Standard viral apocalypse novel, but with a trick

I read a bunch of reviews praising the originality and creativity of CJ Tudor's new novel /The Drift/. So I was disappointed when I began reading to find that it was a bog-standard <spoiler>zombie</spoiler> apocalypse novel. <spoiler>Yes, there are zombies, although the characters use a different word for them.</spoiler>

The story unfolds in three threads told from three points of view: Hannah, Meg, and Carter. Hannah and Meg were on their way to a place called "The Retreat" (Carter is already there) when a mishap halted their transportation and trapped them inside in a snowstorm. Hannah is trapped in a crashed school bus. Meg is trapped in a stalled cable car suspended above a mountain. There are several other people in the bus and the cable car.

This was my first, relatively minor problem with /The Drift/. The Hannah and Meg threads were almost interchangeable. In each vehicle we have our intrepid point-of-view narrator, our take charge young man, and our annoying whiny young woman. As I read, I literally had difficulty keeping straight which particular annoying young woman and take-charge guy we were hearing from at any given moment. They became somewhat more distinct later.

Everyone lives in a world with a deadly (74% lethal -- <spoiler>most of the survivors become zombies</spoiler>) and extraordinarily contagious virus, for which there is no vaccine and essentially no treatment, once symptoms appear. This virus has already brought about a collapse of civilization. Everyone in the story is worried about infection. In fact, we quickly learn that some are already infected.

I could not find anyone to like or admire. The characters are ruthless, beweaponed and very, very violent. Also, they are selfish. If /The Drift/ has anything that can be called an "ethic", it is this: "Do ANYTHING you must to survive." In the world of /The Drift/, survival is the only virtue. "You're either a good guy or a survivor" is a thought that appears multiple times. Since everyone is in danger and they have limited resources, this leads to a lot of conflict -- the familiar post-acpocalypse novel playbook.

The book was rescued somewhat by the way it ended -- the way Tudor brought her three threads together. It turns out she was playing a trick on us right from the beginning. She reveals the trick near the end and then the story mostly makes sense. It was a good trick and fooled me (I didn't really start to figure it out until about the 80% mark), so for that I will give /The Drift/ three stars.

So, to summarize, we have here a violent viral apocalypse novel with one redeeming feature: a clever story-telling trick.

I thank NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada for an advance reader copy of /The Drift/. This review expresses my honest opinions. To be released 31-Jan-2023.

Hannah, Meg and Carter each face impending threats they must overcome in order to survive in their cold and unforgiving world. While each of their circumstances/tales is different, they may not be as disconnected as it first appears.

I liked this book a lot. The suspense begins right from the opening scene and doesn’t really let up from there. I was so engaged in “figuring out” what was going on, I read it in one sitting. I thought the end was fitting. This is the first book I’ve read by this author and because I enjoyed it so much will likely take a look at her backlist.

Many thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this novel for review.

This is a great thriller. The author gives us three storylines with an assortment of characters that left me constantly wondering how they were related to each other. I found myself making notes, jotting down questions or theories and wanting to keep reading to find out where the story was going. The book is in the horror/apocalypse genre but I found the mystery element as the predominant feature for me. (The book does get chilling and brutal in places so fair warning.) This was a gripping and quick read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

I have yet to be disappointed by this author! Though this was very different from her previous work, I really enjoyed it! I read me reviews that it borders on horror, but while they're are some graphic scenes, I would still classify it as post-apocalyptic thriller.
We start off with a triple POV in three different plot lines. The way they tie together is fabulous and I didn't suspect it. The ending left me with some questions, but I suppose that was intentional. Highly recommended!

This is my third book by C.J. Tudor, having read The Chalk Man and The Burning Girls. I didn't rate either of them particularly high, so picking this up was going to be a gamble for me; a gamble that did not end up paying off. I found myself getting through the book easily enough, albeit not very enraptured by what I was reading. The more I read though, the more the story started to fall apart.

This wasn't bad per se, but what it did deliver was subpar and messy. Let's get into some details.

 
WRITING:
 
I don't have much to say in this section because, well, the way the story is written is actually a spoiler. That being said though, I will say that I am not a fan of the format the author chose to use in order to tell the story. It made the story rather messy and not very cohesive as a whole.


