From the description, I wasn't expecting a viral zombie apocalypse. Three sets of characters are stranded in three different circumstances. As soon as something interesting starts to happen, the plot jumps again, from the Retreat to the crashed bus to the cable car stuck above the mountainside and then back. With so many characters and so much jumping around, I found it hard to get invested in the plot. The few clues about what had led up to the book and was still happening in the outside world sounded a lot more interesting than what was happening with the book's characters.

A pandemic is raging across the world. It is relentless and highly contagious. A group of scientists has set up a retreat for unaffected people. In the beginning only those unaffected with money could go. Space was at a premium and went to those with the big bucks. As the population died or became infected, the scientists changed their view and were looking for anyone who was not infected and willing to be a lab rat.
A bus carrying students from an elite school has an accident on a snow-covered road. The bus slides onto its side, and those passengers who survive the crash are looking for a way out. First to get up is Hannah. Her father is the founder of the Retreat. There are six survivors. One of the survivors worked for Hannah’s father. She tells Hannah the crash was not an accident.
A cable car stops on a ski slope. All of the occupants of this car are unconscious. As they begin to wake up, many questions circulate about why they were drugged. Quickly they discover one of them is dead from a stab wound. Who killed him? Why? How will they get out of this situation? Meg is the only one that knows the dead man was a cop. She keeps this to herself.
There are currently seven occupants at the retreat and one dog. Carter does not like the others. No worries, they don’t like him either. Miles thinks he is the leader but that is only because he is the keeper of the keys to all the locks in this place. In the next 24 hours, this number will be reduced to one. What happened and why?

I really liked this book. There have been a lot of apocalyptic books since the pandemic but what sets this one apart is its characters. Each character is well drawn and relatable. Their actions easily understood even when they do vile things. This is definitely every man for himself which is how I believe it would be in such a scenario. This book reminded me of Justin Cronin’s The Passage. If you are looking for an epic thriller, this book is for you.

4 stars / This review will be posted on goodreads.com today.


Medical apocalypses don’t seem so far-fetched now that we’ve all experienced COVID. In fact, this book couldn’t be more timely or relevant. That doesn’t lessen its impact, though. It’s a frightening look at the how the world devolves in the midst of a viral apocalypse.

The book is told from three separate characters’ points of view. We start with Hannah. Hannah is the daughter of renowned viral researcher Grant. She attends his very school and is studying to be a doctor herself. So when she finds herself on a coach with a group of people headed for The Retreat (formerly an amazing spa-like retreat, but now a haven for viral research) she’s not surprised. But when a frightening accident occurs and Hannah is left to fend for the survivors, she finds things out that are quite astonishing, and not so much. So many secrets that her father has kept, but nothing out of character.

Then there is Meg. Meg is trapped on a gondola in sub-freezing temperatures with fellow ‘guinea pigs’ heading to The Retreat. They’ve all volunteered (or volun-told) that they are going to assist with research into halting the spread of the virus. Meg is a former cop and is tapped to try to save the remaining passengers when the gondola is stuck swinging in a hellacious snow storm.

And lastly Carter. Carter lives at The Retreat, having been rescued by the man-in-charge, Miles. Carter is missing portions of his face to frostbite after being found submerged in a snowbank. The residents of The Retreat are responsible for the ‘supplies’ in the basement, as well as keeping the facility up and running for future ‘guinea pig’ residents. With the state of the world, this is a difficult task, and once residents start turning up missing or dead, it brings a new level of terrifying to living in this human petri dish.

Post-apocalyptic and dystopian novels tend to be some of my favorite genres. While this is set in a different time and space, you can almost imagine something like this happening with an event such as COVID. The people who survive the virus end up with a permanent condition that causes them to make a whistling sound when breathing, hence the name The Whistlers. They are pariah in society so they’ve been ostracized to live in the fringes or on government sanctioned farms. It’s all too real that something like this could happen - it’s happened in our past with leprosy patients.

I found myself wanting to get to the final ‘book’ of this novel so I could figure out how these three tie together. You get a few hints along the way, but nothing like the big bang at the end. I enjoyed this entire book, graphic details and all. Creative, imaginative, well executed. Definitely recommend.

C. J. Tudor is the master of horror! The story was somewhat confusing because it kept switching between three different locations with a lot of characters and the reader must pay attention. However, this book was fantastic and extremely suspenseful and scary!

This book is SO bingeable! The chapters are short and keep you turning the page – I kept finding myself saying “Just one more chapter” and then reading much more than one more chapter!

