This book is a sad but accurate reflection of our current society when a pandemic was in full swing. People are , sadly, selfish and shortsighted, rather than being concerned for each other and the long-term good and survival. Three different stories are described and then intertwined to show how one scientist tried to learn from the disease but by experimenting on people. The desire to live and the resilience and resourcefulness of several individuals demonstrated how good wins over evil yet one more time. It is a sad and upsetting book, especially coming out in the aftermath of the COVID but it is well worth a close read. Well written.

I have to admit I went into this book so incredibly excited, CJ Tudor is one of my favourite authors. I wasn’t in the right mind frame though to read, I was busy with household things, only fitting a chapter in here and there and the days passed. So I put my foot down lol and dedicated a day to the book and finished it and I’m glad I did because it a really, really good book.

CJ Tudor has always been the no fail author, I love every book she’s written. She is a superstar in the thriller/suspense genre imo.

For The Drift there are 3 storylines, all different characters for each. Each storyline is narrated by a character –Meg, Hannah & Carter.

This is a pandemic novel, really three pandemic novels that come together brilliantly in the end. But you won’t see that ending coming, it’s damn impossible to figure out before hand.

Here’s the gist of the 3 storylines.

Hannah, a boarding school evacuee, who is on a bus with several other students when the bus goes off the road and crashes into a snowbank. About half on board are dead. Locked in the bus the remaining students have to find a way to survive in the desolate cold with barely any supplies.

Meg, a former homicide cop, is stranded with 5 other strangers dangling in a cable car that has come to a halt. Again it excruciatingly cold and those in the cable car all have secrets to hide.

Lastly theres Carter, he lives at The Retreat, a secluded research facility funded by a man named Professor Grant who is trying to find a cure for the deadly virus. The Retreat keeps losing power, supplies are dwindling and those living there are questioning one another, and life takes some bizarre turns as truths are revealed.

This is a really fast paced book and if you like the unexpected I highly recommend you add this one to your tbr.

When accidents seen to happen all too often, and the people left behind are wild with worry and horror, nasty things keep happening and no one is coming to the rescue!
It's the end of the world as they know it and only a few will survive. The world is a strange place with snow storms, wild weather, sickness that turns people into monsters and a trio of survivors in three separate incidents that must find a way out!

This book had me reeling with the mind set of those confined within their own "dramas of life and death". Who will ultimately survive or are they all doomed to die?

You will have to read this book to find out! It was a page turner for sure.

The Drift was terrifying and I loved it! It follows 3 paths, all scary situations, in a world hit by a plague that can't be controlled. A busload of students stuck in a snow drift. A group of strangers wake up in a cable car on it's way up a mountain. Workers are in a large resort, isolated and running out of time. This is an excellent dystopian thriller and I highly recommend it.

Thank you to Net Gallet, Penguin Random House Canada, and Doubleday Canada for an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I DNF this book. It wasn’t for me. I thought it would be more mystery/thriller and it ended up being too gorey and horror for my taste. I’m sure this would be an excellent fit for someone with a stronger stomach who loves pandemic books (not me, sorry).

If you enjoy locked room mysteries this has that with a bit of a twist. There’s three of them!

Sometimes when you confine a group of characters in a location, things can become predictable. This story manages to avoid that, taking place during a time when humanity is facing the threat of survival.

It centers around three different narrators who are stuck in three very different scenarios. And are all running out of time.

The characters are well written, with a good blend of ones you root for, and ones you root against.

It grabbed me from the start and each page had me coming up with more questions I needed to have answered.

TW: for gore. There were some lines I just skimmed over because the descriptions of gore weren’t something I enjoy reading.

It didn’t take away from the book and didn’t occur often. If you’re okay with gore you’ll probably find the descriptions quite helpful in terms of communicating atmosphere.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this book in return for my honest review.

Unfortunately I had forgotten to download this book and didn’t get it finished before I couldn’t access it any more. It was an interesting story with several different groups of diverse characters trying to figure out what is going on in their world where their is a deadly virus circulating.

This book sounded intriguing so I thought why not! I had not read any books by C.J. Tudor up until The Drift.

I missed the deadline to read this book in Netgalley so I then downloaded it from Audible.

I found the story hard to get into at first as many characters dealing with different situations and found I really had to concentrate to know what was going on. Perhaps would have been easier to following reading it than listening.

