I've come to the conclusion that this author is not for me. The story started out very strong and mysterious and the plot was decent but I hate when authors rant through their characters about God and Christianity. You never see this in regards to any other religion because it would be considered hateful or offensive but Christianity is always fair game. Disappointing.

What an eye-opening pandemic story showing how scary it would be, how it would effect so many people, and how science and humanity can overlap into a horrendous scenario. The story follows three main characters, Meg, Hannah, and Carter and the nightmare survival situations they have each been thrown into - along with peripheral characters who bring different dimensions to their fight to survive. About 3/4 way through all the important parts the characters played became a bit confusing., but definitely became apparent as to how their stories intertwined became more and more apparent. Not for the faint of heart as the story brings to mind The Walking Dead and World War Z in a very descriptive way. That being said - I do enjoy a good scary, world crisis book, which the author brings to us between these covers! Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing-Ballentine Books for the opportunity to read and review this advance reader copy. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. #NetGalley #TheDrift

This book lagged a little in the middle for me, but overall I really liked all the different perspectives. I couldn’t wait to see how they all tied together and the dystopia and locked room mystery themes were very interesting. CJ Tudor is an auto-buy author for me and I’m already anticipating her next release!

This was the perfect book to read as the snow was falling down outside my windows this weekend. I was so thankful to be inside my warm house, unlike the characters in this book.
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Three separate groups of survivors at the end of the world are all stuck in a snowstorm. Hannah and her group are trying to survive a bus crash after escaping a secluded boarding school.
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Meg and her group awake in matching uniforms and no memory of how they got in this cable car that isn’t working and headed to a place only known to them as “The Retreat.” The group knows they need to get out of this broken cable car and everything heightens when they realize one of the passengers is dead.
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Carter lives and works at the Chalet. In exchange for living essentials and food he helps make vaccines against the virus, but the generator starts glitching and when it finally goes out it can’t protect them from the evils outside.
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I am always all about an end of the world story and the way humans interact when they society crumbles. This was a perfectly done end of the world saga and the way these three storylines intersect blew my mind.
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Thank you #ballantine and #NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an Honest review. This one is out tomorrow !

This was a great end of the world mystery. Told from 3 points of view that converge in an unexpected twist. The drama and intrigue kept the pages turning until the thrilling end.

The Drift brings us the most likely dystopic future we can imagine with an incredibly lethal virus coupled with ineffectual mitigation, leading to retreat and isolation. There are three narratives being told by Meg, Hannah, and Carter. Meg is on a cable car that comes to an abrupt halt on the way up a former mountain resort. Hannah is on a bus on the way to what sounds like the same place when it crashes and is half-buried in snow. Carter is at a nearly empty mountain resort with a small and shrinking population of survivors. Their power systems are failing, something that could be fatal to all of them. All have left behind a world collapsing under the onslaught of an implacable and lethal virus.

Hannah’s father is the world’s most famous virologist working to find a cure and mandating increasingly draconian measures to save lives. From her upbringing, Hannah knows that he is driven only by facts, not by emotion, so when she learns that some people on the bus are infected, she knows that any supposed rescuers would not let them survive, but can she persuade the other survivors. Meg volunteered for this vaccine study hoping to die. Her daughter died and she has lost the will to live, until she was stranded up in the freezing cable car. Carter has secrets, far too many secrets. So do all the others at the resort. But whose secrets will kill them.

The Drift is a story set in the most likely of all possible dystopian futures. Yes, climate change is going to continue, but so will evolution, including the evolution of viruses. Now that COVID has proven us incapable of doing something as minimal as wearing a mask to protect ourselves and others from the virus – to the point where the New York Times seems to think mask-wearing is anti-social – of course, the next virus will be worse because governments won’t even try to mitigate for fear of losing votes. It will evolve to maximal lethality. We will do nothing until the only options are dire and obscene to our current morality.

In The Drift. we can’t help but identify with our three narrators who embody the will to survive, that drive that keeps us going when all seems lost. They are not the hapless who decide trying to survive is so much harder than dying peacefully in our sleep. That choice, of just giving up, is always there, but they persevere. It’s what we do.

I really loved The Drift even though it is not for the faint of heart. The jeopardy begins on page one and does not let up. But folks keep striving and what can be more fully human than that?

The Drift will be released January 31st. I received an e-galley from the publisher through NetGalley.

The Drift at Ballantine | Penguin Random House
C. J. Tudor on Facebook
Also reviewed The Chalk Man
Also reviewed The Other People

Excellent book! I highly recommend reading this! It started a little slow but then it picked up like a rollaway coaster and I couldn’t stop! Definitely a must read!