This book has three main narrators – with each narrator in a group of people are stranded under different horrible circumstances in a post-apocalyptic world, where much of the population has died from a virus that either kills you or makes you a “whistler” – kind of like a zombie, yet still a recognizable human. The Drift is a thriller, a survival and a dystopian horror novel all in one

I actually went into this book not reading the synopsis so it was fun to uncover this world and what was happening - there are a couple of twists that were surprising and I really enjoyed seeing how the three stories and narrators intertwined. I was all in once this happened and couldn’t wait to see how it was going to end. This is definitely a plot driven novel – a lot of characters in the three groups that were similar so a few times I had to go back and remember which of the three groups I was reading about and who the side character was but about 25% of the way in, that wasn’t a problem for me anymore.

This was an incredibly fun novel – propulsive and page turning and a perfect read for chilly weather – the snowy setting really made the situations all the more disastrous due to the weather elements at play. If you are looking for a novel you can read in one sitting, while cuddling under a blanket next to the fire – this is the perfect read!

Thank you to @netgalley & @penguinrandomhouse #ballantinebooks for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

What a ride! I loved everything about this novel: the setup, the payoff, the motley crew of characters, and the grisly surprises. CJ Tudor deftly creates a very strong sense of place — I could feel the chilling wind and hear the crunch of the snow. I'm afraid of heights, to the scenario in this book is my nightmare come to life, and I loved every minute of reading about it!

This book was so much fun to read. We follow Hannah, Meg, and Carter as they try to survive a viral outbreak that has changed the world as they know it. Everyone has secrets and no one is who they seem to be.

I love anything to do with a zombie apocalypse, and this book fit the bill. The difference here is that the infected are called Whistlers, and they're not actually dead. This was an interesting twist on the trope and really made me think about the idea of individual sacrifice for the greater good and who should have to make the sacrifice, as well as who gets to make the decision.

The character POVs were all intriguing, and the action was pretty much non-stop. We start to slowly see how their stories are connected, and that nothing is what we think it is. There were some disturbing moments, but all of our main characters had reasons for what they did. This book really pushed the idea that one person's hero is another person's villain. I loved the dystopian atmosphere and isolation of the ski lodge.

This is the first book I've read by C.J. Tudor and I'll definitely be reading more.

Well, this was different! And in a good way. There was a bit of everything in this one. A virus gone wild, some science fiction, murder, and a puzzle. Yes, I said a puzzle. I thought of one thing in the beginning and another in the end. And I kind of loved it.

Told from multiple perspectives and timelines, it took me a long time to figure out who was who and what was happening. And I am not mad about that. We read so many mystery/thriller books that we love it when an author can stump us!

And boy did that happen.

Hannah wakes up in the coach they boarded when the school was evacuated after an outbreak of the virus. But all isn’t as it seems and the coach is now upside down covered in snow with no way out. And 2 of them at least have the virus.

Meg, a former detective wakes up to the rocking of a cable car over a snow-covered mountain. What has happened? Someone drugged them and changed their clothes. All they know is they are going to the Retreat. Not everyone in the car is alive. And he was a cop. Now she is going to find out what is going on and get them out of there.

Carter is at the Retreat and is up to something. The people there are hiding a lot of stuff. But they are surviving having collected plasma from those who have the virus. That is a moral dilemma, right? But then, the people running this place have no morals.

I enjoyed this book a lot. I think the most important thing that was said is, “This is what happens when we all stop caring about anyone but ourselves”.

And that says it all. Well Done!

NetGalley/ January 31st, 2023 by Ballantine Books

This is a post apocalyptic/isolated snowy setting/pandemic thriller with lots of gory action. Won’t be for everyone, but I’m complete trash for CJ Tudor. Lots of chapter ending cliff hangers and multiple POVs made it completely bingeable.

I am a sucker for seemingly unconnected narratives. I don’t want to give spoilers but this one sucked me right in. Don’t worry about the number of names mentioned, just go along for the ride. I don’t know that this one would be as good as an audiobook since there are different stories and timelines. I thought the ending was believable, which isn’t always the case with a thriller/horror type book. I would say this is post-apocalyptic and while the twists were easy to guess, I still enjoyed the story.

Really solid. I struggled to pinpoint the connection between the three groups in The Drift until the final 10% in which it was gasp after gasp for me. Pick this one up for a fast paced twisty read if you don't mind pseudo-zombies and pandemic talk.

