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Survive the Night

Riley Sager (Goodreads Author)

3.91 · Rating details · 362 ratings · 217 reviews

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 fo ...more

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336 pages

Expected publication: July 6th 2021

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· 362 ratings · 217 reviews

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Nov 22, 2020 ELLIAS (elliasreads) marked it as to-read

‘Survive the Night’.....

BITCH, I don’t think I can survive this year, let alone till next summer 😩💀!!

flag 219 likes · Like · see review

Feb 12, 2021 Nilufer Ozmekik rated it it was amazing

Yessss! Congratulations !!! We have a big hit in da house!

Whew this book blew the last remaining grey cells out of my mind! What an action packed, exciting, heart pounder, nail biter, eyes popper, jaw dropper, mind number masterpiece!

I’m addicted to Mr. Sager’s books but this one already reserved a special place in my heart. If you ask me why I could say Charlie: nerdy, quirky, movie-day-dreamer, introvert, loyal, self punisher young girl may be one of the characters I’ve read so similar to ...more

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Mar 08, 2021 jessica rated it really liked it · review of another edition

im a fan of RSs books. what i enjoy most about them is that, even if i dont care about the content, i sure do love the execution of the story.

so imagine my surprise when, for the first time, its the opposite. i absolutely love the premise/concept, but some of the execution is… just okay. especially toward the end.

i will say that for a story only taking place within a timeframe of 6 hours, there is a lot to unpack with this. i was never bored and i felt like i was flying through the pages. it ha ...more

flag 200 likes · Like · see review

Jan 27, 2021 Dorie - Cats&Books :) rated it really liked it

Shelves: edelweiss, psychological-thriller

Lovers of twisted and abhorrent characters are going to love this one!!! I felt this was more frightening and darker than his last book “Home Before Dark”.

Starting this book my first thought was that this sounded way too familiar. The premise of a girl getting into a car with a stranger and things going wrong is certainly nothing new. The girls always have a reason to do this, they are running to or from something, they are happy or incredibly sad. What makes this one really good is the author’ Lovers of twisted and abhorrent characters are going to love this one!!! I felt this was more frightening and darker than his last book “Home Before Dark”.

Starting this book my first thought was that this sounded way too familiar. The premise of a girl getting into a car with a stranger and things going wrong is certainly nothing new. The girls always have a reason to do this, they are running to or from something, they are happy or incredibly sad. What makes this one really good is the author’s ability to get into the reader’s head and make you wonder what is real and what is not. That is the real magic of this novel!!

It’s the 1990’s, not that long ago, when pay phones were the only way to check in with someone or call for help. No cell phones, no texting.

Charlie is a young college student grieving the loss of her friend. She has reasons why she wants to leave campus RIGHT NOW, but they aren’t what you may think they are.

Josh is probably 10 years older but appears at the ride share bulletin on campus when Charlie is looking for a ride home to Ohio. Charlie assumes he is a graduate student, he’s wearing a campus sweatshirt.

No questions asked, Charlie and Josh head off into the night. SILLY GIRL WHAT ARE YOU THINKING!!!!!!!!! She leaves behind a boyfriend who isn’t quite sure if this is the end of their relationship or not. Does he really care? Does she?

When the blurb states that this is a game of cat and mouse, that’s exactly what transpires. At one point in this book I was growing increasingly anxious and put the book aside for a while. When I returned, the spell was somewhat broken. I started looking at things a different way entirely.

At 70% I had a pretty good idea what was going on but the twists still kept coming. Evil hides in plain sight so keep your eyes open to all possibilities.

If you love that taut, pit of your stomach tension, read it in one setting. This one has an atmospheric setting but is lacking that supernatural vibe of Home Before Dark which definitely remains my favorite of his books. The characters are really not believable but this is fiction and I was along for the ride.

Mr. Sager’s fans and lovers of psychological thrillers are going to really enjoy this one. Find the hiding psychopath!!!!!!!!

This novel is set to publish on July 6, 2021.I know it’s early but I just couldn’t help myself!!

I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher through Edelweiss.

...more

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Oct 26, 2020 megs_bookrack marked it as to-read

Shelves: 2021-releases, thriller-mystery-to-read

Update: 2021 is finally here!

Even though things are still a little messy, at least we have this book to look forward to.

Original:

Dear 2021,

You cannot get here fast enough.

The fact that you are bringing with you a new Riley Sager novel, makes your arrival that much more anticipated. Please hurry.

