This book left my skin crawling! A horror story about catastrophe and survival that will leave you on the edge of your seat. It’s jam-packed full of action (if I’m being critical…maybe one too many action scenes for my taste). However, I still gobbled this book up and I think horror and dark sci-fi fans will, too.

While I love post-apocalyptic novels and I’m a fan of Tudor’s previous work, this book missed the mark for me. There were three competing storylines that were expected to come together, and eventually did, but in such a way that was completely disappointing. In many ways, too much information was given. But, worse, there were many ways not enough information was given. This misstep left me, as a reader. frustrated and impatient. About three quarters of the way in I was ready for the book to simply end and I was glad when it did.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book.

This CJ Tudor novel is a bit different than the rest. It is told told from three different perspectives that feel like seperatre stories at first but finally converge into a cohesive end. The world is facing a viral pandemic that very well may be the apocalypse. On a mountain at a ski resort turned research facility a group of individuals search for the cure and harbor secrets deadlier than the virus they seek to eradicate. Down the mountainside a ski lift has left its passengers stranded high up in the air with very little knowledge of why they are there in the first place. Further down the mountain pass, a bus carrying a group of students escaping the worse of the epidemic, has overturned leaving the survivors struggling to survive. Overall a good novel, but it probably juggled a little bit too much at the same time to make it perfect.

C. J. Tudor scores once more! What a riveting read! The Drift would be a chilling even if it didn't take place in a wretched winter. The plot is even more engrossing in the wake of the global COVID-19 pandemic. The book is centered around three characters. It's impressive how engaging each of their storylines are. Tudor adroitly links each of them in a very satisfying way. Love. Revenge. Survival. What would a person do in pursuit of them? Tudor shows us in this terrific tale. Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Ballantine Books, & NetGalley for the advance reading copy in exchange for my honest review. #TheDrift #NetGalley.

My rating (*****) -- This is my first book by Tudor and I admire the author's ability to dole out information naturally; no info-dumps here. The twists and turns were remarkable, as well as the descriptions and suspense. Ultimately, it was a bleak look at human nature under stress. The editing was excellent; I saw no errors.

Two personal items: First, there is no need to Americanize the writing. There were no language issues that detracted from clarity. And second, the use of names alone for chapter headings is hard on a reader who switches reading devices. The use of a number along with the character name would help me find my reading place on another device.

** Thanks so much to C.J. Tudor, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, and NetGalley for this ARC! The Drift will be out January 31st, 2023. **

Plot: The Drift is told from three perspectives - that of Hannah, a student at an elite university whose bus has just crashed in a snowstorm on the way to the mysterious Retreat, Meg, an ex-cop who is trapped on a cable car far above a mountain as she also makes her way to the Retreat, and of Carter, who lives and works at The Retreat. The three storylines start separately and weave together over time, telling a story of a dystopian near-future ravished by plague and human weakness.

Review: I really liked this! It definitely terrified me. The pacing with three separate perspectives made it almost impossible to put down, as I was always desperately waiting to see what happened to one character as I read the other two. I wish the ending had answered a few more questions, but overall I enjoyed this one a lot!

4 Stars!

CJ Tudor is one of my favorites, so when I received this ARC, I jumped for joy!

3 interwoven storylines - a crashed bus, a stranded cable car, and an isolated retreat, seemingly not connected, but eventually the picture is painted. I loved the parallels that could have been drawn to what the world just went through.

I was loving questioning what was happening…I couldn’t wait to see how the final picture turned out….the picture was super cool but there were still lots of questions, I was slightly unsatisfied with the conclusion.

A special thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group - Ballentine, and CJ Tudor for providing me with an ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley and C.J. Tudor for this ARC of The Drift. I am a big fan of Tudor and her writing so when this book became available I was immediately excited. This would be perfect to read on a cold, snowy night. The threee different POVs are extremely easy to follow which made it a winner for me. This book was so incredibly twisty but came together very well with everything neatly describe. The viral apocalypse is a setting that is very controversial and I loved to see all of the characters emotions and thought processes behind their decisions and the things that had brought them to their current status. This book was very well-done, thought provoking and overall enjoyable.