The Drift is definitely much more different from her other works, and it's definitely more on the gory side.

The thing with her writing is there was a great fun twist, and let me tell you, it was awesome. I absolutely loved the direction it went, and I wasn't expecting it.

Just be warned there is more gore, and I feel like more death than her normal books, but definitely still a fun one if you don't mind the blood!

The Drift by C. J. Tudor
#firstbookof2023 #arc

CW: Murder, death, suicide, global pandemic and infectious diseases, extreme violence and gore, traumatic childbirth, revenge, rape

I’ve listed a lot of content warnings for this book, and I know I missed some. This is definitely a post apocalyptic story about a pandemic which I was not expecting. I thought from the synopsis it would be more of a thriller. But I enjoyed the three different storylines, and especially liked when I realized how they connected to each other.

This won’t be for everyone. It’s violent and gory and unapologetic about that, and maybe I’ve become desensitized to that kind of action, because it didn’t really bother me. But not everyone will care for the level of violence.

It’s my first book of the author’s but I would read others based on this one.

Thank you to @netgalley and @penguinrandomhouse #ballantinebooks for the advance copy. (Pub date 1/31/23)

#thedrift #pandemicbook #firstbookoftheyear

A far departure from Tudor’s previous work, this post-apocalyptic zombie-esque horror story offers an overdone trope and several unresolved storylines. The multiple POV’s, number of characters, gore, and odd hint of body shaming are a strange combination. Hard pass.

Thanks to #NetGalley for the ARC which was read and reviewed voluntarily.

The Drift is dark, disturbing, claustrophobic, and anxiety-provoking in all the right ways! I absolutely flew through this book and I was left in shock when I realized how it all came together. There are many complex characters, all with their own unlikable flaws and horrific pasts. Even the irredeemable ones somehow managed to get under my skin. This bone-chilling book is perfect to binge read on a cold day, snuggled up under a blanket with the fire going. Be sure to grab this if you’re looking for a fast, thrilling read!

Three groups of people are stranded under different horrific circumstances in a post apocalyptic world, where much of the population has died from a virus that either kills you or makes you a
“whistler.” Think zombies crossed with brain damaged people who are violent and unpredictable, yet still recognizably human.

THE DRIFT is a survival story, a thriller and a dystopian horror novel. I read along without really understanding much until I was about 40% in, when there were some heftier descriptions of the world the characters are living in. Which is terrifying. There are a couple of twists in THE DRIFT that are surprising and done well. The problem for me is I didn’t get attached to the main characters (with the exception of one, a mother who lost her daughter) and I had a tough time remembering which of the supporting characters was which.

Eventually, the three stories intertwine to form a spine-tingling narrative and at that point, I was all in.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for an eARC of THE DRIFT and the opportunity to give my honest opinion.

This was a quick read for me. The chapters are short and end on cliffhangers so you keep turning the pages. it is a dystopian and horror novel wrapped in one so if you are into these genres, pick this one up!

CJ Tudor is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. The last 2 books I read by them were easy 5 stars.

I didn’t know how I would feel reading a pandemic book, but I loved every second of it. They didn’t focus a ton on the virus but more on the people and their survival. I love a book with multiple POVs and this one did not disappoint. I thought I had it all figured out and the twist threw me for such a loop. The ending was absolute perfection also.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Three ordinary people are stuck in horrifying and isolating situations during the end of the world.

This starts off as a survival thriller but becomes so much more. There are pretty much three story lines. You’ll likely enjoy one or two story lines more than another, but the chapters are short so it’ll fly by. Eventually you find out how the story lines tie together and it becomes even more action packed.

“You’re either a good guy or a survivor. And the earth is full of dead good guys.”

The Drift comes out 1/31.

"No one ever thinks they’re the bad guy. We all kid ourselves that we’re the hero of the story. And we’re usually wrong."

This story is part sci Fi dystopia and part thriller. The setting is a world with a terrifying virus that turns people into 'Whistlers'. Volunteers, and others who are being punished are sent to the Retreat for experiments to try and find a treatment, except everyone knows that those tests kill everyone involved.

There are three POVs. Meg is trapped with a group suspended in a cable car, unsure how she got there. Carter is stuck in the retreat. Hannah and a group were trying to flee the boarding school where the infection was spreading, and are trapped in a crashed coach.

This was really well done in how everything slowly was revealed. This was my first CJ Tudor book but now I definitely need to read more.