whitneydaniell

Summary

It’s been two months since Charlie’s best friend and college roommate, Maddy, was murdered. Charlie can’t bear the guilt of waking up in their dorm room morning after morning, knowing Maddy is no longer there. Deep down, Charlie believes it’s all her fault.

It’s just a few days until Thanksgiving break, and Charlie has packed up her things and is ready to leave Olyphant University for good. The only problem? She doesn’t drive and needs to find a ride home to Youngstown, Ohio. It’s 1991, and on college campuses, a ride-share board is just as good as modern-day Uber—or is it?

At the ride board, Charlie meets Josh—maybe a grad student—who’s headed to Akron and offers to drop her at her grandmother’s in Youngstown. Easy peasy. He offers to pick her up later that night, and then they’re off.

The ride from New Jersey to Ohio is roughly six hours—more than enough time for Charlie and Josh to get to know each other. Charlie shares her love of movies and how she and her grandmother would watch picture after picture together. That love of movies has changed Charlie’s life—for both good and bad. After the car accident that killed her parents, Charlie often slips into dream-like, movie-style hallucinations. When she snaps out of these episodes, the scenes feel just as vivid as real memories—but sometimes, it’s hard for her to tell the difference.

As the drive stretches into the night and they swap stories, Charlie starts to feel uneasy. Josh isn’t who he says he is. Before Maddy’s death, two other women around Olyphant’s campus were found murdered by someone the cops dubbed the Campus Killer. After just a few hours in the car, Charlie wonders if her luck has run out.

Having left her boyfriend Robbie back on campus—and being that it’s 1991—Charlie needs to find a payphone to let him know where she is. She’s stuck, a sitting duck in the car, until she can come up with a plan that will keep her alive before Josh suspects she knows exactly who he is. Charlie has to be plucky and sharp as the night wears on and they drive deeper into the vast mountain range that spans central Pennsylvania. Miles and miles of road lie ahead—does Charlie have what it takes to survive with a serial killer on the loose?

Character Summary

Charlie Jordan is a junior at Olyphant University, a small liberal arts college in New Jersey with a solid film department. After graduation, her plan was to become a professor and teach film studies. But those dreams were dashed when her roommate and best friend was murdered after leaving a bar. Now, Charlie wants nothing more than to put New Jersey in her rearview and get home to her Nana Norma.

After her parents died in a car accident, Nana Norma became Charlie’s primary guardian. Along with the trauma of losing them, Charlie also stopped driving—not wanting to risk being the cause of someone else’s pain.

When Madeline Forrester walked into their dorm room freshman year, she was a force—blowing Charlie away with her style and commanding personality. They hit it off immediately: opposites attract. When Maddy wanted to go to a bar to see a second-rate Cure cover band, Charlie would’ve rather stayed in and watched movies. But at Maddy’s insistence, Charlie gave in. When Charlie wanted to leave and Maddy didn’t, they split up for the first time since freshman year. And on that one night—when Charlie left her to walk back alone—Maddy was gone.

My Thoughts

I liked this one! I was actually surprised by the ending—I didn’t see the final act coming at all. I did have a hunch there would be a slight twist, just based on context alone.

Charlie was annoying for about 80% of the book, especially during her inner monologues about her relationship with Maddy. She revered Maddy, for some reason, put her on a pedestal, and worshipped the ground she walked on—it was quite concerning. Then, after Maddy’s death, she took the guilt really hard, and Maddy’s family didn’t make it any easier. I would’ve cussed her mama smooth TF out. Charlie was no more guilty for Maddy’s death than the cops investigating the Campus Killer. But I had to keep reminding myself: this is 1991, and people were just… more trusting.

Way too trusting, if you ask me. Never in my life would I put my name and number on a board for strangers to call me about a ride! Were there no Amtraks nearby? Greyhound? I would never have gotten into a car with a stranger for a SIX-HOUR trip across God’s country. But Charlie did. And even when she was unsure about Josh, she kept pumping herself up to continue the journey and be some kind of hero. No ma’am. It’s self-preservation over everything.

Speaking of Josh—I pegged that something was off. I didn’t have it all figured out, but it felt suspicious, and I didn’t buy his story.

There’s nothing to write home about when it comes to the writing itself. This is my final Sager book, and as I’ve said before, his writing is clear, direct, and doesn’t beat around the bush. The book includes some vivid descriptions of central Pennsylvania—I know the area well from a drive I once took from Philadelphia to Altoona. The chapters are concise and keep you wanting more. The narration wasn’t all over the place, even though there are chapters from Josh’s perspective, then Robbie’s, then Marge the waitress. Even though it’s not explicitly labeled, it’s not confusing when it switches. The timeline is straightforward, the pacing consistent and fast.

I usually gripe about Sager’s endings, but this time, I kind of figured it would go the way it did, so no shock there. I did appreciate that everything gets wrapped up neatly. Sometimes, Sager’s books just… end.

Final Verdict

If I were going to read Sager’s books all over again, I’d start with Survive the Night instead of ending with it. I liked it.

Sager Tracker

title	pub date	read date	⭐
Final Girls	July 11, 2017	May 10 – 13, 2025	⭐⭐
The Last Time I Lied	July 3, 2018	July 4 – 5, 2025	⭐⭐⭐
Lock Every Door	July 2, 2019	Aug 8 – 13, 2023	⭐⭐
Home Before Dark	June 30, 2020	July 3, 2025	⭐⭐⭐
Survive the Night	June 29, 2021	Aug 7 – 8, 2025	⭐⭐⭐⭐
The House Across the Lake	June 21, 2022	Jul 12 – 18, 2023	⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Only One Left	June 20, 2023	Jan 15 – 17, 2024	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Middle of the Night	June 18, 2024	Mar 26 – 28, 2025	⭐⭐⭐
With a Vengeance	June 10, 2025	Jun 22 – 24, 2025	⭐⭐⭐⭐