 PLOT:
 
In The Drift, we follow three groups of seemingly connected characters whose lives are all in danger as they are stranded in the middle of a snowstorm. This premise did catch my eye originally, as the idea of it sounded rather interesting. This story, however, was better in concept than in execution.

A lot of the elements in this ended up missing the mark, and it made for a story that had a lot of gaps due to the way it was written. Again, I will not go into too much detail about the writing because of spoilers, but the author held a lot back from the audience. As such, the story gets lost in translation. For example, there is a crucial aspect of the world that is not originally made known in the synopsis and then is casually mentioned without it being properly integrated into the overall world and story. There resulted in a disconnect between said aspect of worldbuilding and the rest of the story that the author wasn't able to overcome.

On the whole, the more I got into the story and the more the story ascended to the climax, the more it fell apart. It felt like the author was trying to pull the rug from beneath the readers. I didn't find this to be a cleverly planned mystery and it left a lot to be desired even though I didn't mind it for the majority of the book.

As for the story itself, breaking it down I ended up liking one over the others, that being the story following Hannah and the other survivors of the coach crash. I found this to be the most compelling, though Meg's story wasn't all that bad either. The one I liked decidedly less though was Carter's since I found it had the least to offer to the story. Moving back to Meg's story though, I do feel like I have read it before for some reason.

 
CHARACTERS:
 
We follow three groups of characters through the perspectives of three characters: Hannah, Meg, and Carter. Like the writing section, I don't have much to say here, mainly because I wasn't overly attached to the characters. I will say though that I was not overly fond of their character arcs.


 CONCLUDING THOUGHTS:
 
Thinking more about it, despite my lack of positive commentary in this review, I don't feel the need to rate this below a 'meh' rating of three stars. This is very much so a forgettable book for me, and I could see that while I was still reading it even though that sounds a bit harsh.

Thank you, Penguin Random House Canada and Doubleday Canada, for giving me the opportunity to review this in advance.

For starters, this is a fantastic & creepy, winter only adds to the desperation of the characters. I enjoy a good dystopian, plague novel (though maybe a little less the last couple years!). The stories are all solid themselves, any one would make an interesting book. When they start to weave together, it gets even better. Part of the terror comes from the plausibility of it all & I found that the most disturbing, in a good way! It is bleak times though & I never really connected with any of the leads so that maybe is a tick against it. But that’s minor quibbling really. The ending is perfect, the revelations are very satisfying.

Tudor is definitely making a good name for themselves in the horror & thriller genre. I’ve enjoyed all the books, they feel both fresh & familiar. A good balance that I can easily recommend.

"Be careful who you trust. The Devil was an angel once."

This dystopian thriller was told from three different POVs, but they did not connect nor end, in the way I expected. I really enjoyed this fast paced read. The author did a great job creating a claustrophobic atmosphere and some of the cable car scenes were really anxiety inducing. Great read.

“He didn’t need a view. He didn’t need a reminder that the rest of the world was out there. On life support. But still breathing”

QUICK RUNDOWN 👀
Three people have to make impossible choices to ensure their survival in this apocalyptic world where a deadly virus has started to run rampant. Told from each of the peoples perspective, you’ll learn what someone will do to survive.


FINAL THOUGHTS 💭
Thank you NetGalley for this electronic ARC in exchange for my honest review.

In my opinion, the synopsis didn’t do this book justice. There was SO much built into this novel and each persons POV. This is honestly I book I think I’d like to reread in a group setting.

Recommend to anyone who enjoys locked room thrillers with apocalyptic horror vibes.

I really did have high hopes for this — a snowy isolated setting, three POVs, and a virus that has taken over the world.

And boy was I disappointed.

There were WAY too many characters. It was one thing to have three POVs (Hannah, Meg, and Carter) all in different places (a bus, a funicular, and the retreat) but then there were so many characters at each place to keep track of. It felt really messy.

I also had a hard time getting into Meg and Hannah’s POV — not only did they feel really similar (both stranded in the snow with a group of people they don’t know) but they didn’t feel fully developed. Carter’s POV was the only one I was able to feel invested in.

2 stars for Dexter the dog though!

5 huge stars!

