlers are kept locked in the basement as involuntary plasma donors. But if the power goes out for longer than eight seconds, the cells automatically unlock. It took a special kind of sub-genius to devise that system. It will be no surprise to learn that the power fails.

Two other plot threads involve the dumbest young people you would ever hope not to meet. A dozen students at Invicta Academy are being evacuated on a bus that slides off the road and crashes during a blizzard. One of the bus passengers is pregnant and about to deliver because of course she is.

The Academy was just a private school for rich kids until the Department chose it as the location for a research center headed by a leading virologist. (The Department’s full name results in the acronym DRIFT because the world thrives on stupid acronyms.) Did the Department choose to turn a private school into a research center because no research centers were already set up and ready to go? Really? What happened to the CDC in Atlanta?

In any event, one of the kids on the bus is the daughter of the ruthless virologist who runs the Department. “Ruthless” because he wants to kill everyone who becomes infected, meaning pretty much everyone, including his daughter (or so she fears).

Anyway, after the bus crashes the emergency exit won’t open, probably because it was sabotaged by the bus driver who somehow disappeared unless he’s now pretending to be one of the bus passengers. Seriously, none of the passengers looked at the driver before the bus crashed? I guess private school students can’t be bothered to look at the bus driver.

A student hits upon the brilliant idea of pulling the toilet out of the bus and escaping through the hole they imagine they might find. Now, if you can remove the toilet, why not use it to break a window on side of the bus that isn’t buried in snow and get out that way? They complain that they don't have a hammer to break the window but the thought of using a steel toilet as a battering ram never occurs to them.

But wait, a passenger has already tunneled through the snow from a broken window in the side of the bus that is buried. The tunnel was necessary to search for a bomb in the luggage compartment (the passengers miraculously deduce that the bomb exists and know when it will explode based solely on intuition) but they decide they can’t rebuild the tunnel after it collapses because, well, that would be almost as easy as breaking another window. Besides, there are wolves outside and maybe Whistlers and it’s just so darn cold so maybe it would be better to stay inside the bus. Until the Department hit squad shows up to spoil that idea with machine guns. Good grief.

Another group of young people are stranded on a cable car that, while climbing the mountain to the Retreat, stops after the haul cable breaks. The young people don’t remember getting on the cable car. Escaping from a cable car without plummeting to the ground is more challenging than disembarking from a bus, so the cable car passengers busy themselves with killing each other. That task becomes easier when one of them finds a hidden weapon. There’s a whole story to how the weapon came be hidden but it makes just as much sense as the rest of the novel, meaning it doesn’t make much sense at all.

Some of the people in each group might be infected so they might as well sit back and die in peace. Instead, the passengers in both conveyances spend an inordinate amount of time discussing their predicaments and blaming each other while devising worthless plans. Frankly, I was rooting for hit teams to do away with all these whiny idiots. They make the same snarky comments (“Excuse me, I forgot to pack my screwdriver”) over and over while doing little in the way of cooperative problem-solving.

The needlessly convoluted plot eventually connects the kids on the bus to the kids on the cable car, relying on false identities and a late information dump to produces surprises that are too silly to shock. A mawkish moment near the story’s end produced no tears but it did make my eyes roll. The best thing I can say about The Drift is that many characters die before the novel ends. Good riddance to them.

NOT RECOMMENDED

dnf @ 40%

I've enjoyed a lot of books by C.J. Tudor, but unfortunately this one just didn't work for me. I felt a lot of interest and suspense at the beginning, but it quickly weaned off. Partially due to the flipping between 3 different storylines. I found that to be quite distracting and eventually was putting the book down for longer and longer stints of time. But also because of the storyline. It felt overly dramatic in a sorta corny, silly way.

I think I could find myself finishing this sometime later, but for now it's a dnf.

This book, The Drift, was definitely not what I expected!!! This story follows three different timelines/point of views about an apocalyptic time when a virus is ravaging the world. Set in a snowy mountainside place, this story was full of action, horror, lots of gore, and plot twists. I really enjoyed this book, it kept me guessing until the end. 4/5 stars.

My Thoughts:
I found a new author to add to my auto buy list.
We follow 3 different groups one group finds themselves in a overturn bus the other group in a suspended cable car and the last group is stuck inside of a cabin where nobodies else is around or is there. There is danger all around them.
This is a really well written thriller that will have you a little scared at times this book surprised me a few times which I really enjoyed although it seems like a unreal story after reading you wonder can this happen. If you like thrillers you should read this it does have a bit of gory scenes just want to warn you

The Drift is a Post-Apocalyptic Thriller from beloved author, C.J. Tudor. This story is full of action, twists and turns. Unfortunately, even though I generally love Tudor's work, this one fell flat for me personally. It hurts me to say, but I actually feel like my 3-star rating is a bit generous.

