Like man of fan-favorite Riley Sager books, Survive the Night begins with a strong premise but quickly loses steam. Our protagonist’s decisions make for an unbelievable tale, setting the stage for a story full of forced choices and shaky logic.
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 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.
Like most of Riley Sager’s novels, Survive the Night had an intriguing premise–but it quickly loses credibility. It’s truly hard to believe that our protagonist, Charlie, would agree to gone on a road trip with a complete stranger just two months after her best friend was killed by a serial who has yet to be caught. That baffling choice sets the tone for a story filled with questionable decisions and character motivations that feel forced to serve the plot rather than emerge naturally.
The unreliable narration coming from Charlie could have possibly added tension to the story, but instead, it muddles the narrative at hand. Much of the book is spent inside Charlie’s head, bogging down the story down by internal dialogue that slows the pace and dilutes the suspense. While building towards a twist, which I saw coming, made for an underwhelming reveal.
While Charlies love for film is evident in this story, it still lacked with possible rich nostalgia it teases, and the tension never quite escalates into a story that I was eager to continue coming back to each time to read. Despite this flaws, I will continue to come back to Riley Sager stories–even if they falter. While Survive the Night wasn’t for me, there is something undeniably fun about diving into stories from Sager.
Survive the Night is available at bookstores everywhere from Dutton. The audiobook, narrated by Savannah Gilmore, is available at Libro.fm!
