Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

Survive the Night by Riley Sager

4 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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Spoiler below: 
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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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Death, Gaslighting, Blood, Car accident, Chronic illness, Murder, Suicide attempt, Cursing, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Medical content, Cancer, Vomit, and Terminal illness

sib_reads's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

2.5

I want to thank NetGalley, the author, Riley Sager, and Hodder & Stoughton for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was my first Riley Sager thriller. As expected, this was a very fast-paced novel with lots of twists and turns, increasing towards the end of the book especially. It is set over the course of one night and there is a lot to unpack in such a short space of time. I didn’t realise that the book is formatted like a screenplay (maybe because it was an ARC and on kindle) until right near the end, but it is obvious that the author is penning a love letter to movies.

Initially I did not enjoy the ‘movie in my mind’ trope of the main character Charlie. However, I warmed to the idea more as the book went on and it was undeniably gripping to read from the POV of an unreliable narrator. I also enjoyed that this book tied up every loose end uncovered throughout. Every question had an answer by the end of the novel, though maybe there was slight over-explanations at points. 

The ending of this book was full on crazy. There was so much action and drama, and so obviously it is easy to imagine this book as a movie itself. It was a very far-fetched concept but it surprised me how hooked I was.

In my opinion, you really can tell that this book was written by a man. The main character Charlie was so unlike any woman that exists in real life. She had no common sense and made some infuriating decisions the entire way through the book.

Even though this book did not blow me away (and even irritated me at points) I still could not put it down and read it all in one sitting. That is why I have gone with a mid-tier 2.5 star rating.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death and Mental illness

Minor: Death of parent, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Torture, Chronic illness, Confinement, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Abandonment, Alcohol, Cancer, and Car accident

abbeyhuffine94's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

Liked but didn’t LOVE this one. It was entertaining and creepy but disappointingly predictable. I think the predictability came from such a limited number of characters. I think Lock Every Door and Final Girls are much, much stronger novels from Sager.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Car accident, Gaslighting, Grief, Mental illness, and Murder

Minor: Chronic illness, Death of parent, and Suicide attempt

writtenbydnicole's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Car accident, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Murder, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Alcohol, Cursing, Emotional abuse, and Medical content

Minor: Cancer, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts