I liked that it was about 3 different groups of people that were stranded for a lack of a better word. I liked that the reader was clueless about how all these people were tied in together. Character development was lackluster compared to some of my recent reads. Plot and story moved steady and kept my attention. No dull points with this read! I didn't like that there was a couple unanswered questions. I liked all the plot twists. I could never predict where it was going. I liked how everything is explained at the end.

I am a huge C.J. Tudor fan, so when Ballantine and Random House sent me a copy of The Drift I was stoked!

Told from three different view points, we gain a picture of the world on the brink of complete chaos.

Meg: A former police officer wakes up hovering midway to the top of the mountain, stuck in a cable car with strangers. None of them remember how they got there. The only thing they remember is that they’re on their way to ‘The Retreat’ and that one of them is already dead.

Carter: Is part of a group that manufactures vaccines against a virus. But there is a risk to what they produce and the only thing keeping them safe is their generator.

Hannah: She and a few other students are on their way to ‘The Retreat’ from the boarding school they attend. When their bus crashes in the middle of a snowstorm, Meg and the few survivors band together to survive not just the elements but also the virus that they’re running from.

Once again Tudor has delivered a page turner. I was on the edge of my sit for 90% of the book and honestly this is a great book to go into blind. This book is all about survival and I could feel the hopeless through the pages. While our main character’s backgrounds are slow to be revealed, I thought they were extremely well crafted, and I had a hard time picking my favorite story. While all three storylines are distinctly different, you get the feeling early on that they will intertwine, but the way Tudor actually weaves them all together is excellently done.

This could have easily been a five-star read for me, IF we would have gotten more info around how and what caused this ‘end of the world’ scenario this would have been an AMAZING read for me. But the lack of closure took a star away from me. I also didn’t realize this going in, but this is definitely heavy on the post pandemic side of things. So, if pandemic type stories still seem a little ‘too soon’, then you may want to skip this one.

I’d definitely recommend this book for fans of I Am Legend, and anyone who enjoys post-apocalyptic or dystopian mysteries. This would also be a great read for a snowy/cold night in!

The Drift comes out January 31, 2023! Huge thank you to Ballantine Books and Random House for my advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion. If you liked this review please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my instagram @speakingof.books.

The Drift by CJ Tudor is very different from her previous books. This novel is a part horror, part pandemic dystopia, and has some tension and mystery elements of a thriller. Told in 3 alternating perspectives, Hannah, Meg, and Carter, we follow unfortunate folks in a stranded ski lift cable car, the few survivors of a coach bus crash, and a handful of misfits at an isolated place called “The Retreat.” Everyone is struggling for survival in the midst of a blizzard.

The virus impacting the world is vicious, spreading quickly and in many ways. Many die quickly but the unlucky become “Whistlers,” a zombie like creature that can still spread the virus and named for its eerie sound.

Overall I feel this book was overwritten and too long. More brevity would have increased the tension and the impact of the few surprises at the end. I thought it was interesting enough to finish but I felt no reason to read it until the final quarter of the book. I’m sure I’ll read CJ Tudor again, but this is not my favorite of hers.

This book is the most exciting thing I've read...ever! The story is set in a post-apocalyptic world that terrifies and delights. I do believe Tudor is writing to more of a horror audience in this thrilling story. If you enjoy gore, death, zombies and catastrophic events- buckle up! I couldn't put this down.
There are three groups of people facing life or death situations. One group is hanging from a broken-down cable car in the mountains, another is in a bus crashed into the same mountainside and a group is at the Retreat, a center at the top of said mountain- which is running a tests and creating vaccines to a deathly virus that has taken out most of the population.
The atmosphere is gripping and chilling, the characters (although hard to keep track of at first) are developed and interesting. You begin to wonder, how do these three groups of people connect and as if unfolds you find out how they are related, it's mind blowing! I love a good apocalypse and a zombie-ish character. What truly amazed me with this- and it's nothing like Tudor's other books, which I loved- is how action packed it was. Just when you think it's going to calm down-something insane happens. I LOVED it. 5 huge stars. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley.

I normally really like CJ Tudor, but I had a really hard time getting through this one. What kept me going was the short chapters, so the three story lines were still moving a long at a fair pace. Where this falls a bit flat for me is that I never cared too much for any of the characters, making the reveals in the back half a bit hollow.

Note: ARC kindly provided by the publisher in exchange for honest review.
3 stars

I really enjoyed this book. It was suspenseful and the three perspectives kept me interested throughout. This book follows three individuals who are dealing with stressful and difficult situations. I found most of the characters to be well thought out and sympathetic, at least at times. There is a major reveal about two-thirds through the book, and I did feel that some of the suspense was gone following that reveal. However, there were still enough unanswered questions to keep me interested and engaged.

