The Drift: The spine-chilling new novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Burning Girls

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It's a bit of a passion project, if you will, a little outside of her normal lane. I would never want to poo-poo on anyone's creativity, so it hurts that this one didn't hit with me more. I chose this book for its mystery/thriller potential and hadn't realized it was so heavy on the horror/apocalypse side of things. I'm a wimp with horror and apocalypse stories so the blood, guts, and gore was hard for me to take in this story. Tudor does a great job of bringing out the wimp in me, which isn't very far under the surface. What I enjoyed about this story is the mystery. There are three small groups of people with each group finding themselves in dangerous and almost impossible to escape circumstances. Death is an escape so there is always that option. Everyone here has secrets that are eventually revealed, and there are surprises in store that I didn’t see coming. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time and I flew through the majority of the book in one day. I enjoyed all three storylines and appreciated how they came together in the well-executed ending, which offered a glimmer of hope for the future. The reason this hurts so much is because I've read A Sliver of Darkness, which was a fantastic collection BTW, where in the Author's Note, Tudor discusses this most recent release and what it meant to her.

C. J. Tudor - Wikipedia C. J. Tudor - Wikipedia

I started off actually despising the story, but somewhere along the way I realized that I was hooked. While this story mimics some of what we have all gone through, it is the author's way of showing us that no one is infallible, that we often are a kill or be killed species, and that perhaps we have lost our way in fear and grab onto hope even if it is a false one. Her books have the ability to simultaneously make you unable to stop reading while wishing you could bury the book somewhere deep underground where it can't be found. Compelling and haunting' Sunday Express It has been a decade since a pandemic swept the world and this story follows three people trying to survive in the most inhospitable circumstances.Hannah awakens to carnage, all mangled metal and shattered glass. During a hasty escape from a secluded boarding school, her coach careened over a hillside road during one of the year's heaviest snowstorms, trapping her inside with a handful of survivors, a brewing virus, and no way to call for help. If she and the remaining few want to make it out alive, with their sanity--and secrets--intact, they'll need to work together or they'll be buried alive with the rest of the dead.

The Drift by CJ Tudor | Crime Fiction Lover The Drift by CJ Tudor | Crime Fiction Lover

In the end though, the trip through this bleak existence left me feeling like I wanted some answers, which often happens when I read Tudor's work. I'm always left wanting to know more and I know I won't get my questions answered. This is not a feel good story, if you haven't already guessed by now. Hannah awakens to carnage, all mangled metal and shattered glass. After she was evacuated from a secluded boarding school during a snowstorm, her coach careered off the road, trapping her with a handful of survivors. They’ll need to work together to escape—with their sanity and secrets intact. Still this book was extremely hard to put down and I zipped through it in a mere couple sittings. If you’re a fan of C. J. Tudor and are looking for a read on a cold snowy night, I highly recommend this one. All three groups have been facing life and death with a horrible virus that has changed life as they used to know it. The virus is on everyone's mind all the time and surviving it might be some people's worst nightmare depending on how a person is left to "survive". Maybe facing death and getting it over with is better than facing what horrors life has to offer. There are A LOT of characters to keep straight and I struggled with that. In addition, I found the two main women, HANNAH and MEG, to be interchangeable with little to distinguish one from the other.Interestingly, the people in the coach and the people in the gondola were all trying to get to The Retreat. It's unclear exactly what this Retreat is, but it's definitely viewed as a safe haven against a dangerous world. The Drift promises much as three separate groups of people are cut off from the world, trapped respectively in a cable car, a cabin and an overturned coach. In one location there’s a killer lurking among the survivors. But that’s only the half of it. This is a post-apocalyptic thriller, tinged with terror. The survivors have a strange virus and a blizzard to contend with. I prefer strong female characters, and I especially appreciated that the author made her two female heroines whip-smart, determined, and accomplished. The author’s sly humor is also on display, bringing much needed relief from the tension. Well Tudor does it again. It is super unique and original, as all of them have been! I must confess I did not read the blurb before requesting this. Any novel written by this author is just a no brainer to request. I'm glad I did not dig into it further before reading because this would not be my typical read but so glad I did read it.