Really enjoyed this novel. Story was very interesting and engaging. Looking forward to reading more by this author. Highly recommend!

C.J. Tudor's newest release is a post apocalyptic horror/mystery/thriller book that takes place during a big snowstorm that will keep you on your toes. The plot is divided into three separate narratives. 

First, there's Hannah, a med student who is trapped in a wrecked coach with other students. She and the other survivors must work together to make it out alive. Next is Meg, she is a former police officer trapped in a cable car with others and they too must work together to figure out how to get to safety while 1,000 feet in the air. Last is Carter, a worker at a former ski resort turned secret laboratory. All are impacted by a worldwide pandemic. What happens next? You'll have to read the book to see as telling anymore would spoil it. 

I liked the claustrophobic atmosphere of being trapped in a snowstorm. It built a lot of dread. The pacing is very good and the characters are mostly well rounded. Speaking of characters, there are ALOT of them. Sometimes it was hard to keep them all straight. I also felt like the plot from Meg's POV was the least interesting, while Hannah's POV was best. Carter's lies somewhere in the middle. Overall, I feel like it was a pretty decent read. If pandemics are a trigger for you, it may be best to skip this one though. 

My thanks to Ballantine Books, author C.J. Tudor, and NetGalley for gifting me a digital copy of this book. My opinions are my own.

What started as kind of a cool original story got very very dark quickly. I don’t know if I was just too sensitive but it didn’t work for me. Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for this copy in exchange for review

The Drift was a surprising treat. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but at first, I was a little lost with the 3 stories that I assumed interacted. 
The Drift begins with a strong female character, Hannah, who awakens to find herself trapped in a bus that has crashed. Surrounded by snow, deadly low temperatures, wolves, and creatures known as "whistlers". 
Next, we have Meg, who awakens to find herself trapped in a stalled cable car, high above the frozen mountains.
And finally Carter, a worker at the "retreat" all seem to be heading for when their nightmares begin. There are mysteries at the Retreat that are threatening and everyone has a secret that could be worth killing for.

Once these 3 stories come together, you are simply amazed at how C.J. Tudor has spun a most complicated yet satisfying web that keeps you glued to the pages until the very end.

I'm hoping for a sequel myself.

Thanks to @netgalley for the opportunity to read this eArc in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.

The Drift is Tudor's best work yet; a locked room thriller with three stories that slowly intertwine, she really escalated the tension.

Set during a global pandemic (far worse than Covid), a group of students on their way to The Retreat; a safe house of sorts for survivors of the virus are trapped on a bus which crashed in a snow storm; a small group of people trapped in a cable-car in the freezing cold, and a group of survivors living at The Retreat are all fighting for survival as they try to reach safety.

This is a very gory story and not for the faint of heart, but the writing is excellent with Tudor really taking the time to give her characters a backstory and making them likeable. I rooted for all of them.

The three stories really kept it interesting as well as each chapter was a different character's point of view; this technique really drove the story and made it a very exciting read. I couldn't wait to see what would happen next.

The Whistler's (people who were infected but had survived) were very creepy and were used well, although I wish they had been utilised more; they could've been a really terrifying enemy.

The way the stories do eventually connect was also beautifully done and very well thought out - a plot twist that actually worked!

3.5 stars.  This was great … it took a minute to figure everything out and once I did, I loved how it all tied together.  My only issue with the book is how it ended, I wish there was “more”’or it would have ended maybe a little differently. I feel like it was anticlimactic and it needed something else to really bring it to completion.. the main character worked towards one goal is his entire adult life
and when it came to it, it was flat. I love zombies and post apocalyptic things and I wanted so much more. I’d still definitely recommend, it just left me wanting more.

I've enjoyed all of C.J. Tudor's books I've read in the past, but this one fell a bit flat for me. The setting was interesting but I never got familiar with the cast of characters. They mostly felt like 2D archetypes of character tropes without any real personality. It was disappointing for me. But overall, the story kept me interested (despite not knowing who was who, which honestly, might have been a me problem). The aspect of a pandemic that was improperly handled hit a little too close to home, but hearing snippits throughout the story kept me engaged. Though it left me a little confused, I generally had fun. Maybe I'm due for a reread to see if I enjoy it more the second time, but this didn't discourage me from reading more from this author in the future.

This is an easy book to binge. It moved at breakneck speed, and just when you start to wonder how everything connects, it connects. I especially liked the beginning and ending (wink). There are a lot of characters, but they're written so vividly, it's easy to keep track of them. So weird how the timing of this novel's pitch vs writing worked out, but it definitely worked!

I enjoyed the suspense of this book the writer kept me reading trying to discover who the villian was or who the survivors were going to be.  I loved how he was able to keep the timeline so  sharp that by the time i realized that it was not in reaL TIME  the book was almost to the end and man oh man that ending you reap what you discard yep. loved it

📖My Thoughts📖

I’m not entirely sure what to make of this one. I may actually have to read it over again. It was pretty gripping, however to me it was a little confusing. I guess I didn’t realize that this had three different timelines to it, which made it a little confusing for me. There were some pretty violent parts and some serious twists (the biggest one being jaw dropping worthy). This was told from multiple points of view which may not have been so confusing had there not also been multiple timelines. This was my first book by CJ Tudor, so I may also just need to get more familiar with her writing style. Overall it was very fast paced, intriguing, and kept me on the edge of my seat. 
Thank you Netgalley, CJ Tudor and Random House Publishing Group for the opportunity to read and review this book. ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75

I love this kind of mystery but have been reading a lot of them in recent months.  I liked that the setting of this one was more unique.  I loved The Chalk Man so I had high expectations for this and it did not disappoint!!