The Drift by C. J. Tudor wasn’t entirely what I was expecting. I went in thinking murder mystery but instead got a dystopian thriller. I know to most this won’t be an issue at all. But for me it was a bit of a let down.

I really love C. J. Tudor and her beautiful writing style. She has way of writing her settings that make them so vivid and real. For someone who loves winter thrillers this book was a dream. I also loved the character development in this book. I can’t say much because it will ruin the plot but wow I loved it!

My one issue was this just isn’t a type of book I like. I’m not into dystopian thrillers and that’s my fault for thinking it was something else. I’m not sure it would have mattered because I read anything C. J. Tudor writes and will continue to.

Overall I still had a really good time reading this one. It was so fast past and so easy to binge in one sitting. I would definitely recommend this one to people who love dystopian thrillers with a side of murder. This book was a beautiful web of lies and secrets.
3.5/5 Stars

Thank you so much to the publisher and NetGalley for an arc in exchange for my honest review.

Three groups of people are trapped on a stopped sky cable car, an overturned chartered bus, and at a rural resort working on a secret science project. While the snowstorm is not helping, the raging pandemic making huge swaths of the population both epically contagions and into modern zombies is worse. Will the trapped humans’ deaths be by weather, starvation, illness, or a more human threat? Or will somehow at least a few survive? Find out in The Drift…

The weather outside is the perfect accompaniment to this book…along with a warm cup of tea. Even though I knew the setting would make me feel even colder, I was looking forward to reading this book.

The author really makes you wonder how in the world this book will end any way but bleakly. Unfortunately, the characters are stick figures rather that people you can root for. Still, if you like atmospheric plot driven stories that make you think of what would you do if caught in an unusual situation, give The Drift a try. 3 stars.

Thanks to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for a digital review copy of the book.

*3.5*

This won't go down as my favorite C.J. Tudor but still a great thriller! One thing I love about C.J.'s books is the ability to build up suspense with a fast moving plot and this one is certainly no different. We have 3 different perspectives from 3 different groups of people in one snowy area of the world. Cutoff from each other and cutoff from any sort of contact and trying to survive. There are quite a lot of characters amongst the 3 groups and it takes a minute to get your bearings but C.J. made the characters different enough that it didn't take long to get the hang of everything. The plot with the virus was surprising, I was expecting a more traditional locked room mystery but then we got some apocalyptic themes thrown in. Some of the side plots were uninteresting to me but I do understand their importance to the overall story. And I will say the end was nothing I saw coming!

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I went in to this without really knowing anything about this book or the author. Wow, what a pleasant surprise. This begins with three separate stories/settings, and it keeps you wondering just how they are related and guessing just where the story is going. Lots of twists and cliffhangers along the way. Highly recommended if you like closed room thrillers, post apocalyptic themes and a winter settings. 4.5 stars.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review/rating.

The Drift by C. J. Tudor is a highly recommended post apocalyptic thriller told through three storylines. The setting is during a world wide plague. The survivors in the novel are all in the midst of a raging snow storm while heading to or at the Retreat, a mountain top medical facility where survivors can assist in working on a cure or hiding from the Whistlers.

Hannah, a medical student, is trapped with a handful of survivors in a coach/bus that has crashed off the road. Meg, a former police officer, is trapped along with others in a cable car stranded high above the ground of the mountainside. Carter in in the ski chalet known as the Retreat where the generator has issues and he doesn't trust anyone who is there with him. The identities, secrets, and problems surrounding these individuals are all part of a larger puzzle. It is a sort of locked room mystery with three different rooms in a much larger maze.

The narrative switches between the three different settings/storylines. Along with the struggle for survival among the three groups, the impending sense of fear and doom is found in the harsh weather conditions, the deadly virus that some may be infected with, and the feeling of wariness and mistrust as it becomes increasingly clear that someone may not want them to survive. The Drift is certainly a post apocalyptic thriller, but it is also a mystery because you don't know the full picture of what is happening.

The dialogue between characters is great and the action and intrigue in the three storylines is compelling as the tension and pressure increases in the three situations. There are a lot of characters to keep track of among the three groups of people, which was a draw-back and slowed down my reading in the beginning while I was trying to keep everyone straight. The denouement surprised me.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Random House via NetGalley.
The review will be published on Barnes & Noble, Google Books, and Amazon.