Love you like a friend,

Megs

xx ...more

flag 150 likes · Like · see review

Feb 04, 2021 Michael David rated it liked it

Shelves: widget-received

A dark night. Two strangers in a car, traveling down dark roads. Set before the days of cell phones and internet. I thought I was in for an awesome ride, but things took a detour.

The year is 1991, and right before Thanksgiving break, Charlie decides she wants to leave college...most likely indefinitely. She hasn’t gotten over the murder of her best friend, who fell victim to the Campus Killer.

Charlie meets Josh at the campus ride board while putting up a flyer to see if anyone wants to share a ...more

flag 139 likes · Like · see review

Jan 03, 2021 daph pink ♡ marked it as to-read

Shelves: 2021-tbr

no, i have never enjoyed a Riley Sager book. No never.

yes, i am still gonna add this to my tbr.

Send welp!!

flag 144 likes · Like · see review

Sep 30, 2020 — Massiel marked it as to-read

Shelves: promising-authors, waiting-to-release, 2021

Edit 10/31: So... now THERE IS A SYNOPSIS AND I JUST CAN'T WAIT

The cover isn't like others but anyway...
I know Riley won't disappoint me

---

Y'ALL HOLD YOUR BREATHE....

IS THIS FOR REAL??? 😭😭😭😍😍😍✨✨💖

MY DAY JUST GET BETTER WITH THIS

I CAN'T WAIT TO READ THIS BOOK

If is a white or gray cover I will have a heart attack also I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE "SURVIVE THE NIGHT" IN CAPITALS LETTERS.
...more

flag 63 likes · Like · see review

Apr 17, 2021 Emily (Books with Emily Fox) rated it did not like it

Shelves: 2021-releases, arc

Lol no. Absolutely not.

**Full review to come**

Vlog reading it: https://youtu.be/lY1xHQv9z6I
(With and without spoilers) ...more

flag 249 likes · Like · see review

Jan 23, 2021 Breanna rated it liked it · review of another edition

Okay so here’s the thing—I am an avid Riley Sager fan since reading FINAL GIRLS...

With that said, I expect there to be twists and turns in addition to many “WTF” moments...And while this book had those moments I found myself reading the first half of the book thinking “okay so when does it get juicy?”

And if you’ve read all of RS’s previous books, then you know his tells. I knew immediately when the situation would change and who the actual villain would be. This left me disappointed but still v ...more

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Feb 02, 2021 Chelsea | thrillerbookbabe rated it it was amazing

Shelves: arc, netgalley, thriller-mystery

Literally every single book I read by Riley Sager is unique and amazing. Thank you so much to Dutton Books for this fun throwback thriller! It’s set in the 90’s which is completely fantastic and is about Charlie, a girl looking for a ride home from college. She meets Josh at a ride-share board and they decide to travel together, since they are going the same way. Charlie is very wary of people though, after her roommate Maddy was recently murdered by The Campus Killer.

Charlie has a habit of tre Literally every single book I read by Riley Sager is unique and amazing. Thank you so much to Dutton Books for this fun throwback thriller! It’s set in the 90’s which is completely fantastic and is about Charlie, a girl looking for a ride home from college. She meets Josh at a ride-share board and they decide to travel together, since they are going the same way. Charlie is very wary of people though, after her roommate Maddy was recently murdered by The Campus Killer.

Charlie has a habit of treating real life like a movie, and imagining vivid scenes that seem real. Her therapist calls them hallucinations, and she has suffered from them since both her parents were killed in a car crash. Now, on a road trip with a stranger, Charlie isn’t sure who she signed up to be in a car with and begins to suspect that there is a lot more to Josh than she originally thought.

Thoughts: I LOVED the setting and time period of this book. The 90s nostalgia was amazing and so much fun to read. Charlie was a fantastic main character, remnant of Quincy in Final Girls. Adding the film aspects and movie references made it so enjoyable for me. I loved how the tension built throughout the book and you couldn’t help but yell at Charlie at some points. BE WARY OF STRANGERS! RUN! She is both a strong and weak character, with many flaws that made her likable.

The car ride basically puts the characters in a locked room setting, and with so few main characters, there were only a few things that I could imagine happening. It helped that there would be things you thought happened, but then it was just a movie playing out in Charlie’s head. A very poignant storyline was the idea that women are too scared of being impolite to get out of unsafe situations. Women fear inconveniencing others in case they are wrong, so they neglect to stand up for themselves when something doesn’t seem right. This book really puts in perspective that we need to be our own hero, and sometimes no one is coming to save us but ourselves.

