Book: Survive The Night
Author: Riley Sager
Pages: 336
Read on: Kindle
Read in: 3 hours
Plot Summary: It’s November 1991. Nirvana's in the tape deck, George H. W. Bush is in the White House, and movie-obsessed college student Charlie Jordan is in a car with a man who might be a serial killer.
Josh Baxter, the man behind the wheel, is a virtual stranger to Charlie. They met at the campus ride board, each looking to share the long drive home to Ohio. Both have good reasons for wanting to get away. For Charlie, it’s guilt and grief over the shocking murder of her best friend, who became the third victim of the man known as the Campus Killer. For Josh, it’s to help care for his sick father—or so he says.
The longer she sits in the passenger seat, the more Charlie notices there’s something suspicious about Josh, from the holes in his story about his father to how he doesn’t want her to see inside the trunk. As they travel an empty, twisty highway in the dead of night, an increasingly anxious Charlie begins to think she’s sharing a car with the Campus Killer. Is Josh truly dangerous? Or is Charlie’s jittery mistrust merely a figment of her movie-fueled imagination?
One thing is certain—Charlie has nowhere to run and no way to call for help. Trapped in a terrifying game of cat and mouse played out on pitch-black roads and in neon-lit parking lots, Charlie knows the only way to win is to survive the night.
General Thoughts: Riley Sager has been churning out a book a year and most of these books are quite well received. We've had mixed experiences with his books. Some of them we've liked such as Lock Every Door but found The Last Time I Lied and Home Before Dark strictly average. So, it was with some mixed feelings that we picked up this book. It wasn't exactly cheap, so, we were hoping it would really be as good as it was hyped up to be!
Things I Liked:
1. Survive The Night is a very atmospheric read. It brings to life the anxiety, stress and tension faced by Charlie in that car in the middle of the night as she wonders if the guy she's taken a lift from could well be a serial killer. So, the taut and tense energy of the characters is brought to life really well by Riley Sager.
2. The book is quite fast-paced with never a dull moment. It was a breeze to read the book and took me a bit less than three hours to finish this book.
3. Even within the limited situations and characters in the book, there were some decent twists and turns, which were nicely done.
Things I Didn't Like:
1. Oh boy! Where do I even start? There was so much wrong with this book! Charlie is leaving her college because she is severely traumatised after the death of her roommate and best friend- Maddy- at the hands of the The Campus Killer- a serial killer, who had already killed 2 girls before he killed Maddy. So, this killer has not been caught and from the very first moment when Charlie is waiting to get into Josh's car, she keeps questioning if she is doing the right thing. Could this guy be a killer? Could he be shady? So, if someone has so many misgivings and is already traumatised, would they willingly take a lift from a stranger at night?! It makes very little sense, honestly.
2. The story gets weirder from there as with each inconsistency in Josh's story, Charlie gets more and more anxious and nervous. Yet, she never uses the two-three opportunities she has to ask for help or run out of the car. She just keeps spiralling more and more and yet she returns to the car to continue on her trip!
3. Overall. the characters' motivations, mental state and actions don't add up. There are a few red herrings, which are nicely done, but you can see some twists coming from a mile off. I figured who Marge was (not giving any more details) even before they pulled up at the diner. I am sure most of you will also figure it out. A bit of a let-down.
4. The final twist was surprising but, strangely, not very. If you read the book, you will also wonder about the identity of the serial killer and there are, honestly, very few options to choose from.
5. Overall, this book felt very rushed and half-hearted. Almost like the publishing company asked Riley Sager to write the next book super quick for summer and he just wrote something with some glaring loopholes. The character's motivations and actions don't make sense, the reasons why the killer was killing was not explored, the details of the night Maddy was killed (which utterly traumatised Charlie to the extent that she was dropping out of college) are never fully explained. As a reader, you are left with feeling cheated. Like you ate a half-baked muffin! Maybe mystery authors should not be greedy and put out a book a year? Maybe he should do some research on how trauma victims really function? Or that someone with massive guilt and anxiety would never take a night lift from an utter stranger? Or that if a campus is plagued by a serial killer, then would women really take a lift from a stranger? Maybe he should do some thinking and research before belting out his next "bestseller" *massive eye roll*.
Rating: 2/5
AVOID! Save your money!
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