This was a thrilling and great paced mystery thriller with a good helping of horror for good measure. I really enjoyed it (as I did the other Tudor novel I’ve read) and will definitely be recommending it to others!

A big snow storm with 3 different scenarios going on at one time! Lots of characters to keep straight. This started out strong for me but then lost me at 50%. I gave up! Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this early review. Since I have enjoyed other books by this author, I look forward to her next one. This one just wasn’t for me.

I am a huge fan of C.J. Tudor books and was so excited to be able to read The Drift early!! Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine Books for the ARC!! The Drift had many elements that I enjoy reading, mystery, horror, locked-room type mystery, and a story told through multiple points of view. I really enjoyed how C.J. Tudor upped the horror level in this. It made for some very tense and creepy scenes. I also loved how when I got to the end that I was so surprised at how everything played out between the different points of view and different locations. I have to say that since Covid and the pandemic I am not much of a fan of apocalypse stories like I once was, but with all the other elements she weaves in I did want to see how everything played out.

I've been looking forward to this one ever since CJ Tudor mentioned it as her passion project in the introduction to her previous book, A Sliver of Darkness, and she did not disappoint!

The atmosphere makes it the perfect winter read to hunker down with during a snowstorm. The three storylines are equally interesting, with strong narrators and supporting characters, and each chapter ends with a reveal or twist that kept me reading. Slowly the reader discovers how the three storylines are connected in an unexpected but interesting twist. It did take a long time for the full story of the apocalypse to be revealed, so things were a little confusing in the beginning, but the mystery also added to the general sense of unease.

One thing that drove me crazy was the repetition of certain phrasing. It seemed like almost every chapter had a phrase along the lines of "something stirred/flitted/niggled in the back of her mind" or "she was missing something but she couldn't place it/put her finger on it". But looking past that annoying bit, this was an overall fabulous read and one I recommend.

Sadly, this is a DNF for me at 50%. The cast was too large and lacking identity, so they tensed to lump together for me. There were multiple times Tudor seemed to go for an obvious "jump scare" that fell flat. And the story itself was doing nothing to reel me in. There were elements present that could have been used better, which was frustrating. I've enjoyed the other two Tudor stories I've read before, but The Drift was simply not the right book for me at this time. I feel like I would have enjoyed it more as a TV show or movie than in written form. But this ARC left me itching to read something else.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
"The Drift" by C.J. Tudor was brilliant.
It was an addictive, dark & disturbing thriller that had me hooked right away.
It was one of my favorite reads of this year.
I loved how Ms. Tudor told the story using 3 main characters in 3 different timelines to connect all of their stories to us.
I am excited because I just read that Buccaneer & Halcyon Studios have secured the rights to adapt this book for television.

This little winter jewel of a puzzle box has sharp edges. Three interconnected narratives showcase three set-piece stories, and while each one requires solving on its own, the picture formed by the whole is terrifying. Curl up by the fire with this thrilling page turner which involves an apocalyptic virus but isn’t totally nihilistic. Great for readers who like fast-paces thrillers but who also appreciate multiple POVs.

I am a huge fan of the author, like really huge, so I’m going to keep this super brief. I didn’t care for this one as much as her previous work. It could be because it’s too soon for me personally to be reading about Covid-esqe virus taking out the world but with 3 crossing over storylines that never actually seemed to cross over there’s way too many characters to keep up with I found it difficult to care about any of them or at some point to even care about the story. I guess I am way out of sync with the other readers but I felt like with the post apocalyptic type “whistlers” that gave me Walking Dead vibes, that come as a result of being infected and there’s just a lot of violence in killing said infected people, but these elements don’t make it a horror story. There wasn’t anything horror about this book. It was more matter of fact than anything and I think that was due to the choppiness of the 3 stories trying to get them to intersect and for lack of better terminology, I found myself…drifting off.
I typically read a book a day, or in 2 days max, but this took me almost a week to finish because I just couldn’t get into it. Again, it could just be me because I’m not ready for Covid era books. But I think maybe it’s not.
Thanks to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for this eArc in exchange for my review.

