A predictable "mystery" thriller novel which suffers from silly twists and unbelievable characters. It feels to me that this novel has some glaring blindspots in regards to the thoughts and experiences of women- much of the premise necessitates in a young woman being almost mind-numbingly unaware of the realities of gender violence and the risks of female vulnerability. This novel was an absolute failure to me and easily one of the most infuriating reads I've experienced in a long, long time. I wouldn't recommend this to others.

I always enjoy Riley Sager's books. They are typically well-paced, action-packed, and fun to read. "Survive the Night", Sager's newest thriller, did not disappoint.

Charlie, a college student, is filled with guilt and desperate to return home following the murder of her roommate and best friend, Maddy. She accepts a ride home with a stranger--and at this point the reader must suspend disbelief to follow Charlie into the car with Josh. Her best friend has just been murdered by a serial killer who has not been identified, and she is going to accept a ride with a complete stranger? However, if one suspends disbelief long enough, it does become clear why Charlie was willing to accept the ride.

Along the way, Charlie's distrust of Josh grows, but she also doesn't quite trust herself. Since the tragic death of her parents years before, Charlie has experienced "movies in her mind"--moments, during extreme stress--when she becomes detached from the real world. Whenever she begins to doubt Josh, she isn't sure if it is her mind playing tricks on her or if Josh is actually hiding a grim secret. As Charlie says in the book, things soon "take a detour" and it is impossible to predict where the story will end up.

I really enjoyed this twisty, wild ride.

Definitely enjoyed the story. Not my favorite book by Riley, but well written, kept me guessing and definitely engaged.

Talk about an exciting ride! I loved so much about this book, but my favorite was definitely the setting. It was, for lack of a better term, rad. I loved the 90s vibes, the music, everything!

Charlie was a really interesting character. Did I find some of her decision a little foolish? Sure. But she had gumption.

Josh was another curious character. I liked him, but disliked him at the same time.

Overall, I loved the twists and thought it was an enjoyable read!

Thank you so much for my advanced e-galley!

Thank you to netgalley for providing an e-galley in exchange for an honest review. Can it be possible the Riley Sager just keeps getting better? Charlie's roommate was murdered by the Campus Killer and she was the last person to see Maddy alive. Charlie's guilt makes her want to leave campus as soon as possible so she accepts a ride from a stranger at the college ride board. That's when things go from bad to worse. This was such a roller coaster ride from start to finish.

A rainy day was the perfect excuse to sink into @riley.sager’s upcoming release, Survive the Night!

The thriller genre is not always my first choice, and I’ll never be able to offer any real criticism of the genre because I don’t read it widely enough. But I’ve come to enjoy Sager’s stories and will probably always be keen to reading them.

Survive the Night was a quick read with an unreliable narrator who kept me confused and guessing. I loved the premise and thought it was well executed!

As with all of Sager’s books, this is sure to be a buzzy book this summer and I foresee it in a lot of beach and pool bags! It will release on July 7th, so get your preorders in!

Survive the Night was a unique take on the cat-and-mouse thriller, and although the MC was not my favorite of Sager's (in my humble opinion, anyone who drops so many old movie references into conversation would be insufferable), this was a quick, thrilling, enjoyable read.

After the death of her roommate by the Campus Killer, Charlie needs to get away from school as soon as possible. Her boyfriend can take her if she waits a few days, but she needs to go now, so she turns to the ride share board. Lucky for her, Josh is going on the same direction and leaving tomorrow. As the ride continues, Charlie begins to feel more and more uncomfortable about her ride partner. How well does she know this Josh? It seems like she doesn’t know him at all. Could he be the killer?

Riley Sager is truly a wonderful writer, and he has done it again. While I am still waiting for the next The Last Time I Lied, I still loved this book! Charlie was such a fantastic character, even though there were a few times I questioned her judgement. This one kept me on my toes waiting to find out what was going to happen and if Josh was truly the campus killer. Plus of course it had the Sager twists I didn’t see coming, which is always the best!

I could not love this book any more than I did. From beginning to end, it kept me enthralled. I was constantly being surprised. I loved the format and chapter structure. I’m so glad #DuttonBooks allowed me to read this early. It is Riley Sager at his best!

Typically any Riley Sager book is a five star in my opinion. I’ve been obsessed since Final Girls and own each book. This book fell flat for me. I almost didn’t finish it. The premise is wonderful and makes you feel as claustrophobic as the main character feels but the twists in this were a let down. Knowing who the killer was before even getting through the first chapter to knowing the “bad guy” wasn’t that bad at all... it’s a pass from me.

Survive the Night features a college student, Charlie, needing a ride home in Ohio from campus in New Jersey. Set in the early '90s, there are no cell phones and Charlie's previous experiences and tangential relationship to the campus serial killer, Charlie finds herself in the passenger seat, unsure if the driver can be trusted, or if she will indeed survive the night.

Riley Sager has upped the ante for each release, and my opinion is that this novel has one element too many for my taste. The setting of a single night trapped in a vehicle crossing the state of Pennsylvania, Charlie's obsession with classic films like , and her interesting personality quirk of hallucinating a movie scene as an overlay to her true experience makes for a page-turning and twisty story. And in Sager's now familiar style, all the ends are tied at the end.

This satisfies the want for a thrilling cinematic events, especially in the introduction of each chapter as a move scene direction, and I'll continue to read and enjoy subsequent novels by the author - it just didn't do the most for me.

I received this as an early review copy from NetGalley and Dutton Books. All opinions are my own.