The Drift by CJ Tudor is a fast paced thriller where we follow three characters on very different situations. A crashed bus, a cable car that is stalled, and an isolated research facility form the backdrop of this novel. With chapters that rotate through all three perspectives, it’s very easy to stay engaged in this story. Also, make sure you have a blanket because you will get cold reading about this snowy mystery!

I really enjoyed this book! I am a sucker for any book with multiple, seemingly unconnected stories that slow unfold into a bigger picture and this was no exception! I love how Tudor’s books always do new things so you never know what to expect. This book is so different from anything else I have read from her.

I can see some people not enjoying this book. There is a lot going on and yet, a lot of big things aren’t talked about in detail. There is a mysterious illness that isn’t really talked about in depth but I find I like that more because it really feels like we are learning things as the characters learn them. There are a few parts where you have to really suspend your disbelief which I sometimes have a problem with but this book was interesting enough that I could.

If you are a fan of the vibes of The Thing, The Walking Dead, or Dawn of the Dead, I think you would like this book. Not that this book is exactly the those, but it’s more the way the survivors behaved and the way situations were resolved. This was a solid four star book for me.

2.5 rounded up to 3 because it held my interest

In a remote snowy mountain area, three separate stories are taking place. A bus carrying a group of students fleeing their boarding school crashes. A secluded compound on lockdown housing secrets in the basement. And finally, a cable car traveling up the mountain with volunteers taking part in a research project suddenly stalls. All three stories focus on survival and secrets, and the reader is left to wonder who will make it out alive.

I was instantly drawn into the beginning of this story. The history is never clearly explained, however it's obvious there is a plague or pandemic that occurred a decade ago. I tend to enjoy apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic writing, however this story never actually explained the beginning of the sickness that almost wiped out the world. We were never presented with how the characters in the story came to be. I would have loved for even the first chapter to give an introduction with some more background. Once we were presented with each story and scenario, the story fell apart a little for me. There was too much going on at the house and I had a difficult time keeping track of the characters. There was a twist towards the end which slowly came together, but the story was too all over the place for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC

This one started so well for me, but finished badly.

I was very intrigued at first. We have an end of the world as you know it scenario, featuring 3 different groups. It was grim, exciting, and seemed like it would be so epic. I was in.

Unfortunately, though, as I read on, it started to disappoint. The author chooses a storytelling structure that simply wasn’t for me. I won’t tell you exactly what because it would be a complete spoiler. I’ll just say that while some would find it clever, I found it irritating. And what seemed epic in the beginning became a tale that was really very minute in scope.

I ended the book feeling slightly let down.

• ARC via Publisher

The Drift is one of the most intense stories I’ve read in a long time. It has all the ratcheting tension of an exceptionally well-written zombie apocalypse novel (think The Living Dead), but without any actual zombies. And how thankful I am for that. I know zombies were kind of the It Girls for a while there, but I’m really glad we’re backing off. I think they seriously over-saturated the market.

There are also really solid elements of mystery to unravel. I mean really – what is the connection between Hannah, Meg, and Carter? Who are the people they are stuck with? What is everyone’s deal? What is going on with The Retreat? Is there sabotage? Who? Why?

If you like edge-of-your-seat thrillers and well-crafted mysteries, I highly recommend giving The Drift a go.

*review goes live on my site 11/2/22*

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

There were a lot of elements I liked about this book. Isolated setting, post-apocalyptic, and the way the three perspectives came together was intriguing and capitvating.

Unfortunately, the end of this book really let me down. It just kind of...ended? It's not fair to say there was no resolution, because there certainly was that, in spades. But it felt so unsatisfying. I kept checking to see if I had missed a few pages.

Overall, while I had a fine time with this book, it definitely was not a favorite.

An amazing read! Fast paced with a big twist at the end!CJ Tudor does it again with this thriller! Told from 3 different point of views, you never want to get caught in a snow storm after reading this thriller.

Okay I normally post my own summary – but this one was so full of twists and turns there is no way I could do that without spoilers. So, I am going to use the publisher’s blurb.

Blurb: Hannah awakens to carnage, all mangled metal and shattered glass. Evacuated from a secluded boarding school during a snowstorm, her coach careered off the road, trapping her with a handful of survivors. They’ll need to work together to escape.

Meg awakens to a gentle rocking. She’s in a cable car stranded high above snowy mountains, with five strangers and no memory of how they got on board. They are heading to a place known only as “The Retreat,” but as the temperature drops and tensions mount, Meg realizes they may not all make it there alive.

Carter is gazing out the window of an isolated ski chalet that he calls home. As their generator begins to waver in the storm, something hiding in the chalet’s depths threatens to escape, and their fragile bonds will be tested.

The imminent dangers faced by Hannah, Meg, and Carter are each one part of the puzzle. Lurking in their shadows is an even greater danger—one with the power to consume all of humanity.

Review: If you are looking for a dark, twisted thriller look no further than The Drift, it comes out Jan 31 and you need to pre-order this ASAP! It is that good. I loved the authors previous work, have you seen they did a tv show based off The Chestnut Man? He’s good, this book is amazing. It’s a pretty dark book, but again, that’s what this author does – and he does it fantastically.

This one is a 5-star read for me. Its going to be with me quite some time. I am ecstatic that @netgalley and the publisher, @randomhouse Random House – Ballantine for my advanced reader copy. All my opinions are my own.

Please note review will be posted to social media two weeks prior to release date per the publishers request :) Once done I will add the link

As a rabid fan of post apocalyptic fiction, I was beyond excited to read this new release by CJ Tudor. I dove in feet first, but it didn’t take long to feel as if I was drowning in details that were too obscure to connect. From the first page, I was thrown off balance and truly puzzled about where Tudor was headed. I could find no frame of reference to allow me to place the characters into a scenario that made sense and instead spent an inordinate amount of time trying to manufacture connections that would allow me to find an actual story I could follow. There just wasn’t enough background to anchor the events. Whilst the writing itself is on point, the structure and lack of depth just made for a chaotic read. Add to that a series of similar characters who remained flat and lifeless, and the result is a selection I would recommend leaving on the shelf.

The book unfolds in cycling chapters that focus on three different locations where characters are caught in the aftermath of a viral epidemic. One group finds themselves trapped on a bus that crashed during a snowstorm, while the second group of six is stuck high in the frigid air on a stalled cable car.. All, in both locations, were volunteers en route to “The Retreat”, an isolated former ski lodge now functioning as a facility focused on finding a vaccine. It is at that research institution that the reader finds the third and final group, a diverse mix of men and women engaged in various nefarious activities. One fact is made crystal clear—in each location, and to a person, everyone is harboring secrets.

From the beginning, the chapters exist in isolation. No group has knowledge of any of the others, and so the reader is left with the impression that they are reading three separate stories, related only by the virus that has decimated the world around them. The expectation, of course, is that the reader is being set up for a grand intersection. I have seen this technique utilized successfully when links between those parallel plots are revealed before they again divert and gain traction as completely separate storylines. They eventually spiral down into a single event that melds them seamlessly together when the plots collide, leaving the reader wondering how they missed the connections. Here, however, Tudor waits far too long to offer the reader any common threads. Instead, the stories stand apart with no clear relationship to one another, each weaving distinct paths that at times become tedious in their ambiguity. There’s a fine line between expecting the reader to infer and dissect clues and making the clues so obscure that it is nearly impossible to follow them to any logical conclusion, Tudor never closes the gap between the storylines in any satisfying way, and when the big picture is finally made clear (too little, too late), the result was, for me, a big “so what”.

Character development, or lack thereof, is another disappointment. In each group, the characters aren’t just eerily similar, they are near carbon copies, down to their vocabulary and the cadence of their speech. Some of these similarities are eventually explained, but others are just the result of inadequate character development. It’s as if Tudor storyboarded four or five stock character sketches, then recycled them as he moved forward.

Overall, the promise of a post-apocalyptic tale was replaced with a story borne of revenge and violence, structured in a way that left me disconnected and unable to invest.

I am grateful to NetGalley and Random House Publishing (Ballantine Books) for allowing me to receive an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Publication is set for January 31, 2023, at which time I look forward to reading other reactions and reviews.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of The Drift.

Three different people faced with life threatening scenarios soon realize they all have something in common. their lives are in danger and the end of the world is near.

I'm all for post apocalyptic novels featuring survivors in dangerous locales and faced with frightening choices to make.

The Drift started out well; there was tension and drama in all three POVs; Hannah, Meg and Carter.

