Survive the Night by Riley Sager
Josh Baxter, the man behind the wheel, is a virtual stranger to Charlie. They met at a campus ride board, each looking to share the long drive home to Ohio. Both have good reasons for wanting to get away. For Charlie, its 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.
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Ok, I’ve been anticipating this book for forever but I’ve also been scared to read it. So even though I finally got my hands on a copy months ago, it’s taken me this long to pick it up. I’m a chicken ok? I love thrillers but it’s been a long time and I’m no longer desensitized to fear. This is what happens when you only read fluffy romance all summer. (Although it’s probably a GOOD thing that murder still freaks me out right? Even if it means sleeping with the lights on). It was definitely a very twisty/turny tale. The thing that kept me hooked is that it was plotted out like a movie which I loved since the main character is obsessed with movies so it truly felt like being in her head, comparing everything happening to something you’d see in your typical thriller. Although there were a few twists you wouldn’t expect.
Charlie, our main character, has just gone through the major trauma of losing her best friend to a serial killer and she blames herself for not being there that night. Being so desperate to flee campus, she joins a ride-share with basically the FIRST person she meets at the ride-share board. He’s cute, seems nice, goes to the same school, and is headed the same way, what could be more convenient? On the road Charlie’s instincts finally kick in and she realized she’s on a six hour trip with a man she knows nothing about when there’s a serial killer still at large. And some of his mannerisms and comments don’t make her feel any better. It’s a pretty harrowing tale of a journey through the night, with pit stops at sketchy truck stop bathrooms with flickering florescent lights and small backwoods diners that aren’t even on a map. It truly did give you that feeling of thrill as you read along and waited for the next obstacle in the road to come up.
The only thing that I didn’t love about it is that I did guess the ending pretty quick. I don’t know if that’s because I’m just soooooo intuitive (LOL) or if it was just super obvious. Also the MO of the serial killer felt a bit juvenile….Regardless, it was still an exciting read, however I wish I was a little more/shocked/scared. It sounds like it will be a scary thriller and for some reason for me it was missing the scare factor. However, the characters were great, every single one of them kept me guessing and Josh was an enigma. Even reading from his point of view I could not get a grasp on the guy. He was definitely sketchy, I don’t blame Charlie’s instincts for kicking into high gear pretty quick.
It was a fun read, maybe didn’t live quite up to my expectations but I still really enjoyed it. If you’re looking for a moody, 90s grunge themed thriller to kick-start Autumn, this is the perfect read.