Reviews with content warning for Fire/Fire injury - Survive the Night

Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

Survive the Night by Riley Sager

81 reviews

cady_sass's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Riley Sager has a knack for writing a novel that you think is mediocre for the first half and then changing your mind in the last act. This book is widely accepted to be the “worst” of his thrillers but I was pleasantly surprised! I understand that people take issue with the protagonist being dumb and making horrible decisions, but I think the issue is more that people don’t enjoy an unreliable narrator who’s also self aware. She’s making decisions based on the fact that she doesn’t believe her own mind, and thats where things get dicey. Of course she’s going to do things that seem dumb to you, when, as the reader, you slowly grow to have more information than the protagonist (but… not really). It seems frustratingly obvious what she should be doing, but, as with much of Sager’s work, nothing is what it seems. My biggest critique is a massive spoiler, so read below at your own risk.
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My main issue here (aside from the fact that we have yet another iteration of boyfriend/love interest is the villain) is that there are only 4 characters in this book, if you leave out Maddy and the cop. So, by the end, there’s realistically only two ways you can swing the plot: boyfriend is the serial killer, or the serial killer is unknown. Once you get to a certain point it becomes clear we aren’t going with an ambiguous ending, and therefore it can’t possibly be a surprise anymore who the killer is because the boyfriend is the ONLY option. So is it even a twist? There’s no other character in the book!!! Maybe the final twist with Robbie did it for some people, but for me I would’ve preferred a not-so-tidy ending. Using the boyfriend as the villain is just sooooooo…. Boring? Unoriginal? Obvious? Some combination of all of that.
That said, what he did here with the OTHER 3 characters was nothing short of masterful.

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abbiestowe's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

Content Warnings

blouviere4's review against another edition

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mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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lifeofchrstnlvly's review

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mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I know this is the least loved Riley Sager book. As much as I hate to say it (because people don't like it), everything made perfect sense in the end.

Charlie decided to dropout of college. She decided to ride with a stranger, Josh, alone - a 6-hour car ride so she can go home. She wanted to escape because she cannot move on from what happened 2 months ago: her best friend, Maddy, was murdered by The Campus Killer, who was still at large.

I was curious about some elements of the book which are not normally included. One sample would be at the start of every chapter, you have a sense of knowing where the location was (ex: INT. DINER-NIGHT). Also, things are being explained too much. While I do understand that authors do this to make us "see" the book, this was different. IT ALL MADE SENSE.

Did I like the ending? Honestly, yes. There's a reason why this book was written this way. It was actually unique. While most of the time I was frustrated with Charlie, there was a reason. After all, Sager said this book was a love letter. Did I enjoy it? Yes. I've been meaning to read Sager's books because I've heard great things. I know Survive The Night was not his best work, so I decided to read it first. At least I know I'm not expecting anything. I loved the writing. I liked the story. At the same time, I understand why people say this was a miss.

If you like watching horror movies with dumb MCs (you know them: going to the attic/basement instead of phoning the police or running outside), then this one is for you.

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