Well this book scared me lol! I thought this book was a thriller but it is much more than that. Multiple main characters and settings and plenty of lies to go around! This is a book that should be read during daytime hours do not read it right before bed! I received an advanced readers copy and all opinions are my own.

If there was a record for sheer number of plot twists in one stand-alone novel, "The Drift" by C.J. Tudor would take the cake. This is a story about a viral pandemic, told from multiple perspectives and settings. It was a tense page-turner, where the reader enters in the middle of the action and has to play catch-up along with the very large cast of characters. In the beginning, it was difficult to keep track of all the names and backstories, but by the middle of the book, I started to gain some traction and the puzzle pieces started to come together. Just in time for Tudor to flip the script 4 more times and make me question everything all over again.

This is a quick, immersive read, but one that requires (and deserves) your full attention in order to experience the magnitude of the multifaceted story. The book was well-written with many quotable statements, some which I may include in my full review in late January.

**Trigger warning: on top of many triggers for gore, death of a child/sibling/loved one, violence against both humans and pets, I'd like to particularly note that this book might be difficult for those who are not in the mood for a pandemic-based novel. The book covers many topics that may hit close to home so soon after covid, such as descriptions of hospitalizations, medical care being over-capacity, viral spread, etc. Just felt like the abstract might have come off more wilderness-survival than pandemic-survival, so I wanted to make sure that was clear.**

Overall, Tudor does an excellent job at creating a true horror novel, filled with gore and jump scares., but still interlaced with comical moments at the same time. I was entertained and on my toes the entire time. Highly recommend.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House for the opportunity to read an advanced reader's copy of this novel prior to publication

Thank you NetGalley and Random House for the opportunity to read an advanced reader's copy of this novel prior to publication.

This book takes place after a deadly virus has ravaged the world and still persists. Three different groups of people have found themselves stuck in survival situations as part of a greater puzzle. One group on an overturned bus stuck in a snow drift, another trapped in a cable car, and the final group at a mountain resort that is losing power.

This is a thriller with horror elements and a bit of a post-apocalyptic feel at times due to the catastrophe the virus has been. The winter atmosphere makes this a great creepy winter read. The winter itself adds to the struggle to survive and the challenges each group faces. All three perspectives come with their own unique survival challenges and the feeling that no one is safe. Part of the mystery is how all three fit together into the greater puzzle of why they all wound up trapped. It feels a bit like a thriller mixed with survival stories while society is collapsing. I loved the tension of the survival elements.

I would recommend this to those who like thrillers with horror elements, an intricate puzzle to solve in regards to who dun it, wintry atmospheres, and the tension of survival against not only other people, but the elements too. Who this isn't for: those who dislike multiple perspectives and virus stories.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wow. This book was a real journey. It was tense, mysterious, scary, gory, emotional..

It was a lot. The first half of the book is incredibly tense, in particular. It had my wife and I discussing the possibilities and twists as we went. It becomes a little less mysterious in the last quarter of the book, but that's understandable given the way it's set up. Some things stretch the imagination a bit, but it never quite made me want to put the book down.
Also Dexter's a good boi

C.J. Tudor has created a really fun, complex thriller that is essentially three survival stories wrapped into one. Hannah is trapped in a crashed bus in a snowstorm with her fellow students, trying to figure out why the bus crashed and who can be trusted. Meg wakes up in a cable car on the way to "The Retreat" with four strangers and a dead body, trying to solve a murder as the cold slowly creeps into the small room. Carter and his group are living in a chalet that is running out of resources as they struggle to keep their connection to society alive. These stories start out very disconnected but slowly the reader discovers connections between the characters and the worlds they are all trying to survive. Tudor does a great job balancing the three stories and keeping the tension up in all of them. The book is hard to put down because you want to keep reading the other stories to get to the next chapter of one of them, and this repeats until you get to the end of the book. Towards the end I was getting worried that each story was going to be unsatisfying, but Tudor did a great job tying up the plotlines and giving a very satisfying ending. This is a dark (a lot of death, some graphic), intense book, but very interesting if you can get into its rhythm.
Thank you to Net Galley and Ballantine Books for a copy of The Drift in exchange for an honest review.

Another excellent and suspenseful story from this author. I'm a fan because each book is exciting and unique and keeps me glued to every page. This book is a must read for mystery and thriller fans!

CJ Tudor always writes a fast-paced and fun book and I will continue to seek her out. I enjoyed this one but it just wasn't memorable. I finished it a week or two ago and had to look the book up because I could not remember anything about it.

Not the normal type of book I read. A really good story for those who like that “what’s gonna happen next?” Vibe. I have read many books by this author and the storylines are always entertaining.

