A review by carlaah1984
Survive the Night by Riley Sager

dark mysterious tense fast-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

4.25

First book I've listened to in a while where I started a document just to keep my notes for a review. I'm not sure what it says about me that I keep picking up books where a central theme is
a college roommate has been murdered
especially since I started a career in high education this fall. It's also that all of these
slain roommates have been enigmatic, larger than life, and beloved by their roommates In my Dreams I'm holding a knife and the Maidens.
I was young in the early 1990's so it was fun to have this book set in this time period, and then me questioning some of the things if that was around then, like *69 wasn't really used in PA until 1996, also there is a quote that is Madeline Albright but she wasn't Security of State until 1993. However, the setting of 1991 allows for a modern audience to remember or to learn what the world was like without cellphones or WIFI, fear is heighted without those. The use of "come as you are" though the book was rather great, I listened to in and it's gave such the right creepy vibe for the scence it's used it, and led to questions about the line "I don't have a gun" and how that would play out. To that point there are moments where it's odd to have a man writing about women's safety that felt a bit odd to me- it was someone who had been told about the experience but not lived it as much. I enjoyed Charlie's passion and references to films, it made it so visual for me as I could picture the movies in her mind or the movies she was referencing, also the backstory of her name was great.
I was surprised the murders didn't have a SA element, not that all campus crimes have to have that, but I wasn't sure if it was an element that just wasn't being mentioned to not be overly traumatic, once Robbie is relived as the campus killer which was both a great final twist and oddly disappointed that it was able to be tied up with the crimes being solved. With the mentioned of Take back the night and rape whistles I was surprised SA wasn't part of it until Robbie explains why he killed each of them. Additionally, I was disappointed in Maddie's mother for blaming Charlie so much, but that was really amped up by Maude. It was a GREAT twist that she was behind all of it, and the shift how her character was seen.
It was a great story, the way it plays with the what is and isn't happening, with the twist, the way the tension building. I was surprised and impressed by it which hasn't happened in a thriller in a while. 
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