The reason this hurts so much is because I've read A Sliver of Darkness, which was a fantastic collection BTW, where in the Author's Note, Tudor discusses this most recent release and what it meant to her. It's a bit of a passion project, if you will, a little outside of her normal lane. I would never want to poo-poo on anyone's creativity, so it hurts that this one didn't hit with me more.

Alas, I have to be honest about my experience, because otherwise, what are we all doing here?

This story essentially follows characters in three different survival scenarios. We have a group of young people, fleeing a private school in the midst of a blizzard, whose coach violently hits a snow drift, trapping them in the vehicle in extremely hazardous conditions.

Also in hazardous conditions is the group of characters trapped in a gondola lift after a power loss. And finally, we follow a group of individuals who live in a large mountaintop estate known as The Retreat, as the estate's defenses begin to fail due to inclement weather and power issues.

Interestingly, the people in the coach and the people in the gondola were all trying to get to The Retreat. It's unclear exactly what this Retreat is, but it's definitely viewed as a safe haven against a dangerous world.

In the beginning, I was intrigued. The characters, though not likable, were compelling enough to keep me happily flipping the pages. Unfortunately, it got to a point where I was forcing myself to pick it up. I just wanted to finish it. I ended up becoming so bored with the whole thing. I did not care at all what happened to anybody. I just wanted it to be over. I know that sounds harsh, and I can't even pinpoint what in particular that it was that didn't work for me, it just didn't.

It's not the writing. Tudor is a fantastic writer and I think she did a great job of creatively revealing what was actually going on in this story. However, with this being said, by the time we got to some big reveals, I couldn't care less. I absolutely understand that I am in the minority opinion on this one. I've read the reviews. I get it. I just wish I could have loved it as much as everyone else.

With all of this being said, the fact that this one didn't quite knock my socks off, in no way changes my opinion on C.J. Tudor as a writer and creator of thrilling, compelling and worth-while stories. I will absolutely continue to pick up every single thing she writes. Also, just because this didn't work for me, doesn't mean it won't work for you. If you're intrigued by the synopsis, you should give it a go.

Thank you to the publisher, Ballantine Books, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I appreciate it so much and look forward to seeing what Tudor comes up with next!

I became acquainted with this author last year after reading her collection of short stories. When I was offered the NetGalley widget for her newest release, I snatched it up immediately.

This is a blend of so many of my favorite genres – psychological thriller, horror, dystopian, apocalyptic, and mystery. What makes it even better is that it’s set during winter storms, and the three stories playing out are all locked room scenarios. Woohoo! The story immediately drew me in, and I wanted to read it in one sitting. Unfortunately, that wasn’t possible. Each of the three main characters are in dangerous situations (especially Meg in a stranded cable car suspended hundreds of feet above the ground – it took my breath away), and their futures look bleak. With so many characters surrounding Hannah, Meg, and Carter, I didn’t know who to trust and constantly looked for clues. To say the cast of characters is whittled down over the course of the story isn’t giving anything away. Before long, I didn’t need to remember some of their names.

Gradual reveals let the reader know these characters are connected in some way, and I guessed how several pages before the explanation. But what a clever twist it is. Brilliant. Jaws will drop, trust me. Other reviewers mentioned this novel contains more blood and violence than they’d expected, so be prepared if that’s something you’d prefer to steer clear of.

Make sure to set aside some uninterrupted reading time if possible for this novel. You won’t want to put it down.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

The Drift is the my fourth foray into C.J. Tudor and this is definitely my favorite work from her so far. In The Drift we follow three groups of people, each in their own precarious situation. To start, this is really not a mystery/thriller and much more a horror/post apocalyptic/dystopian situation, which was great for me. I loved the horror direction this author has been taking and I really hopes she stays in this lane for a while.

Each set of characters seem to have impossible to overcome circumstances and the story gets pretty wild really quickly. Personally, I love when a story goes off the rails a little bit and I was happy to be along for the ride. I don't want to give too much away but essentially a horrible disease has spread among both animals and humans and society has been completely altered because of it. There are government secrets, personal secrets, family secrets...all the secrets! There are definitely some content warnings associated with this one for body horror and some medical trauma so proceed with caution if that is a concern for you.

Overall, this was a super fun and really fast paced novel that is perfect for the winter time. I think I'm settling on 4 1/2 stars and I can't wait to see what else this author puts out in the future.

4.5

The Drift might be my favorite CJ Tudor novel yet!
It is a post-apocalyptic story with three POV's. The characters were intriguing. I managed to guess how they all were connected, but I don't think that deterred my enjoyment. It was atmospheric and there was a sense of dread from page one, making me not want to put this down!
If you are looking for a wintery atmospheric thriller or horror, check this one out!