This book was everything I needed, and it’s everything you’ll need for this upcoming winter season. Light a fire. Grab a blanket. We have a book to discuss.

What you need to know:

The Retreat: That’s the epicenter of our story, but we get there through a few different pathways:

1. A bus going to the Retreat has an accident. There are several fatalities, and the survivors are trapped. The big question, though, is what’s trapped on board with them, and will they survive the impending snowstorm?

2. A cable car suspended 1000 feet in the air malfunctions, and again, the passengers are stuck. The big kicker: No one remembers how they got on the cable car. Oh, and one of them may be a murderer—because there’s a body with a suspicious cause of death. It’s the very definition of a locked room mystery.

3. The Retreat itself: Who are the occupants, and what do they have to do to survive? These questions have shocking answers. Trust me.

Guys, this book is frenzied. It’s chaotic and disorienting. Details swirl about like the snowflakes in a blizzard. Sometimes, it’s hard to find your way in the confusion. We experience the same questions at the same time as the characters, which means we are rewarded with answers when they earn them.

When things begin falling into place, GAH! I actually yelled “Oh my gawd!” several times while reading. This is an incredible show of writing chops and imagination. I couldn’t read quickly enough. I never wanted it to end. If I could, I would quite literally shout from the rooftops about this book. I desperately want everyone everywhere to read it. It’s just that good!

I dare you to pick this one up, and I dare you to try to put it down. You will not be able to tear yourselves away from it. Every chapter ends with a revelation that will leave you reeling and will force you to keeping turning pages. Resistance is futile. There’s no functioning as a human until you’ve reached the end. Buckle up and bundle up. You have a very chilly and very bumpy road ahead.

In a world devastated by a swiftly mutating and infinitely transmissible rage virus, people will do anything for safety. Medical student Hannah was being whisked from her boarding school to the security of the Retreat when her bus crashed, leaving a handful of teens trapped in a blizzard. Ex-cop Meg was on her way to the Retreat via ski lift when the mechanism broke, trapping her in midair with four strangers and a corpse. Carter is already at the Retreat, where both the infrastructure and the personnel are falling to pieces. No one can be trusted in this grim depiction of humans pushed to the edge of humanity.

C.J. Tudor has outdone herself in her latest novel. The Drift, is a high-octane roller-coaster ride, speeding along the tracks at break-neck velocity. Just when you think the ride will give you a bit of a reprieve, the story slams you down a longer, faster stretch you didn't think was possible. Told in alternating chapters between the perspectives of three main characters, The Drift takes place in the not-so-far-off future when the most deadly virus on Earth has taken a massive toll, and science is desperate to find a cure. To this end, the three narratives are revolve around people trying to get to the scientific facility known as "The Retreat," or taking place at The Retreat itself. Hannah finds herself one of the few survivors of a bus crash, a coach that was taking medical students to the Retreat. When the driver isn't found among the dead yet a previously alive passenger is found dead, suspicions arise among the survivors as what was really behind the crash comes to light. Meg awakens on a cable car suspended high up in the mountains along with five other passengers, all who appear to have been drugged, and who are now stuck in an unmoving car short of their destination - the Retreat. When one of the passengers is found stabbed to death, suspicions arise and soon the body count goes higher as hopes of rescue slip away. Carter is one of the few remaining members at a scientific facility located on an isolated mountain where promise of a cure for the deadly virus may be close at hand. Once the bodies start to show up everything spirals out of control quickly, and the everyone still alive is in grave danger.
Unlike her previous novels which tended to be quieter horror in smaller locations, this one takes place in three separate, though connected, locals and have equal measures of intensity, mystery and nail-biting suspense. It's like three horror movies stuck together with them all working in harmony. This is Tudor's most ambitious novel to date and arguably one of, if not the best one yet.

This was my first book by CJ Tudor and it definitely won't be my last! This book took me on a wild ride in a completely different direction than I originally thought but I enjoyed every second!

