Survive the Night

Riley Sager

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. Like the Hitchcock heroine she’s named after, Charlie has her doubts. There’s something suspicious about Josh, from the holes in his story about his father to how he doesn’t seem to want Charlie to see inside the car’s trunk. 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.

-Excerpt taken from Goodreads.

Check Goodreads to see the book’s ratings.

My Opinion

“Movies are like life,” she finally says. “Only better.”

4 out of 5 stars (4 / 5) Charlie is a college student who is emotionally broken after a fight with her best friend, leads to her murder from a local serial killer. Charlie is devastated and just wants to return home to grieve. She finds a ride with a stranger and convinces herself he’s safe, and they start the road trip home.

There were some great twists! They mislead me most of the book, only to jerk me back toward another twist. The end was fabulous and I didn’t see it coming. Riley did not give me enough info to guess accurately so I was surprised around every turn.

I’ve learned that most people either love or hate Sager as an author. Honestly, I’ve only read two of his books but they’ve entertained me each time. They’re quick reads with great twists and they keep me guessing.

Content Summary: F words: 20 a young woman has had both parents die in a car accident and her best friend was murdered, the friend was found in a field with bound wrists and ankles and stabbed, hallucinations, attempted suicide, blood, torture, gunshot wound, fire in a building, car accident in river and drowning.

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