This book was full of twists, some of which I guessed immediately and some I had no idea about! Riley Sager is a master of surprise, turning each situation into a heart-pounding game of cat and mouse. I am forever a fan- 4.9999 stars for this nostalgic and tension-building thriller!
...more

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Feb 20, 2021 Holly B marked it as to-read

This sounds scary, but also its Riley Sager!

flag 22 likes · Like · see review

Sep 28, 2020 Katerina Kondrenko marked it as to-read

Shelves: waiting-and-dying-for, 2021-tbr

I'M FREAKING EXCITED. NEW BOOK BY SAGER! I REPEAT! NEW BOOK BY SAGER!
description

...more

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Feb 21, 2021 Alexa rated it it was amazing

Shelves: thrillers

Welp, I was looking for a breakneck read to get me out of a reading slump and I chose well! This is now up there with my favorite Riley Sager books--the page-turning suspense is intense, especially in act 2 (a feat) with some nice twists I didn't see coming. I did worry at first that the "movie in her mind" conceit might not work, but Sager doesn't spin it out too cheaply (as other authors might) and ultimately I landed on it working well-ie: it didn't wander into uncomfy mental illness territor Welp, I was looking for a breakneck read to get me out of a reading slump and I chose well! This is now up there with my favorite Riley Sager books--the page-turning suspense is intense, especially in act 2 (a feat) with some nice twists I didn't see coming. I did worry at first that the "movie in her mind" conceit might not work, but Sager doesn't spin it out too cheaply (as other authors might) and ultimately I landed on it working well-ie: it didn't wander into uncomfy mental illness territory and was used a a "cheap plot device" relatively sparingly.

Overall, this one will appeal in subject matter/vibe/tone most to fans of Final Girls, and in terms of tension/creepiness/pacing to fans of Lock Every Door (and it's now my second fave behind The Last Time I Lied). It's least like Home Before Dark in terms of lens/tone/pacing, but as that one was my least favorite, that's all good for me, ha. I LOVED how tight the pacing was in Survive the Night, with the book moving quickly past pretty obvious twists instead of drawing them out, ie: we know the guy in the car is creepy, and Charlie figures it out fast, too. It keeps you on your toes, too. She's a sharp horror heroine, thank god (though one or two things she does are hella cringe haha).

I do have some small quibbles and I hesitate to discuss them without spoilers--the plot is so tight and contained with a small cast (and it works) that even the tiniest comment might spoil the book for some. So much of the fun was trying to stay ahead of the plot/guess things/figure out motivations, and I wouldn't want to steal that from anyone. That said, still going to keep it vague enough behind the spoiler tag. So (view spoiler)

I'm kind of "welllllllll" on the final frame device--I liked bits of it, but one part of it I'm like hmmmmmmmm but I almost would want to do a reread knowing all the twists to see how I feel about the ending. It was definitely interesting! And I'm certainly left with a bit of nostalgia for thriller stories before the age of cell phones in the Internet. Most of the tension in this book and why it works pacing/thrill wise is b/c it's set in the early 90s.

Basically if you like "locked room" mysteries (where two characters are in an isolated location without reasonable means of escape) and want that but in a car for 50% of the book, with some great turns for the second half in terms of setting/stakes... highly recommend. Definitely a book that should be a movie, so much so it's literally baked into the meta lol. ...more

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Feb 16, 2021 Erin A. Craig rated it it was amazing

Review to come, once I stop gasping.

flag 18 likes · Like · see review

Oct 28, 2020 Nastassja marked it as to-read

Shelves: anticipated-releases

Oh-My-God, am I the only one who's freaking excitedly after reading the book's premise? To end up in a car with a presumably serial killer... Oh my, what a ride it is going to be!

...more

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Nov 24, 2020 Ghoul Von Horror rated it it was ok

If there is a murderer on the loose that killed her friend why would she take a ride from a random dude she just met? I can see we've already started with plot holes. 😂
*****SPOILERS*****
Release Date: July 6th, 2021
Genre: Horror
Rating: ☘️☘️
About the Book: 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.

What I Liked:
1. I guess hearing where I grew up b ...more

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Oct 07, 2020 farith marked it as not-released-yet

survive the night? i don't even know if i'll survive this year... ...more

flag 17 likes · Like · see review

Feb 12, 2021 Nenia ✨ I yeet my books back and forth ✨ Campbell marked it as wishlist

Can Riley Sager even write a bad mystery book? I haven't read one yet...

Someone PLEASE give me this one so I can find out for science. ...more

flag 14 likes · Like · see review

Mar 16, 2021 Vivian Stevenson rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: 2021-reads, thriller, netgalley, ebook

Thank you to NetGalley and Dutton Books for an early digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

Shew. This was a tough one. I thought the story was very easy to read and flip through, but the events that happen in the book didn't cut it for me.

