Book Review: Survive the Night by Riley Sager

 

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Content Warning: death, murder, violence, misogyny, cancer, gaslighting, disassociation.

It's 1991, and Charlie Jordan is trying to get back home to Ohio. She meets her driver, Josh Baxter, at the campus ride board; she's so desperate to leave that she decides it's worth the risk of driving with a complete stranger. It might have something to do with the guilt Charlie's suffering through, too: her best friend and roommate, Maddy, is the most recent victim of the so-called Campus Killer, and Charlie blames herself for Maddy's murder. Trapped in a car with a man she doesn't know, she begins to find holes in Josh's too-convenient story, and starts to wonder if he might, in fact, be the serial killer who has been hunting down helpless women. But is the Josh that Charlie is experiencing the real one, or simply a product of her paranoia and grief?

I'm a big Riley Sager fan (I've read every novel he's put out), and I was very excited by the premise and setting of Survive the Night. I love anything set in the '90s, and I thought that would be a wonderful way to create some tension, with no cell phones and being caught in a car with no way to escape. Aside from that gimmick, though, this unfortunately ended up falling a bit short for me.

It's a bit hard to explain: I read this book in basically a day, and in spite of its rather wacky and over-the-top plot, I couldn't bring myself to put it down. That's why I ended up giving it three stars; it seems a bit unfair to rate something any lower than that when you couldn't help but devour it within a few sittings. The writing is classic Sager, concise and easy to read, which probably helps to balance out the absolutely insane ride (literally and figuratively) that unfolds here.

The characters felt too flat for me to truly care about them, but I did like Charlie, particularly in the first half. My main problem with this book, though, is something that I have noticed in Sager's other novels, but not quite so blatantly -- the fact that his protagonists, inevitably all women, come across as being careless, and sometimes downright stupid. The choices that Charlie make throughout the course of her journey are beyond unbelievable. She is a woman, inherently aware of the dangers and violence that this brings to her through no fault of her own. 

It isn't simply that she decides to get in a car with a weird man she doesn't know (which already forces you to suspend your disbelief), but the way he portrays Charlie and her decisions feel very, very close to being misogynistic. Women are not this dumb. Maybe a man might be, unused to the fear being a woman entails, but I couldn't buy a woman making these choices. I suppose the excuse is because it's her way of punishing herself, which does happen, but in this case, it simply felt insulting.

I think I could've enjoyed the rest of the plot, even with the extremely predictable ending, but the characterization was lacking. My feelings on this book are so complicated, though, because on the other hand, I think it was fun in a really out-there kind of way. If you're looking for a slightly cheesy thriller that's easy to read, I'd recommend it, but if you've read the rest of Sager's books, this one is certainly not the best out there.