The Drift is a post apocalyptic thriller with three people who are involved in three different storylines that I tried to figure out if or how they would come together. Hannah is on a bus during a blizzard when it crashes. People are hurt, maybe dying and it seems there is no way out. As the story progresses, we find out where they came from, where they were going, and if everyone on board can be trusted. Not a spoiler, but Hannah was my favorite character and I hoped that nothing bad would happen to her.
Meg has wound up on a cable car with no idea how she got there. She and her fellow travelers all swear they have no idea who killed the one very dead passenger. Is someone stuck on this car a killer? We learn where they were going and what led them to be in this precarious position. Again, no spoilers but I was racking my brain trying to figure out how these two groups would come together or if they were even related.
Then we have Carter who is at The Retreat,a place that at first glance appears safe but in reality holds numerous secrets( even death might not be the worst one). Every character in the story makes sense in the end. I’ll admit at about the 80% mark I wasn’t sure how the author could pull everything together in a way that would tie everything up.Silly me, it’s C.J. Tudor, and this puzzle made total sense in the end. Speaking of the end, once I read the last sentence and thought about the stories I really appreciated how she managed to pull all the seemingly separate storylines into a cohesive plot. I read this in an afternoon and I only wish I could read it for the first time again.

The Drift is definitely a wild ride, a fast paced how does this come together (it does) thriller that is perfect for a stormy night. I thank Random House Ballantine for the review copy and for the fun I reading this story filled with well developed suspense that kept the story shifting and twisting (each chapter from different characters worked well to move the story forward and added depth to the plot and helped with pieces of the puzzle) and the sense of dread as you know something bad is hiding/waiting to be revealed...
Two thumbs up for the fun suspenseful creepiness of The Drift!

I read half...I couldn't finish. It just wasn't keeping me interested and I wasn't liking the characters or the story line. I wanted to like it as I have enjoyed the other C.J. Tudor books I have read but this one was not for me.

In a storm, in a pandemic, three different groups of people try to survive. This wouldn't be easy in the best of circumstances, and they are all a long way from that. The book moves quickly, careening between each of the three groups. The action is really nonstop and convincingly handled. This is a fun read and well worth the time. Hang on and enjoy the ride.

Buckle up Buttercup! This is one wild ride! A suspenseful and action packed apocalyptic thriller that had some of the best chapter cliffhangers I've seen. Unexpected twists and a high body count makes this a must read! Would make an amazing movie or TV series! So freaking good!!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for this eARC.

Hannah wakes up on a charter bus that has crashed into a ditch as the students from an elite school were being evacuated to safety during a snowstorm. The carriage is on its side, and half of the students are dead. With training in medicine, Hannah is equipped to help lead the survivors to safety, but they all have secrets, and some will do anything to keep them hidden. Others will do anything to ensure Hannah’s group doesn’t survive.

Meg comes to on a cable car, not remembering how she got there. She and the other passengers are 250 feet from the station, but without power, and with dropping temperatures, none of them may make it to safety.

In a luxurious ski chalet, Carter lives with a motley group who have an important and clandestine mission. But when the power becomes unpredictable, they fear not only what might breach their defenses but what they may release into the world.

Hannah, Meg, and Carter, with the odds stacked against them, fight to survive against the elements, other people, and their own mental and physical limits, learning if endurance requires them to sacrifice their humanity.

Although THE DRIFT more horror than thriller, I enjoyed it quite a bit. Not only did the book have a lot of mystery and suspense, it asked interesting philosophical questions about the nature and cost of survival in life or death situations. Across the different settings/points of view, Tudor introduced unexpected and captivating characters, although there are some parallels and repetitions.

Though the ending was intended, I believe, to be hopeful, overall this was a fairly bleak book. It isn’t apparent in the marketing material but the events of the novel transpire after a virulent pandemic (largely off page) has disrupted society’s institutions and infrastructure. I enjoy dystopian books, but I think if you go into this expecting a traditional thriller, you’ll be unsettled. Additionally, some questions about the characters/plot remain unanswered. If you don’t like loose ends, this may bother you. However, if you do like dystopian/ horror novels, this is rewarding read.

CW: Gore, violence, death, sexual assault, animal death.

Completely blown away by the plotting in this novel. The way that the stories all weave together is genius. I will be recommending this novel and reading more by C.J. Tudor. Thank you for the opportunity to read this one early.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House for an ARC of this thriller! A bus of students stranded in a snowstorm crash, a group of strangers stranded in a cable car, and employees of a remote site called The Retreat. Blizzards, a contagious virus, and surviving infected. The tension is palpable. I read this one in a day because I could not put it down. This story will stick with me for a while. Well done, Ms. Tudor. No spoilers here, but do not pass this one up.