Told from 3 different characters with 3 different stories, at first it's hard to see how they all connect. But by the end, you start putting all the pieces together and it's equally as horrifying.

Hannah is trapped in a bus that was in an accident in the middle of a snow storm. Half the people on board died in the crash. She needs to figure a way out to survive but is calling for help going to actually get her help?
Meg is trapped in a cable car with 5 others but 1 of them is dead. How did they get there? Is 1 of them a killer?
Carter is working at a ski chalet with secrets in the basement and a generator that keeps going out.
All of these stories are connected with a virus. Where did it start? How will it end? And how far will people go to protect themselves and people they love?

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House - Ballantine for the ARC.

A bus crash in the snow. A cable car stranded in mid-air. A secluded installation hidden in the forest. These are the settings for this post-apocalyptic thriller. Set after a viral apocalypse has ended humanity as we know it. Ten years of raging infection has wiped out the population and left some survivors as barely-human “whistlers.” Those who are not infected must protect themselves from the whistlers, and from those who would exploit the situation for personal gain.

Hannah, Meg, and Carter are all in separate locations, but something ties them together. As the story weaves onward, the connections become clearer. Hannah has to figure out how to get her fellow students and survivors of the bus crash to safety. Meg is stranded in mid-air in a cable car with others who were drugged and left there. Carter is in an abandoned ski resort with others who are protecting something in the basement and making vaccines against the deadly virus. Going outdoors into the snowstorm risks exposing oneself to the whistlers and the bitter cold.

The story is told from their three perspectives in alternating chapters. Eventually, things begin to weave together. It was fun to try to figure out how these people were related and what their backgrounds were. There are elements of suspense, and horror, as well as some sci-fi. There are bloody scenes. There is gore. The storyline itself seems to be a sort of commentary on our current situation with a raging virus and the human responses to it. It wasn’t overtly political though. It does offer one idea of “what-if?” The end was not what I expected though. I think the end was also a commentary, in its own way. I’ll leave it up to you to figure out what it’s trying to say.

This is a good novel if you like horror and don’t mind bloody scenes. Hannah’s father was a particularly villainous character. I’m not really into zombie tales and the whistlers were a little too zombie-like for my tastes. I do like how the three story lines eventually tied together so neatly. That was superbly well-done. The characterizations were also nicely written and detailed. For me, the best thing about the book was how skillfully the different lives of the characters were brought together. There are some elements I just didn’t like much, but some worked very well. I recommend it if you like this kind of tale.

First off, thank you to the publisher, the author and NetGalley for this ARC!!!

Wow wow wow this book was SO GOOD! The chapters were 3 alternating POVs and were short so this 400 page book flew by… I couldn’t read fast enough!!! I preordered this book the second I was done reading it so I can re-read!! Go in blind and be surprised!!!!

I think I should start with the bottom line, which is that I will read anything C. J. Tudor writes. I find her to be one of those writers who immediately captures me and keeps me captive until she's good and ready to let me go.

This book is a departure from the others I've read by her. Usually Tudor writes dramatic thrillers, sometimes with a twist of the supernatural, always with great character development. These books are right up my alley--the narratives combined with her addictive voice are always winners. This book, though . . . is different. Honestly, I might not have picked it up had it not been by Tudor. But I'm glad I did because it was a thrill ride.

This novel is a dystopian-esque "what if" novel: what if Covid would have been something worse even than it was? What if the world never got a hold on it and what would happen as civilization started to break down (and in case you're interested, the time it takes in this novel is 10 years: 10 years till the world we know is pretty much gone--or well on its way there). It's frightening and made all the more terrifying by the proximity of what we've all lived through in the past few years. A slight shift one way or another and those bad things could have been a whole lot worse.

Anyway, the narrative moves at a breakneck speed. As has been one complaint of mine with other Tudor novels, here too you're initially introduced to a huge cast of characters. But, hang in there: you'll come to see that there really is a central character in each of the three POVs the books shifts between and once you start following the central storyline, it becomes easier to recognize and follow all the other characters. There were also a few questions I was left with at the end, but . . . it doesn't really matter. The book is fast, entertaining, terrifying, and heartbreaking.

