Review of Survive the Night by Riley Sager

Not my usual fare, but my neighbour bought it and a different friend, who is much more into horror, had mentioned Riley Sager a few times. I didn’t learn until after I read Survive the Night that she considers it one of Sager’s weaker novels! While diehard horror fans might find something good in this, there was very little here for me.

Charlie Jordan is heading home to Ohio, effectively dropping out of college. Her roommate was murdered by a campus serial killer, and Charlie blames herself. Now Charlie is off her meds and hallucinating her dead friend, among other things. She finds a rideshare with Josh, a clean-cut, straightforward young man who almost-definitely-maybe isn’t a serial killer himself—or is he … dun dun dun. Charlie gets into his car, and they start driving, and that, of course, is when the plot thickens.

I totally see what Sager is going for here. He attempts to build suspense, dangling the possibility of Josh being Maddie’s killer before us while at the same time doing enough to establish doubt to keep us guessing. It’s generally well done. However, the book relies a lot on Charlie making stupid decisions to keep the plot going. She has plenty of opportunities to escape from Josh. Even when she does the right thing, though, she somehow manages to bungle it.

I really don’t have much else to say about this one. It doesn’t live up to its premise, and it was pretty boring. The ending retcons everything into a framed narrative that is … meh.

That’s all from me.