In some ways I wasn’t quite ready for a book about a deadly spreading virus when COVID is still so fresh in my mind. I had to left tho when Tudor writes something about “Freedom Fighters” & “Anti Vaxxers”

I had a good time with this, I read it over a few nights before bed and I found myself looking forward to it. There's a lot going on though and I did find myself needing to take notes in order to keep some of the characters and storylines in order. The ending went in a direction I wasn't really expecting and it kind of through me off but not in a bad way. This was my first CJ Tudor and I'll definitely check out other books in the future.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t for me - and I think it might just be a me problem!
I may return to The Drift in the future, but for now, I had to put this down.

Such a great read. I love how the book was told from three different character's perspective and wrapped up so nicely in the end. Very edge of your seat, quick paced storyline. The author did an excellent job building all the characters to feel very real and relatable. Thanks to netgalley and the author for the arc.

Three ordinary people risk everything for a chance at redemption in this audacious, utterly gripping novel of catastrophe and survival during a viral apocalypse.
.

A rare combination of fine characters, compelling writing, and suspenseful plotting that will reach out and grab readers. Tudor moves the story along quickly, creating a frightening world to have to live in where there isn’t much hope of survival or a future .Tudor’s plotting is ingenious and clear. handles the twists and turns so well it's a waste of time to try to guess what direction the plot it's going. It goes places readers can't predict and then goes further. It is my first novel of Tudor’s It definitely didn’t disappoint I look forward to reading more of her books. I would like to thank NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada DoubleDay Canada for the ARC of The Drift by C.J Tudor in exchange for an honest review

March 2, 2023
𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝘿𝙧𝙞𝙛𝙩 ⭐️⭐️⭐️
AD-PR PRODUCT

Thank you to @tandemcollectiveglobal and @penguinrandomca for the gifted copy and for hosting an incredible read along. It was a pleasure to participate and I loved discussing this book with so many amazing people. Now to share my thoughts…

This story follows three timelines in a post deadly virus world all the timelines deal with one common theme. SURVIVAL. A bus full of students that is overturned. A group of people trapped in a stranded cable car. And a group in a Cabin called “the retreat” where things are Dangerous.

I did enjoy this book, I was completely hooked from the start and it was so hard to put this down. All the different storyline’s were so well written, you could never predict what was going to happen next. This reminded me of “The Maze Runner” and if you’re a fan of the dystopian genre then this book will be perfect for you. My issue was the last 1/4 of the book, I wasn’t a fan of the ending and I don’t know I didn’t really like the plot twists. I feel like I just ended up with more questions than answers.

The Drift by CJ Cooke was horror at its best. I’m talking an apocalypse involving a deadly virus, a world where society has almost completely fallen apart resulting in an everyone for themselves mindset, and people infected by the virus who seem similar to zombies, except these infected have some level of intelligence/sentience as they can use weapons and other things the typical zombie cannot. Regardless, the infected are a danger to those who don’t have it.

It took me probably about a quarter of the book to get into it, but once I did, I was IN. I’m not entirely sure why, but I had to pick this one up and put it back down a few times before I got going. I don’t know if it was simply that it felt like a slow start for me, or if the switching viewpoints made it slower to get invested, but regardless, I’m glad I kept up with it because I really ended up enjoying it in the end.

There are three different viewpoints followed throughout. There is Carter, living in a facility with a few others where they produce a vaccine for the virus. There’s Meg who is stuck on a lift up high with nowhere to go in the dead of winter with strangers she can’t trust. And there’s Hannah, trapped on a crashed bus and trying to figure out a way out of it when it’s buried beneath snow.

I’ll be honest, there were a few moments I regretted very deeply that I was reading while eating because there was some very explicitly gory moments. But it just made the horror more real which I loved. This book was kind of a wild ride near the end and I couldn’t stop reading it until I finished by that point. I really enjoyed how all of the different storylines came together by the end and dropped little bits and pieces throughout to show how they would relate by the end. I will say I was a bit thrown by the ending (false ending?) and then relieved that there were a few more chapters that cleared a few things up, though not everything. I thought it was a sequel sampler at first.

Although I had a difficult start with this book, once I really got going with it, The Drift ended up being everything I had hoped but also more and I really enjoyed it. Perfect for horror fans, it also contains a bit of mystery like a thriller, and is great for lovers of apocalypse stories.

The Drift was my first book from C.J. Tudor, and it did not disappoint!

This was a gripping thriller, locked-room style, and so immersive that it was even claustrophobic at times! The Drift tells us the story of 3 different people in three different places, but all in a very, VERY bad situation — pretty much stranded in the mountains mid-Winter. It got me clued to the pages, surprising me at every turn of the page - clever solutions, high stakes and exciting surprises along the way! I kept wondering how the 3 people would be connected or how all of that would come together at the end.