No reveals here, but when this ends up as a Netflix show, I will definitely be watching. The action keeps going from start to finish, the reveals and twists were non-stop, it is easier to just go along with where the story takes you instead of trying to anticipate. Survival of the fittest!

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this.

This was such a quick read. The structure with the three story lines kept me reading to figure out what was going on. I felt engaged with the three main characters of each section and really wanted to know how they all were linked (beyond the reference to this elusive Retreat).

There were things I started to suspect quite early on (and proved to be correct), and I figured out what was probably the twist almost as soon as one element was hinted at. But that in no way detracted from the story and how engaged I felt.

What did detract were the frequent negative references to fundamentalists, or believers of any kind. They came from several characters, and started to feel like the author's voice. I'm okay with characters expressing negative views on religion or belief, but when I feel the author doesn't like me (without even meeting me), that is harder to accept.

However, I did like the book and if I'm right that there might be another one after this, I'd read it as well.

Thank you to NetGalley, C.J. Tudor and Penguin Random House Canada for the free e-book I’m exchange for an honest review.

I’ve seen this pretty hyped everywhere so I was so excited to see an approval for it! I was however, a bit disappointed that it was only PDF format, making it difficult for those with eye issues to read. I expected something different, but I enjoyed what I got! It’s really fast paced and I enjoyed how everything came together in the end. It’s definitely one I would recommend!

Sorry I couldn’t get this book to download to Kindle which is what I read on,so I didn’t read the Drift but I have ordered it on Audible Canada and looking forward to listening to it.

Fans of horror/thriller/apocalypse books, this one is for you.
This is one of the craziest books I’ve read in a long time. I could not put this one down. I read it in one sitting. I was hooked from the first page.
Thank you NetGalley for providing a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I've read a lot of CJ tudors books but this one may be my favorite yet.

Ever since I read 'the hot zone' when I was a kid, virus/outbreak novels have been my guilty pleasure. Throw in a winter/snow storm with a horror/ post-apocalyptic theme and you've got one heck of a book!

I don't always love a book with multiple storylines but this was very well done and I was anxious to figure out how they were all going to be connected at the end.

A must read for sure


thank you to net galley for the chance to read and review this gem!

CJ Tudor has done it again! The Drift is a fast paced, thrill ride that I couldn't put down once I started it.
Set during the outbreak of an apocalyptic virus, The Drift follows three groups of people, battling their way through various unfortunate circumstances as they try to get to safety.
Atmospheric and anxiety inducing, CJ Tudor always knows just how to masterfully tell a story that leaves me wanting more.
For my more in depth review please find attached my spoiler free YouTube review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmko-snYqoI

The Drift by C.J. Tudor is an intense, gripping, survival story that is a quick, page turning read.

The story had me pulled in by following 3 different main characters each grappling with being the good guy or being a survivor. The story takes place in a dystopian world, where the Earth is being ravaged by an infectious virus unlike anything seen before. The chapters alternate between Hannah who is in a crash on her way to the retreat; Meg who is stranded on a cable car also on its way to the retreat and Carter who works at the retreat, a research lab focused on making vaccines and trying to find a cure for the virus.

The story has so many secrets and mysteries that you are constantly trying to figure out who will survive and how the 3 stories are connected.

I loved the story, however it is extremely gory, so this may not be for everyone even if you love thrillers.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

I couldn't download this book because it didn't have the kindle app file for me and I am from Canada to request it.

If you don't like gory details mixed in with end-of-the-world survival due to a deadly virus, this is definitely not the book for you.

The Drift by C.J. Tudor follows three different people as a mysterious disease is spread throughout the world. It is a story of survival, and about what we are willing to do in a time of crisis and for the ones we love.

At first, because we are following three different characters in different places, there are a lot of people and situations to keep straight. It quickly became something I became obsessed with and couldn't put down. Tudor ends chapters in a perfect way, that makes me want to read more and delve deeper into the story. I also wanted to know how these three stories were connected and kept turning the pages to discover the mystery.

This book is unlike many of the other Tudor books I have read before. There is more focus on horror and post-apocalyptic narratives than I have read in her books in the past. It was not, however, a bad turn from the regular. I found this book a page turning read and for the last portion could not put it down! Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada for a copy of this book. All opinions are 100% mine.