Survive the Night by Riley Sager

 

While I have grown to be a fan of Riley Sager, his latest, Survive the Night, misses the mark for me in a couple of areas. First of all, the premise: A campus killer has yet to be caught. A guilt-ridden roommate who must get away from the college. Despite all the warnings and information provided on campus, she gets into a car with a strange man for a ride home to Ohio? Secondly, the unreliable narrator constantly flipping the plot with “movies in her head” got tiresome very quickly, and the “flips” seemed a cop out instead of good writing. This plot device was plain tiresome.

The story takes place just short of Thanksgiving 1991. Film student Charlie Jordan cannot take the guilt anymore regarding the death of her roommate Maddy. She just must get away from campus NOW, so she posts a request on a ride board. Remember those? Her boyfriend Robbie does not put much effort into convincing her to stay on campus with him.

Josh Baxter is the stranger who shows up after 9 p.m. to give Charlie an all-night ride home to Youngstown, Ohio, from fictional Olyphant University in New Jersey. Charlie knows she is doing a risky thing getting a ride from someone she does not know but her anxiety and survivor guilt are in control of her. As the projected six-hour journey progresses, she talks herself into and out of believing that Josh is the Campus Killer. At a stop for food at a diner in the middle of nowhere, Charlie calls Robbie and lets him know she is in trouble. She thinks the waitress might be of help in this situation and that Robbie will have called the police.

But all is not what it seems of course as this is a Riley Sager thriller in which Charlie must find a way to survive the night.

Sager pays homage to the many movies he loves as well as to some music from the 1990s. He is a former journalist, editor, and graphic designer who previously published mysteries under his real name, Todd Ritter. A Pennsylvania native, Riley lives in Princeton, New Jersey, where he writes, reads, cooks, and attends movies. My review will be posted on Goodreads starting April 8, 2021.

I would like to thank the PENGUIN GROUP Dutton for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective review.