You all have no idea how much I lost it when Netgalley gave me an ARC of this book. I'm slightly obsessed with Riley Sager and getting my hands on his book before most everyone else definitely made me a little bit happy.

And this book? It's unputdownable. I know that isn't a word but I don't care. When I read the synopsis of this, it sounded interesting, but I had no idea  how much I would enjoy it.

So there's Charlie. Charlie loves movies. She loves them more than most people. And after the hard life she's had, Charlie uses  movies to escape the real world. But she also has these moments in her mind that sometimes make it hard to tell if what happened in front of her really happened.

Enter Josh, who Charlie hitches a ride with to get home. But is Josh really who he says he is?

I absolutely devoured this book. It reads like a scary movie, a thriller that starts off slow and then all of a sudden you're in a runaway care that you can't seem to stop. I had to know who Josh was, I had to know if Charlie would be okay. And who the heck is the campus killer? It all gets answered in good time, and your jaw will be on the floor.

I've always said that The Last Time I Lied would always been my favorite of Sager's books. Until now. This one? Is a MUST READ.

What an intense read. I loved how this took place over one night because it added to the intensity to it. I was constantly wondering what was going to happen. I did see the twists but that didn't make it any less enjoyable and I also loved how nice the ending was. Sometimes with thrillers it's open ended but with this one you see how Charlie is and how her life is.
Not my ultimate favorite Riley Sager book but still really enjoyable.

Charlie decides to drop out of college after her best friend is murdered by the Campus Killer, a serial murder who has murdered at least three women. She needs a ride home and finds one with Josh through a campus bulletin board. Through their six hour trip, Charlie starts to find holes in Josh's stories and even sees a driver's license with a different name in his wallet. Traveling at a high speed in the middle of the highway, she has no way to escape. Also the hallucinations she experiences has her questioning what she really is seeing. The story takes place in the early 90's and Charlie has to depend on pay phones for help. This was a page turner and kept me guessing about Josh's motives and what Charlie really saw the whole time.

What to say about this book. It definitely held my interest, that's for sure. However, I never quite found the character of Charlie likable, and I figured it out halfway through the book. Also, the ending was so implausible yet totally expected. It was a disappointment.

Riley Sager does it again with another "I have to finish this ASAP" read. I read this one in less than 24 hours and it did not disappoint. I absolutely LOVED the ending and how well everything came together while I sat on the edge of my seat.

Feel free to use this in your marketing efforts -

The perfect summer binge!
—J.D. Barker, NY Times bestselling author of A Caller's Game

“What a ride (pun intended)! My sisters and I devoured Riley Sager books last summer, long the creepy, scary, and downright thrilling stories. This one was no exception. “Survive the Night” started out liked a predictable teen scary movie, with you screaming, “what? Don’t do that!” But as the book progresses, in typical Sager form, nothing is as it seems. Our main character, flawed and yet heroic, isn’t the dumb girl in a scary movie, but rather, someone struggling with a deeply damaged past causing mental illness and flashes of self doubt that end up putting her in unimaginable danger. The storyline is action-packed, so much so that I flew through this one in one day. I simply couldn’t stop reading. Nothing is as it seems on this car ride-but the journey sure does fly by! If you’re a fan of the thriller, you won’t go wrong with this one-it releases on 7/6/21. Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group/
Dutton for the ARC in exchange for an honest review 
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫/5-@lucywrazor4

It’s November 1991. George H. W. Bush is in the White House, Nirvana's in the tape deck, 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 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. As they travel an empty highway in the dead of night, an increasingly worried Charlie begins to think she’s sharing a car with the Campus Killer. Is Josh truly dangerous? Or is Charlie’s suspicion merely a figment of her movie-fueled imagination? 
What follows is a game of cat and mouse played out on night-shrouded roads and in neon-lit parking lots, during an age when the only call for help can be made on a pay phone and in a place where there's nowhere to run. In order to win, Charlie must do one thing—survive the night.”
#bookstagram #instabook #bookreview #thriller #rileysager #survivethenight

3 “don’t believe anything you read” stars ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️

It’s 1991. Charlie needs a ride home from college after the murder of her roommate has left her shaken and depressed. The killer hasn’t been caught… but Charlie still accepts a ride from a stranger on campus. It’s not long before she suspects that her driver might not be who he says he is. Did Charlie just hop in a car driven by the Campus Killer?

I loved the plot. Two strangers stuck in a car, one of them might be a killer... I’m just not sure how I feel about how it played out. I mostly liked the story, it certainly kept me interested, but the ending was a miss for me. Without giving anything away, all I can really say is, don’t believe anything you read! Between the ”movies” that Charlie experiences in her head and the few chapters from other characters’ POV, it’s all designed to throw you off.

If you really enjoy Riley Sager’s books (like I do!) then I think it’s worth reading.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

I really enjoyed reading this book! While it wasn't as straight up scary as I thought it would be going in, it did do the psychological thriller thing really well.. We get some jump scares as the tension in the car begins to rise, and the fact that our main character Charlie (love the name) can't seem to trust her own mind really make you wonder who you should trust.. Is Josh really acting that suspicious? or is Charlie just projecting her paranoia at being in a car with someone she basically just met after the tragedy of her best friend being murdered?
The final twist to the story really surprised me.. I had no idea that was coming.. I also loved how it read like a movie script the chapters are laid out with things like : Interior Day 9pm which I really liked.. There were alot of surprising moments as new details are revealed, and I was really invested figuring out what was going on, and didn't want to put the book down until I figured out how it was going to end..
I can't wait until this book is released and I can get a physical copy!