Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Ballantine as well as the author for this ARC.
#NetGalley #RandomHousePublishingBallantine #C.J.Tudor #TheDrift
C.J. Tudor is so awesome. I’m not usually a fan of crime thrillers but she usually adds an irresistible supernatural element which, for me, causes her books to tip over into the horror genre. This one was farther into the genre than her previous books, albeit without the supernatural element.
The Drift follows the predicaments of three different people.
Meg, Hannah, and Carter are our main characters. Each is thrust into a truly unfortunate situation. Hannah wakes up to a bunch of dead as well as not dead bodies after a bus accident. Meg wakes up trapped in a suspended cable car with a bunch of strangers. Carter is trying to survive trapped in a building formerly used as a medical center. Each is faced with decisions and fears. Each will struggle for survival for very different reasons…and also some of the same reasons. Each has to deal with vicious winter weather. Each has to deal with betrayal. Each must struggle to survive. I can’t say too much more without spoiling anything. This story is filled with twists that are doled out slowly throughout the story. This story contains several surprises and a very satisfying ending. It’s perfect for fans of apocalypse horror. It’s perfect for fans of survival horror. It’s perfect for me for sure! I highly recommend this book.

This book was fast-paced, suspenseful, and surprisingly gory.
When I picked it up, I was expecting more of a thriller but ended up finding it to be much more of a horror, with loads of body horror. I haven't read C. J. Tudor before, so I wasn't sure what to have expected. The majority of the story seemed to be made up of dialogue as there were a lot of characters. In fact, it was difficult to keep track of all the secondary characters.

I love CJ Tudor's writing, so I requested this one without really looking at the book summary.
Well, it turns out that I don't like apocalyptic novels about surviving in extreme weather or a deadly virus.
None of the characters in the 3 storylines appealed to me and it seemed like too much work to figure out how they would all fit together.
The writing is excellent, so readers who enjoy dystopia will appreciate this book more than I have.

This was a wild ride! It wasn’t a book I’d typically gravitate towards, but I’m glad I gave it a try - I couldn’t put it down! There were so many crazy twists and it was action-packed.

CJ Tudor is one of my favorite authors. I’m a HUGE fan! So I was looking forward to reading The Drift, her latest novel.

This book-I can’t decide if it was completely crazy or completely genius. This is a story told in 3 “locked room” points of view. There is Hannah and her crew who have had a bus crash on the way to The Retreat. There’s Meg and her crew who are stuck in a cable car that was ascending to The Retreat. Then there’s Carter and company, who reside at The Retreat.

There’s a virus, there’s “Whistlers” who have been infected by the virus but aren’t dead (yet), there’s a mad doctor. There were more twists and turns in this story than on a roller coaster.

CJ Tudor messes with your mind like M. Night Shyamalan. I didn’t see most of the turns coming, which I loved.

This book is very fast-paced. I had trouble putting it down. It’s masterfully crafted if at times a little bit violent and unbelievable. But it was a fun read and I’ll definitely be looking for the next book by CJ Tudor.

Thank you to #netgalley and #ballentinebook for the advanced e-copy of #thedrift.

3.5 ⭐️

I read this book as part of my “group of people trapped in a remote location in a blizzard” thriller binge. It wasn’t my top read, but I’d recommend it if you’re looking for a thriller with some gore, an underlying virus apocalypse story with a twist (it wasn’t shocking, but it wasn’t super obvious too soon).

While I like the premise of this book, the virus/apocalypse aspect was more of a minor story line than I had expected. It was primarily used to give a reason for why the people where at “The Retreat” making it more of a pre-zombie outbreak situation. Maybe that was in part because of the remoteness of the location, but I would not consider this a zombie read.


CW: includes gore/descriptions of injuries and killing.


*I received an ARC from Net Galley

Althought I've only read a few of CJ Tudor's books it seems this one is different than the rest.

There were too many characters for me and found it was sometimes to hard to keep track of them all and who was doing what. I was a little disappointed in this one but it will not discourage me from reading others.

I anticipated a lot of books around contagious diseases or pandemics to come after Rona. While I liked some of them, most of them were meh because why do I need to read about another pandemic when we still deal with the current one. But this one was different.

Told by three people with different skin in the game (be ready to have your notepad ready if you pr memory doesn’t feel like cooperating), the book was a fight for survival than a romanticized recoveries or total destruction of society as we know it. This disease was spreading through any means possible. People mostly died, only unlucky few to survive and to be used a lab rat to develop a “cure”. Tiny spoiler here: no one cares about curing anyone. *insert all sort of capitalist agendas here*

Having observed different timelines through three main characters, I loved how impeccably connected this story was. I didn’t have a moment where I said “so what’s up with this character?” It could have been 5 star read, but come on, we are still in Rona times… I don’t need to read more about quarantine and feelings of isolation.

This book was interesting at times but I found myself putting it down a lot and struggled to finish it. I was waiting to be scared based on other reviews and never quite there. There were also a lot of characters to keep track of which I'm not a big fan of.

Looking for a little bit of gore with your horror? What about the apocalypse? If so, look no further.

