Riley Sager: Survive the night

Riley Sager shows the length that one woman will go to, to survive one more night:

Charlie is no stranger to death, her parents died when she was really young and she did not know how to cope properly with it then and she still does not know how when her best friend is found murdered and murdered by a serial killer. All Charlie knows is that she has to get away, even if that means leaving her incredible boyfriend and accept a ride from a complete stranger just to get her home, away from everything that reminds her of Maddie. Charlie also has a secret that she does not share with many people, there are times when Maddie enters into the movie world in her mind and things are not what they seem, this is how she deals with reality and the stressful moments of this world, it has always served Charlie well until the night Maddie was murdered and she saw the killer but a movie was playing. Now on the ride back home strange things are happening and she does not know if it is all in her mind, her only objective now is to survive this night.

 

This is the third book that I have read by Sager and I really like the Noir feel of this book. I think what helps the feeling as it takes place at night, in a car, on a long stretch of road and has movie references throughout, many of which are Noirs themselves.

 

I enjoyed that Charlie just was not a reliable character the movies in her mind was such and interesting twist in the book and I wish that it was really only told from her POV. I think introducing the other character POV took away from some of the suspense in the book as it gave away too many details that Charlie would not have known. I really just wanted Charlie and her movies in her minds and be with her when she is trying to figure out what just happened.

I did not see that final twist coming and I think that Sager did a great job throughout making the reader think they have it figured out then do a complete 180. I personally love books like this as they keep me engaged in the story as I try to figure out what was happening.

I think this book is unique and quite different from the other books I have read by Sager and I can see why some Sager fans were not a fan of it. I personally liked the uniqueness of it and anyone saying they say the full ending coming is lying. I'm not sure why Sager decided to have the book based in the 90s instead of present day, I feel like the book could have worked just as well in present time as it did in the 90s. And being in the 90s did not really add anything to the story, so once again confused by the choice there as majority of the movies that Charlie reference in the story are a lot older than that, so its not like it was a 90s movie throwback.

Another good book by Sager and I think the more he has developed as an author his books have gotten better and better. I look forward to reading another book by him.

Enjoy!!!

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