The Drift by C. J. Tudor is a suspense/dystopian novel with three different time lines. As the reader learns more about the time lines, the characters start to make more sense. There is a highly contagious virus, a retreat, a bus, a cable car; and they all tie together. I can't say too much more because I don't want to give anything away, but this was a super fast-paced and suspenseful read, and I really enjoyed it. Thanks to NetGalley for the free digital review copy. All opinions are my own.

In an interview C.J. Tudor said she got the idea for The Drift in 2019, thinking of the book as a mosaic of locked room mysteries. Then the Covid pandemic hit, and the entire plot came together. The book is a page-turner with 'thrills, twists, and turns, and edge of your seat tension'.....perfect for mystery fans.

*****

The story takes place in the not-too-distant future when a virus pandemic has devastated the world. An especially ghastly viral variant called Choler turns victims into creatures called Whistlers, who look like skeletons sheathed in skin. Whistlers have black gums, blood red eyes, and pitted scarred lungs that cause a whistling sound when they breathe.

The only reliable vaccine against the virus is blood plasma taken from living victims of infection. Therefore survivors - such as Whistlers - are isolated in rural seclusion centers, called Farms, where they're milked for plasma 'for the greater good.' Patients who don't survive the infection are incinerated, to help contain the spread of the pathogen.

To try to get the virus under control, a research center, run by a scientist called Professor Grant, is built on the campus of a school named The Academy, and a nearby abandoned ski resort is converted into a facility called The Retreat, to house medical personnel and research subjects.

Much of the story takes place during a raging blizzard with massive snowfall and gale force winds. The book has a large cast of characters, but there are three main protagonists: Hannah, Meg, and Carter.

⦾ Hannah

During a huge snow storm, a coach carrying twelve students from The Academy to The Retreat overturns into a large snowdrift, and the occupants are trapped inside. A medical student named Hannah, who happens to be Professor Grant's daughter, assesses the situation and determines that about half the occupants are dead, one is seriously injured, and the rest are relatively alright. The survivors find the coach was sabotaged, since the exits are jammed shut and the hammers to break the windows are missing.

The passengers' cell phones and duffel bags are locked in an outside luggage compartment, and the students know they're doomed if rescue doesn't come soon. Fresh discoveries make the situation even more dire, and the survivors take measures to try to save themselves. This is especially risky with hungry wolves sniffing and creeping around the coach and someone out to kill everyone on board the bus.

⦾ Meg

A former cop named Meg wakes up in a ski lift cable car that's stalled on it's way up a mountain. Meg realizes she was drugged, and looking around, observes five additional doped passengers, most of whom are beginning to stir. Meg understands she and the others are trapped in the small swaying cable car, buffeted by the howling wind, with the windows caked with snow.

As the roused passengers introduce themselves, they realize they're all volunteers on their way to The Retreat. One rider remains still, however, and when Meg tries to awaken him, discovers that he's dead....stabbed.

Meg determines someone on board must have committed the homicide, and unease escalates when another person is killed. The remaining passengers feel helpless, knowing the situation is futile if they're not rescued, or if the car doesn't make it to the cable-car station, a few hundred yards away.

Meg hardly cares about being saved, since she's been inconsolable since her daughter succumbed to the virus. However, the ex-cop feels compelled to help the volunteers and to discover the murderer.

⦾ Carter

Carter, half of whose face was eaten away by frostbite, is currently residing at the old ski resort that's now The Retreat. The former ski chalet, which once housed a fair number of medical personnel, research subjects, and staff, now contains seven people and a dog. The Retreat is relatively comfortable, with a gym, a pool, a community room, a barbecue grill, and bedrooms for the residents. The Retreat also has a basement with locked cubicles that are carefully secured. Things are shaky though, because the power fails periodically, leaving the cubicles unsafe.

On a rotating basis, a resident from The Retreat skis down the mountain to the one open store, to pick up groceries and send a package. Carter grumbles when it's his turn to go down the mountain, .and as Carter is climbing back up with the provisions strapped to his skis, he's stymied by whipping snow and fierce winds.

When Carter finally gets back to The Retreat he finds one resident dead in the swimming pool and another resident who's dying. Things go from bad to worse as more people are killed and Whistlers in the surrounding woods make their presence felt.

The three story lines intertwine as the book approaches it's climax, and the denouement is clever and engaging in this smartly constructed novel.

I don't often find it hard to put down a book, but I found myself anxious to get back to this one, to see what happens in the freezing coach, icy cable car, and decaying ski lodge.

Highly recommended to fans of thrillers and suspense stories.

Thanks to Netgalley, C.J. Tudor, and Ballantine Books for a copy of the manuscript.