A Coach bus falls over a hillside road during a snowstorm and gets stuck. No one has any way to call for help and the driver is missing. There is a group of survivors that are trying to figure out what they should do next. Hannah is one of them.

Meg is awoken by a gentle rocking. She is with a group of strangers and none of them know how they got there.

Both Meg and Hannah are headed to The Retreat.

Having lived through a pandemic, this book hit a little close to home. I enjoyed the writing and have a few more books by this author on my list that I can't wait to get to.

CJ Tudor has a unique way of weaving his words together. I loved his novel The Chalkman and his new novel The Drift is fantastic. I do find his novels more of a slow burn so to speak. Tudor takes his time with story telling. He wants to make sure the reader is hooked before he snatches them into the story.

I think maybe we're all getting a little collectively burned out from tales of post-apocalyptic worlds, but overall I thought this was an enjoyable tale of suspense about people fighting to survive in some bleak situations.

I was incredibly excited to get to this arc. Unfortunately, my first Tudor book was not a success. I thought the writing was perfectly fine, but the whole plot was very bleak, and I simply didn't enjoy it. It just wasn't for me. Also, I never cared for the characters.

I'm feeling a bit sad right now writing this review. I really really wanted to like this one. I've enjoyed the three other books by C.J. Tudor that I've read. So I had high expectations going into this one. I'm sad to say this one didn't do it for me. I think the main reason for this was because there were too many people. We follow the perspective of three different people. All of them in these horrible situations. However, there are also a bunch of characters introduced in each perspective. Each time the perspective changed I had to stop for a second and figure out which situation the character is in. Thankfully the author makes it pretty known but I'd still blank. I just only knew the main characters and even then I was a bit fuzzy on them.

I feel that ended up taking away from my enjoyment of the story. I didn't care much about what was going because half the time I was confused by who the people are. I decided to push through and continue on regardless of my feelings.

Even though I didn't enjoy this one as much as the other C.J. Tudor books, I will still be continuing to pick up her books. She's such a great writer and knows how to write a good thriller. Highly recommend checking out The Chalk Man, The Burning Girls and The Other People. All great reads by her!

The Drift by C.J. Tudor is a breakneck thriller. Fast, terse, and brutal at times it rarely lets up and leaves you feeling a little roughed up by the end.
C.J. Tudor herself described the book as "a triple locked room mystery/post-apocalyptic horror thriller."
It took me awhile to get into the book, and I can't really say that any of the characters Hannah, Meg, or Carter ever really connected with me, but I couldn't not read the book. I don't think I've ever struggled with a book as much as I did with this book.
C.J. Tudor is a writer of roller-coaster fiction--you're thrilled, maybe a little afraid and you can't wait for the end, but once it does you find yourself yelling, "Again."
I would probably give this book a higher ranking, but for a few things. The first being that there is sooo much going on and the characters are in constant peril that I at times found myself a little inured to it. The last thing was something that may have been something that had more to do with me than the writing, but one of the characters had been described as horribly disfigured and missing a nose, but at the end has their nostrils clogged with the smell of death and smoke. For some reason that kicked me out of the story right as things were wrapping up.
Thanks to #NetGalley, #RandomHouse, and C.J. Tudor for the ARC of #TheDrift.

The Drift wasn’t exactly what I expected. I thought it would be more of a suspense/thriller type book, but it was more of a horror/apocalyptic story.
There are three storylines: Hannah, who wakes up in a bus crash; Meg, who wakes stranded on a cable car; and Carter, who is an employee at The Retreat. The groups with Hannah and Meg were headed to The Retreat. There is a pandemic going on and the people who become infected are called Whistlers and are feared by the others. The Retreat is where an antivax is produced.
This is a dark book and I kept waiting to find out how the three stories would connect. It is very hard to figure out who the “good guys” are and who can be trusted. I also had a hard time figuring out the timeline of the stories.
I am glad I read the book and thank you to NetGalley.

A well written book. I started this and couldn't put it down until I finished! I give it 4.5 stars and a strong recommendation.

The Drift is another "got me through covid read". I think expectations were set to purposefully distract from the real story unfolding behind the scenes, but in a way that strengthened the book rather than a a dshonest way. Each of the 3 Pov characters are struggling to survive more than just being "locked in with the murder", or keeping the true cause of death a secret. There's something even worse to defend against, and it's out. Theres a need for redemption too, so perfect for those who get bored by the basic hero trope and want characters who may turn the wrong way at any moment. This book is perfect for those who love tension horror and a little bit of Gore.

Unfortunately this one just was not for me. Going to put this one aside for now-maybe I’ll pick it up later. Maybe not?
Too graphic and too many characters.

Bloody brilliant ! Apocalyptic dystopia horror as only CJ Tudor can provide.
The story is told from the perspective of three people, all whom are trying to survive in this post pandemic turns apocalypse world. Soon, the stories overlap, begin to come together in a most unique way.
If you are a fan of her prior work, this will not disappoint. If this is your first read, it won’t be your last?
Thank you to CJ Tudor, the publisher, and NetGalley for the advanced reading copy. My personal opinion provided in exchange.