The reader is given tidbits of information about the current world; a virus sweeping the country; a pandemic ravaged world where the elite buy their way out of death and tragedy. a cold, callous doctor tasked with developing a vaccine, the less fortunate forced to become guinea pigs for money and a few material comforts.

The world building is decent, but trope-y; a government agency hell-bent on doing anything to maintain the current world order, including killing innocent people, a doctor with no morals and ethics, and a motley crew of survivors who are unsure of their current standing, and the Whistlers. They're kind of like zombies, except they're still alive.

It appears there is no government infrastructure, the only priority on seeking a cure or vaccine to beat this disease

Everyone has their own agenda. Everyone is confused and suspicious of one another. I respect that. It's a confusing and dangerous time.

At first, I couldn't understand how each person's story connected. Then, as more details emerged, I understood where the narrative was going, though I couldn't see the endgame.

Also, I felt a bit cheated that the main character was one individual, not three. It felt like a trick on the part of the author to deceive the reader into caring about all three.

The issue is, I didn't like Hannah, Meg, or Carter, but I didn't dislike them. As previous reviewers have noted, multiple characters barely developed made it difficult to connect with anyone.

There was a lot of action, drama, but it soon became repetitive: confusion among the group, the main character realizes something, accusations are made, people are hurt or killed.

That's the biggest problem with multiple POVs in similar scenarios; each setup begins to sound the same, the characters act similarly faced with life and death scenarios, the supporting characters are suspicious and turn on one another.

The lack of character development and exposition to how each character came to be in this situation also hurts the narrative.

I had a slightly uneasy vibe the author might have a not so subtle political agenda he or she is pushing with their novel.

Or, maybe that's just me.

There were parts of the narrative that seemed focused on the heinous actions the government agency was employing to keep their vaccine funded program running and the way they were treating the marginalized and the poor.

And, after all the turmoil the characters (and the readers) go through, we get to that ending.

My first and only thought was: "What's the point of all that?"

I don't mind vague endings. Even sad endings. Or pessimistically hopeful ones, but this ending seemed to mock all the efforts and actions of the main and supporting characters.

I know there will be more pandemic themed novels in the future and I'm fine with that; authors write what affects them and the world we live in.

I just wished I knew what the point was in The Drift.

The story begins with three groups of people in a freezing climate where a winter storm starting. One group is in a coach that has turned over with several casualties. Another group is in a teetering cable car also with casualties. The third group is already at the destination of all of these people, the retreat.

All three of these groups have characters you are rooting for, villains you are rooting against and the just-plain-annoying-in-a-crisis characters you can’t help but roll your eyes over. As their stories unfold, everyone has secrets as the world has been dealing with a health crisis somewhere between Covid and The Walking Dead. Probably much closer to the latter.

CJ Tudor is a favorite of mine and I am happy to say this may be her best work yet, and that’s saying something. The story and the character development were outstanding and the ending was superb. Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for an early copy of The Drift. This is my unbiased review.

Expected Pub Date: January 31, 2023
Pages: 354
#NetGalley #ballantinebooks #cjtudor #thedrift

A fatal disease is jumping from one creature to another until finally infecting a man, his family, and the world. Hannah is on a bus leaving her boarding school, heading to the Retreat and fleeing the virus that is killing so many people. When the bus crashes, everything she believed in falls apart. Meg is in a cable car that has jerked to a stop; they are trapped, a thousand feet from the ground. They were on their way to the Retreat. Carter is at the retreat, with a small group of survivors.

The chapters jump from Hannah’s perspective to Meg’s perspective, to Carter’s perspective, all heading to a surprising end. I never saw it coming. Each person’s story shows the strengths and weaknesses of humans, while looking at how the world would handle a deadly, highly contagious disease.

Thank you to Penguin Random House and NetGalley for an ebook ARC of the Drift; this is my honest review.

I wasn't sure if I was going to like this as it is not really my normal genre. With that being said, I was hooked from the beginning. I wanted to get home and continue reading to see what was really going on. I had an idea about one of the twists and I read reviews that said it all came together nicely so I was curious how it was all going to fit. But then for me it just....didn't. About 80% through I started to get disappointed about where things were going and by the end, I had just sort of checked out. I did find the end satisfying at all and felt more confused then anything else. I am going to give this author another try since I did enjoy the majority of the book.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.