THE DRIFT by C.J. Tudor
Published: 01/31/2023 by Random House Publishing Group / Ballantine
Hardcover: 352 pages



An instant Classic ! This is the fifth novel from multiple award winning author C.J. Tudor , Her debut novel, The Chalk Man - was the winner of the Barry Award, and the International Thriller Writers Award for Best First Novel. All her other novels and short story collection were met with critical acclaim. The setting of this gem is the near future, in a world ravaged by an ever changing and mutating virus. What follows is a suspenseful and horrific locked room mystery involving three main protagonists, fighting for survival, while maintaining their humanity. Tudor masterfully intertwines the three narratives with extensive twists and surprise reveals that ratchets up the suspense, producing a page turner …. It defies the reader turning the pages faster, as all chapters seem to end with a cliffhanger.
First let’s consider Hannah, who wakes up confused and apparently drugged, aboard a coach/ bus that was filled with students on their way to the Retreat. The bus is on its side and trapped in a snowdrift with a storm raging outside. Half of the students are dead and the bus driver is nowhere to be seen. There certainly is no obvious way out .. is help on its way? Was this truly an accident or an act of sabotage. Temperature is dropping fast and hypothermia is a real threat.
The chapter alternate between different points of view and the three varying situations. Meg is an ex-cop who awakens in a precarious situation …. Trapped in a swaying cable car that was on its way to the Retreat. One of the passengers was dead … apparently not by accident, but by murder. The cable is suspended over a snow covered landscape, with the howling wind and snow buffeting the car. There is no obvious way for rescue or escape. Lastly the reader meets Carter, who is a member of a small group confined to the lodge built on the side of the mountain …. known as the Retreat. Carter is somewhat of a physical freak, being a victim of expensive frostbite damage. The right side of his face has been decimated, blackened and dead with the center of his face being a gaping cavity, only his sparkling blue eyes remain untouched. All members of the group have daily tasks and jobs to keep the Retreat functioning.. However, one of the members has just now disappeared, and power outages are occurring more frequently for longer intervals. There safety and security is at risk. Something very secretive is taking place in the basement.
In the outside world ravaged by the virus, the scientists have started Seclusion Centers in an effort to contain those infected, and provide a milieu for studying the disease process and possibly finding a cure. The critics say these are no better than concentration camps… some people call them “The Farms” …. the Retreat is one of these facilities.
The DRIFT is an acronym for Department of Research Into Infection and Future Transmission. Tudor masterly weaves the three narratives together progressively providing hidden secrets and motivations , ratcheting up to an explosive denouement. Naturally the story is infused with fear, paranoia and uncertainty as the principles strive for survival and the maintenence of their threatened humanity. An often repeated theme or advice: “You’re either a good guy or you’re a survivor. The earth is full of dead good guys”
Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group / Ballantine Books for supplying an Uncorrected Proof in exchange for my honest review. C.J. Tudor is firmly entrenched in my list of “Must Read” Authors.

Post-pandemic revenge mystery with multiple POVs and plenty of carnage. Expect to be twisted up in several ways. Don’t worry, nothing is as it seems, and most of it is far worse than you can imagine.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my free copy. These opinions are my own.

An ominous and intriguing beginning. It was a decent, post-apocalyptic story however, I think it would have flowed better if I knew the story was flipping between past and present. The structure of the story threw me. The link between the 3 perspectives took a while to connect, so it got a little confusing. An ok read for me. Thanks #NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the ARC.

Unpopular opinion: this book was somehow boring even with the giant cast of characters and multiple POVs. I also found the writing to be a bit on the fat phobic side-- in the typical "fat people are gross & lazy" depictions. Yawn.

I thought this would be scary but it wasn't. It's like that movie that takes place entirely on a chairlift --- you know it can't end well and you don't want to see the details, but you know how it ends all the same.

I did love this author's recent short story collection, A Sliver of Darkness so go read that instead

4.5⭐️

<b> There’s always a moment, in a crisis, where a divide happens. Any group of people, however small, will begin to form alliances, and to display enmity. Discord will grow. Minor to start with, but there will come a crux point.</b>

I love a good survivor thriller/horror, and this one is no different. The setting is a snowy wasteland after a deadly pandemic sweeps the globe and society collapses. Some of the infected become Whistlers, whose lungs have been so damaged by the infection that they whistle with each breath, and those infected with the Choler variant that affects the brain become dangerous.

The book follows three groups of people: those trapped on a stalled cable car en route to the Retreat, students being evacuated from their academy and trapped on their crashed bus, and those who are already at the Retreat. This books is so delightfully suspenseful and fun to try to figure out! It’s fast paced and interesting the entire time.

<b> Death was a horror, and everything we did–the ceremonies, eulogies, flowers–were just a way to try to convince ourselves otherwise.</b>

Beautifully told, eerie and compelling. C.J. Tudor writes beautifully and this book kept me guessing right til the very end. There are three separate stories following three different characters, so it's like 3 books in one. I'm not much of a fan of pandemic-based dystopian stories (having just lived through one) but I loved this book!