Survive the Night by Riley Sager

​     I’m definitely a fan of Sager, I’ve read most of his books thus far and find them mostly to be definitely of a superior quality to the majority of the jetsam and flotsam overwhelming the ever popular thriller market. Uneven, but still well primarily worth it.
     This book is different, though. Still good, but different. It’s different from his other books and it’s different from the other thrillers, the latter is especially appreciated. I mean, there isn’t a married/cheating couple in here, which is refreshing enough in and of itself. No, this is a long car ride journey into the night that the author seems to have done in a style of his beloved movies, and sure enough it’s cinematic.  
    Also, the suspense is taught, the unreliable narrator is cinematically unreliable (literally, the girl has movies playing in her mind when the reality gets to be too much) and the plot twists are a doozy.
    And also, it’s somewhat over the top, stretched out in way that suggests it’s been purchased by page count not word count and the very final wow of a twist is lamentably predictable. That’s probably the main detractor here.
     So this cautionary tale of trusting (or mistrusting) strangers is something of a mixed bag, but it is fun. It goes by almost as quickly as its timeline and was easily read in one sitting.
    This isn’t the best of thrillers or even the best of Sager, but it’s good enough and plenty entertaining. Ride along if you’re so inclined, see if you survive.