Survive the Night
“Just an order of fries, please,” Charlie says. Marge grabs the pencil tucked behind her ear and pulls a small order pad from her deep apron pocket. “Gravy on the side?” “Just plain.”
Survive the Night: ★★☆☆☆
By: Riley Sager
Primary Genre: Thriller
Year Published: 2021
Number of Pages: 324
Charlie Jordan is being driven across the country by a serial killer. Maybe.
Behind the wheel is Josh Baxter, a stranger Charlie met by the college ride share board, who also has a good reason for leaving university in the middle of term. On the road they share their stories, carefully avoiding the subject dominating the news - the Campus Killer, who's tied up and stabbed three students in the span of a year, has just struck again.
Travelling the lengthy journey between university and their final destination, Charlie begins to notice discrepancies in Josh's story.
As she begins to plan her escape from the man she is becoming certain is the killer, she starts to suspect that Josh knows exactly what she's thinking.
Meaning that she could very well end up as his next victim.
Are you a Riley Sager fan? Without a doubt, I am a huge fan!
Though Survive the Night was not a favorite of mine, it was still a page turner and it keeps you guessing.
Since a large part of the book is spent with the main character, Charlie, riding in a car with a possible serial killer, there aren't a lot of food options. Coffee was mentioned. Juicy Fruit gum was mentioned; but I decided to go with Charlie's order at the diner:
French Fries
You'd think that since it's just the one little dish for this book that I'd be willing to put in the time to make homemade French Fries. I've made them before, they're not too difficult. It's mostly about the technique and patience it takes to make uniform fry shapes.
Did I do that here? No.
I just whipped open a bag of Ore-Ida Crispy Fast Food French Fries and popped them in the oven.
Perhaps my recipe effort unintentionally matched my enjoyment of the book as you will see in my rather ranty review below.
I'm sorry to say that this book holds the title for my least favorite Riley Sager book so far. (I still have to read The House Across the Lake and there seem to be a lot of mixed feelings on that one too). Looking back on it I think my rating is a little harsh, but I can't help it. It uses one of my least favorite tropes, the unreliable narrator, and it combines it with gaslighting and it absolutely ruined the book for me.
To add more fuel to my two star fire, the main character's poor decision-making had me rolling my eyes and the motives behind each characters' actions were just so far-fetched.
Lastly, I didn't like all of the movie references. I think it's neat that the entire thing tied into a cinematic theme, but what started out as kind of quirky and nostalgia-inspiring quickly became tedious. Some people may love this aspect, (heck, I loved the 80's nostalgia vibe of Ready Player One and that was a deterrent for lots of readers), but it just didn't work for me here.
Now that I've aired my negative feelings, I have to say that Riley Sager is still one of my favorite authors and I will read anything he writes. His thrillers always wrap you up in the perfect eerie setting whether it's an all but abandoned summer camp, a haunted house, or in this case an isolated car rambling down a highway in the middle of nowhere.
His books always have the most climactic endings and Survive the Night was no exception. The last quarter was such a wild ride and that's what keeps me coming back for more!
Don't let my opinion turn you away from Survive the Night. If you don't mind an unreliable narrator and have a penchant for classic cinema, then you may love this one.
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