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I'm DNF'ing this novel at just past 100 pages. It's unfortunately just not holding my attention. However, I certainly think there's an audience for this and I would recommend it to fans of multiple POVs and anyone interested in a unique blend of horror, thriller, and dystopian. I loved The Burning Girls by C.J. Tudor and I will continue to try her novels in the future.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Ballantine as well as the author for this ARC.
#NetGalley #RandomHousePublishingBallantine #C.J.Tudor #TheDrift
C.J. Tudor is so awesome.  I’m not usually a fan of crime thrillers but she usually adds an irresistible supernatural element which, for me, causes her books to tip over into the horror genre.  This one was farther into the genre than her previous books, albeit without the supernatural element.  
The Drift follows the predicaments of three different people.  
Meg, Hannah, and Carter are our main characters.  Each is thrust into a truly unfortunate situation.  Hannah wakes up to a bunch of dead as well as not dead bodies after a bus accident.  Meg wakes up trapped in a suspended cable car with a bunch of strangers.  Carter is trying to survive trapped in a building formerly used as a medical center.  Each is faced with decisions and fears. Each will struggle for survival for very different reasons…and also some of the same reasons.  Each has to deal with vicious winter weather.  Each has to deal with betrayal.  Each must struggle to survive.  I can’t say too much more without spoiling anything.  This story is filled with twists that are doled out slowly throughout the story.  This story contains several surprises and a very satisfying ending.  It’s perfect for fans of apocalypse horror.  It’s perfect for fans of survival horror.  It’s perfect for me for sure!  I highly recommend this book.

This book was fast-paced, suspenseful, and surprisingly gory.
When I picked it up, I was expecting more of a thriller but ended up finding it to be much more of a horror, with loads of body horror. I haven't read C. J. Tudor before, so I wasn't sure what to have expected. The majority of the story seemed to be made up of dialogue as there were a lot of characters. In fact, it was difficult to keep track of all the secondary characters.

I love CJ Tudor's writing, so I requested this one without really looking at the book summary.  
Well, it turns out that I don't like apocalyptic novels about surviving in extreme weather or a deadly virus.
None of the characters in the 3 storylines appealed to me and it seemed like too much work to figure out how they would all fit together.
The writing is excellent, so readers who enjoy dystopia will appreciate this book more than I have.

This was a wild ride! It wasn’t a book I’d typically gravitate towards, but I’m glad I gave it a try - I couldn’t put it down! There were so many crazy twists and it was action-packed.

CJ Tudor is one of my favorite authors. I’m a HUGE fan! So I was looking forward to reading The Drift, her latest novel. 

This book-I can’t decide if it was completely crazy or completely genius. This is a story told in 3 “locked room” points of view. There is Hannah and her crew who have had a bus crash on the way to The Retreat. There’s Meg and her crew who are stuck in a cable car that was ascending to The Retreat. Then there’s Carter and company, who reside at The Retreat. 

There’s a virus, there’s “Whistlers” who have been infected by the virus but aren’t dead (yet), there’s a mad doctor. There were more twists and turns in this story than on a roller coaster. 

CJ Tudor messes with your mind like M. Night Shyamalan. I didn’t see most of the turns coming, which I loved. 

This book is very fast-paced. I had trouble putting it down. It’s masterfully crafted if at times a little bit violent and unbelievable. But it was a fun read and I’ll definitely be looking for the next book by CJ Tudor. 

Thank you to #netgalley and #ballentinebook for the advanced e-copy of #thedrift.

3.5 ⭐️ 

I read this book as part of my “group of people trapped in a remote location in a blizzard” thriller binge. It wasn’t my top read, but I’d recommend it if you’re looking for a thriller with some gore, an underlying virus apocalypse story with a twist (it wasn’t shocking, but it wasn’t super obvious too soon).  

While I like the premise of this book, the virus/apocalypse aspect was more of a minor story line than I had expected. It was primarily used to give a reason for why the people where at “The Retreat” making it more of a pre-zombie outbreak situation. Maybe that was in part because of the remoteness of the location, but I would not consider this a zombie read. 


CW: includes gore/descriptions of injuries and killing. 


*I received an ARC from Net Galley

Althought I've only read a few of CJ Tudor's books it seems this one is different than the rest.  

There were too many characters for me and found it was sometimes to hard to keep track of them all and who was doing what. I was a little disappointed in this one but it will not discourage me from reading others.

I anticipated a lot of books around contagious diseases or pandemics to come after Rona. While I liked some of them, most of them were meh because why do I need to read about another pandemic when we still deal with the current one. But this one was different. 

Told by three people with different skin in the game (be ready to have your notepad ready if you pr memory doesn’t feel like cooperating), the book was a fight for survival than a romanticized recoveries or total destruction of society as we know it. This disease was spreading through any means possible. People mostly died, only unlucky few to survive and to be used a lab rat to develop a “cure”. Tiny spoiler here: no one cares about curing anyone. *insert all sort of capitalist agendas here*

Having observed different timelines through three main characters, I loved how impeccably connected this story was. I didn’t have a moment where I said “so what’s up with this character?” It could have been 5 star read, but come on, we are still in Rona times… I don’t need to read more about quarantine and feelings of isolation.