While I hope we return to the terror of the here-and-now in the future, this was a welcome diversion and another winner from Tudor--who has become one of my "must-reads" over the last few years.

I think this will be a good book for some but not for this reader. A little too on the gross side for me. I don't mind some violence but I draw the line at people pooping on ski lifts and all the description that that entails.

“The Drift” is a cracking plot-driven thriller about a post viral-world, and three sets of people fighting for survival in killer weather. One set is stranded in a rocking cable car, another in a crashed bus and still a third in the place they’re all headed for—a safe haven called the Retreat. Or maybe it’s not so safe any more.

C.J. Tudor creates an intriguing cohort of people in each set, each with trauma a-plenty and lots of reasons to be suspicious of each other. Could someone be infected? Who put that gun there? But this is a book about action, and the characterizations are secondary.

In the mood for skillful escapist fare? This is it, and you will not be disappointed.

I liked this a lot! Perfect winter read, I could feel the cold in the descriptions. There was a horror vibe going, along with the atmospheric descriptions. I didn’t know who to trust. I had no idea where this one was going, and I loved that. The ending was a surprise, and I was really pleased with it. Can’t wait to read this author again!

The Drift by C.J. Tudor

I chose this book for it's mystery/thriller potential and hadn't realized it was so heavy on the horror/apocalypse side of things. I'm a wimp with horror and apocalypse stories so the blood, guts, and gore was hard for me to take in this story. Tudor does a great job of bringing out the wimp in me, which isn't very far under the surface. What I enjoyed about this story is the mystery. There are three small groups of people with each group finding themselves in dangerous and almost impossible to escape circumstances. Death is an escape so there is always that option.

Hannah and her group have just been in a bus crash, the exits are blocked, and the only windows exposed are unbreakable. There are dead and injured people and if the living people don't get out they will die. If they do get out, they have a really good chance of dying, too. Meg and her small group wake up in a cable car that has been stopped midtrip. The ground is 1000 feet below. Each person had been drugged and put on the car and freezing to death is a very real unwanted option. Carter and his group seem to have the best circumstances, by far. They are living in an abandoned ski chalet with access to their own rooms, living quarters, a pool, gym, food and water. But their situation is precarious and it's obvious that not everyone can be trusted. The generator is going and it's a difficult trip to stay supplied. Also, there is a very horrifying type of "supplies" that no one wants to discuss.

All three groups have been facing life and death with a horrible virus that has changed life as they used to know it. The virus is on everyone's mind all the time and surviving it might be some people's worst nightmare depending on how a person is left to "survive". Maybe facing death and getting it over with is better than facing what horrors life has to offer.

I enjoyed the mystery of this story almost all the way through the book. I wanted to know how these three groups of people might be connected. It was hard to hope for the best for them when the best seems to be a dangerous and hopeless existence in a world that is all about survival. And it seems that many of these people don't have much of a future left without being trapped where they are because their choices were so limited even before the story begins.

In the end though, the trip through this bleak existence left me feeling like I wanted some answers, which often happens when I read Tudor's work. I'm always left wanting to know more and I know I won't get my questions answered. This is not a feel good story, if you haven't already guessed by now.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Ballantine Books and NetGalley for this ARC.

The Drift is a thriller from start to finish. For Tudor it's a step away from her typically spooky stories. This felt like three locked room mysteries rolled into one. Tudor doesn't ease us into things, she throws us headfirst over a cliff into a snowbank. At first, the number of characters and three different frozen locations may seem dizzying and disorienting, but when things eventually solidify with icy clarity, I was surprised and satisfied. The Drift has edge of your seat pacing and mysteries that will keep you guessing until the end. Go in blind, wrap yourself up in a blanket, and settle in for a winner this winter!

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for providing an eArc. All opinions are my own.