The premise is honestly the best part of the book. Read the synopsis and just stop there. A girl needs to leave college because her best friend is killed by The Campus Killer. She meets Josh at a ride board--I guess these were a thing in the 90s--and he ...more

flag 21 likes · Like · see review

Feb 10, 2021 Jamie Rosenblit rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

There's few authors I get more excited about than Riley Sager. When I read the premise for Survive the Night, I was instantly excited to get my hands on a copy. Charlie, a college student, secures a ride home with a stranger on campus, but as they hit the road, she realizes he might be a serial killer.

Let me tell you, the TENSION and suspense that Sager builds literally had me having to put the book down at night - I was SCARED - and I thought nightmares were coming - in the best possible way. I ...more

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Feb 15, 2021 Sonica rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I became an instant fan of Riley Sager's writing last summer after binging his first 4 books so when I heard a 5th was on it's way I knew I had to read it. Thanks to the team at Dutton for making that happen with an early digital copy. Next to Final Girls, I can safely say that Survive the Night is my favourite Sager yet! My anxiety was through the roof while reading, the entire way through!

The story is set in the 90s, which was so great in terms of nostalgia. The main female lead Charlie, is a ...more

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Jan 11, 2021 Jamie rated it it was amazing

Sager just keeps getting better and better with each book. I thought Home Before Dark was my favorite of his but this one was different than his other books and it deserves all the stars. I loved the small cast of characters and how he delves into grief, I was hooked from the beginning. One of my other favorite things about this book was the 90s setting! It was fun being pulled back into that time period again!
I couldn’t stop turning the pages and finished the second half of the book in a few h ...more

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Nov 07, 2020 Lady H marked it as to-read

Shelves: tbr-thriller

i am SO HAPPY that they are finally giving riley sager a different cover style

flag 8 likes · Like · see review

Feb 26, 2021 Jenna | JennaStopReading rated it really liked it

Thank you Dutton and Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for my review!

I am the first to admit that thrillers are not my thing, and not because I don’t like them. Actually, I used to read a LOT of them, to the point where I got way too good at guessing the ending. It didn’t take long for me to figure out the good guys, the nice guys, and the in between guys, and that just made thriller reading…boring.

BUT – I make exceptions for Riley Sager. I’ve read all but one of his books (haven’t read Home Bef ...more

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

Sep 30, 2020 Eilidh marked it as to-read

Shelves: anticipated-2021-releases, need-to-buy

SURVIVE THE NIGHT!! Talk about Survive the Night?! How am I going to survive the months waiting for this when I’m such an impatient pumpkin?! 😱😂

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

Feb 01, 2021 alysa marked it as to-read

i literally don't even read/own riley sager's books but this cover bothers me so much like why doesn't it match the Vibes of his other books ...more

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Apr 03, 2021 Sarah (tipsybookreviews) rated it it was amazing

SURVIVE THE NIGHT BOOK REVIEW

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

As a huge Riley Sager fan, SURVIVE THE NIGHT was one of my most anticipated reads of the year! I loved the 90’s setting, the creepy vibes, and never knowing which characters I could trust. In typical Sager fashion, the plot twists were amazing and I didn’t predict them AT ALL!👏🏼

I also enjoyed the movie references throughout but at times found the unreliable narrator component to be a bit frustrating. This book seriously gave me the creeps and I binge ...more

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Feb 08, 2021 Sonica rated it it was amazing

RTC
Sager fans: this may be his best yet (and for context, I loved the first 4)

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Jan 15, 2021 ❀ Crystal ✿ - PEACE ☮ LOVE ♥ BOOKS rated it it was amazing

Shelves: horror-thriller, arc-s, 2021-read-list

Copy provided by Edelweiss for an Honest Review
4.5 You Think You Know, but You Have No Idea Stars
By some miracle the stars aligned in my favor and I was granted a review copy of Survive the Night. After ~~reading~~ devouring every Riley Sager book in 2020 & thus making that dumpster fire of a year bearable I was insanely happy just to see a new book was on its way, let alone be able to read it. Once again RS proved why he is the master of manipulation and misdirection. Every time I thought I had it ...more

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About Riley Sager

Riley Sager

10,779 followers

Riley Sager is the award-winning pseudonym of a former journalist, editor and graphic designer who previously published mysteries under his real name.

Now a full-time author, Riley's first thriller, FINAL GIRLS, became a national and international bestseller and was called "the first great thriller of 2017" by Stephen King. Translation rights have been sold in more than two dozen countries.

Riley' ...more