Although this is a dystopic thriller, I felt the whole virus outbreak thing could have been better explored in the story. It became just a background for character development (which is not a bad thing, don't get me wrong!), and sometimes I wished we could see more of that devastated world. But it was a very satisfactory reading overall!

Just finished reading "The Drift" by CJ Tudor and I can't recommend it enough! This gripping thriller kept me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. Tudor's writing is masterful and her characters are both complex and relatable. I loved the twists and turns throughout the story. I didn't even predict how all the storylines came together - probably because I was just really enjoying the story.

I have been a huge fan of @cjtudorauthor since "The Chalk Man" came out and she has yet to disappoint with a single book. If you're a fan of suspenseful and thought-provoking reads, "The Drift" is definitely worth picking up. Trust me, you won't be able to put it down!

Thank you so much @netgalley for this ARC!

thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
"Three ordinary people risk everything for a chance at redemption"
I am a big fan of CJ Tudor and was very excited to read this new work. I thoroughly enjoyed this and would recommend it to anyone else who is interested.
This book sat more on the horror/apocalypse side versus the thriller side, which might not be for everyone but if you are interested I vote to give it a try!

4.5 stars - So many twists and turns!!

I really didn’t think I would like this one as it gave me Resident Evil vibes, but wow, this was such a creepy, atmospheric read that kept me on my toes the whole way through.

At first, I had a bit of a harder time getting into it just because there were a lot of characters being introduced, but once I got a hang of who was who, it was such a fast-paced, quick read.

C.J. Tudor was so good at building suspense in every chapter! I really loved that it was sort of a locked room mystery as well. The ending was so surprising, I thought I had it figured out from the start, but I was so wrong. I really am surprised at how much I loved this, but I highly recommend if you want a super fast-paced, suspenseful, twisty read!

4.5/5 Thank you to Net Galley and the author for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

A dystopian near future story set during a viral pandemic. Three different storylines come together at the end. One: a bus carrying a few people from a school to a retreat. Two: a cable car supposedly bringing people up a mountain to a retreat. Three: a small number of people running a retreat with secrets. Each of the three aspects of this story involve only a handful people. Each is a story of survival during a snowstorm and the overarching threat of a virus that is either killing people or turning them into a type of zombie known as a whistler (for the noise the afflicted make while breathing).

1) The bus has crashed off of the road. The exits are blocked and the windows are not breakable. Some people have died in the crash, some are injured. All phones were previously taken away from the passengers for secrecy’s sake. It is freezing out and they have to figure out how to summon help, or get out themselves while avoiding the marauding wildlife

2) The cable car has stopped moving & is 1000 feet above ground. The people on board are all dressed the same and had been drugged before starting their trip. One person is dead; stabbed to death. Is the murderer among the ones who all think that they just came out of a drug-induced sleep, or has one of them been awake all along? The few people have to figure out how to get the cable car moving, or get off of it alive; all while not trusting each other

3) The few people running the abandoned ski retreat at the top of a mountain seem to have the best survival chance, except that their supplies are low and the electricity is faulty. Unlike the other stories, these people know each other; but they don’t seem to be living in any sort of harmony. Mistrust and dislike seems to run high. Will they be able to keep the generator going? Will their deal with the supply store at the bottom of the mountain hold? And what is locked in the basement that requires electricity to keep it contained?

All three stories are very mysterious and just ooze atmosphere, slowly giving the reader the character’s backgrounds. It seems that everyone had something to hide. I am not generally a horror reader and I did not know that this was a horror before I started it; but the writing did keep me riveted to the story lines. How they all came together at the end was very cleverly done and gives us all hope for mankind.

I do recommend this book, even though horror is not my usual genre.

I'm quite surprised at this latest book written by Tudor. I've loved this author's past stories but this one really didn't work for me.

The whole dystopian setting was well portrayed. I felt like I was there with the characters. I also liked the merging of the three different scenarios. But that's where it ended for me.

The plot was way too focused on small details and descriptions. Each character's actions and thoughts were overly described. This made the pacing incredibly slow and sometimes I skimmed through sections to get to the action.

The ending was a let down. The final twist was uninspiring. I didn't like or empathize with the MC so the final chapters deflated for me. As a whole, this book just didn't work. There are others who liked this book much more than I did so encourage readers to check out those reviews and make your own decision on this one.

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.