I think I'm giving up on this author. I've read all of her books and only liked The Chalk Man. All of her books have problematic and offensive language/scenes that seem to exist for no other reason except maybe shock value. This book specifically is extremely fatphobic. Apart from that, there are just too many characters and too much going on to really keep track of or care about, especially since all the perspectives that you get sound the same.

Three scenarios are described, and we watch each one as we read. The connection between the three isn’t clear; this kept me intrigued. As the plot enveloped the three, it began to make sense. With a few twists and surprise deaths, the tension was maintained.
I’m reducing the score from 4 to 3; the active scenes were described shallowly. The bloody scenes got a little too creative. But I enjoyed the overall plot and the concept of an uncontrolled virus.
Thanks to Random House Publishing Group- Ballantine for an ARC in exchange for my honest review. The publishing date is January 31, 2023.

C.J. Tudor is an auto-buy for me and I was so excited about this arc. Expertly plotted, descriptive characters and a real heart stopper. Also, a real page turner. Highly recommended.

Thank you, Netgalley and Publisher, for this Arc!


This ominous thriller definitely gave me some horror vibes along the way. Needless to say, I was not disappointed!

This is a terrifying story of the absolute worst-case scenario for our world dealing with a dangerous virus. This has the gore, the twists and turns, and a surprising ending that kept me on the edge of my seat!

There are three storylines in this book. All of which are equally interesting. Hannah finds herself waking on a coach that has crashed. Luckily, her knowledge as a medical student keeps her and the other survivors mostly alive. Meg wakes in a groggy state on a cable car with five others on their way to be test subjects. Carter is at The Retreat, or what is left of it, and is living with some strange roommates who all seem to have secrets.

Definitely a riveting thriller that I could not put down! Content Warnings for gore, death and murder.

Out January 31, 2023!

*Thank you to Random House/Ballentine, NetGalley, and C.J. Tudor for an ARC in exchange for an honest review*

“I had started to notice how careless people were; like they didn’t realize how important it was to hold on to things or they could be gone forever.”

― C.J. Tudor, The Drift

Welcome to DRIFT, otherwise known as The Department or Research into Infection and Future Transmission. Likely inspired by the Covid pandemic, a Choler infection turns deadly but also turns survivors of Choler into “whistlers”, named after the whistling sound they make through their lungs. We follow storylines of Hannah, trapped in a Coach bus on the way to the “retreat”, a protective facility for those who do not have the virus, and Meg, trapped on a cable car descending the mountain that leads to the retreat, and Carter, one of several residents at the retreat who have been there for a long time. When traditional vaccine trials fail. Scientists extract plasmas from the survivors who volunteer as guinea pigs for free food, healthcare and housing. Trial Centers, like the retreat that Carl is at are mostly used to imprison those who are infected so they can extract more plasma.

Hannah, daughter of an evil Fauci like character, who created vaccines for the sick through evil means, is on a bus that has careened off the road with other students, including a young sarcastic girl, a german soldier, a short boy infected with the virus, and a brother and sister, who is injured and not expected to survive. All of them are hiding secrets but must band together to get out of the bus before Hannah’s father finds them and kills them.

Meg is an ex-police officer, who was intent on committing suicide after her young daughter died from the virus, after they promised everyone that the virus didn’t affect children at all. It sounds familiar. She volunteers for the testing center but on the way; she becomes trapped in a cable car 1000 feet in the air, when the power grid dies. There is a dead man in the car with them, who happens to be her ex. But this also means someone who is trapped in the car with them is a murderer.

And Carter, who has lost half of his face to frostbite, works at the retreat with a bunch of survivors who have been there for several years. They all serve a purpose and have their daily tasks. When he returns from a grocery store trip, Carter realizes the power has gone out but also that two of his mates have been slaughtered. He knows there are sick people locked up in the basement. Has someone set them free? And why?

Reading like Stephen King’s thriller The Stand, three different storylines connect with many unique characters. But please pay attention because there is such a huge twist towards the end of the book that it will make you want to go back to the beginning and read it again. The last chapters of The Drift will make you question everything you have just read. This book is a nail-biter but also an atmospheric thriller, with notes that may seem too familiar to us, having just gone through a pandemic. Who is a good guy and who is a bad guy? Is everyone who they say they are? This book kept me reading well into the night.

CJ Tudor backs so much into her latest novel: non-stop action, secrets, lies, an unstoppable virus, and more. The Drift is not a genre I usually read and had the writing not been so compelling I surely would have put it down before getting very far into it. The book is not for the faint of heart. People are extraordinarily cruel, people are killed without impunity, and bodies are everywhere, even as walking infected "survivors" of the virus. Many readers will lap this up and be looking for more.