2024 the best horror novels review

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THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

One of New York Times Book Review's "summer reads guaranteed to make your heart thump and your skin crawl"; An Amazon Best of the Month Pick; Named a must-read summer book by The Washington Post, USA Today, Vulture, BuzzFeed, Forbes, Entertainment Weekly, CNN, New York Post, Good Housekeeping, E!, PopSugar, CrimeReads, Thrillist, and BookRiot. 

It’s November 1991. Nirvana's in the tape deck, George H. W. Bush is in the White House, and movie-obsessed college student Charlie Jordan is in a car with a man who might be a serial killer.

Josh Baxter, the man behind the wheel, is a virtual stranger to Charlie. They met at the campus ride board, each looking to share the long drive home to Ohio. Both have good reasons for wanting to get away. For Charlie, it’s guilt and grief over the shocking murder of her best friend, who became the third victim of the man known as the Campus Killer. For Josh, it’s to help care for his sick father—or so he says.
 
The longer she sits in the passenger seat, the more Charlie notices there’s something suspicious about Josh, from the holes in his story about his father to how he doesn’t want her to see inside the trunk. As they travel an empty, twisty highway in the dead of night, an increasingly anxious Charlie begins to think she’s sharing a car with the Campus Killer. Is Josh truly dangerous? Or is Charlie’s jittery mistrust merely a figment of her movie-fueled imagination?
 
One thing is certain—Charlie has nowhere to run and no way to call for help. Trapped in a terrifying game of cat and mouse played out on pitch-black roads and in neon-lit parking lots, Charlie knows the only way to win is to survive the night.

From the Publisher

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08KZFNKXD
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Dutton (June 29, 2021)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 29, 2021
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 3864 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 337 pages
Reviewer: Amazon Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: so good!
Review: Loved the twists and turns in this one! Kept me wanting to read and caught my mouth open more than once!

Reviewer: Frank
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great start, so so ending.
Review: This was my third book by Sager so by now I knew what to expect. Great story, great scenery, good characters, twists galore and so so endings. I want to say that I did enjoy this book for the most part. I was about 90 percent of the way through before I got disappointed.The story is that a movie obsessed college student, named Charlie, is leaving her college due to a string of murders that have occurred. She takes a ride home from a stranger. Over the course of the ride she becomes more and more suspicious of the drivers true nature.As I said in the beginning, Sager knows how to set a scene. So many times while reading it felt like I was actually there. Like every Sager novel, there are twists. A few that I could spot from the beginning and a few that surprised me. Overall it’s a solid 4/5. Maybe not as strong as “the last one left”, but still good. The reveal of the killer seemed a little too convenient but overall I enjoyed the book.

Reviewer: Susan M. Baumann
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Convoluted
Review: The hype for this book drew me in. Anticipated a fast-paced thriller with deserved homage to classic suspense movies as a conversational backdrop. A college student’s long journey on a dark highway with an enigmatic stranger. This is yet another novel where what began as an intriguing premise, just didn’t deliver. Charlie is a young woman whose life has been rocked by the deaths of her parents and her best friend, Maddy. Each of the deaths was jarring and unexpected, but tragically, Maddy was murdered by a serial killer. To cope, Charlie seeks out the comfort of old movies. These then morph into virtual film reels in her mind, whenever she encounters sadness, fear or stressful situations. Frustrated and aimless, Charlie decides to return home, and accepts a ride from Josh, from the campus ride-share board.Right here, the story veers off and becomes increasingly convoluted. Charlie is immediately wary of Josh, yet she still gets in his car. What woman would actually do that, knowing the lengthy drive ahead without much access to help or assistance? She abandons her intuition entirely. As the drive stretches on, Charlie’s apprehension intensifies, but she passes up numerous chances to get away. Again, why? The story only becomes more strange, and then silly.I have liked Sager’s other books, but this one was a bit absurd. Also, Charlie was supposed to be a strong character, but she often doubted herself and her own mind. Not a good combo for getting into a vehicle with a man that one doesn’t know. Additionally, Maddy’s over-the-top character was stereotypical, narcissistic and difficult to care about. This was a convoluted, implausible tale that had tremendous potential.

Reviewer: K. Apgar
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: This book flew!
Review: Charlie loves movies. She loves them so much that they can invade her real life in the form of visions that embellish the reality surrounding her. But to everyone else, it looks like she's spacing out. But that's her escape from reality. A reality that includes the death of her parents in a car accident a few years earlier and the murder of her college roommate and best friend a mere month prior to the start of this book. Just when she thought she might be able to navigate thus new normal, she realizes she can't and decides to leave school and go home to Ohio. But to do that, she needs a ride since she gave up driving after her parents' accident. While posting to a ride board on her campus, she meets Josh, a good-looking guy she's never seen before who just so happens to be going the same direction. But who is Josh and, in light if all that has happened and that her roommate's killer is still at large, should Charlie trust him.I prepress several reviews of this book to get an idea what the book might be like. No spoilers, just about style and whatnot. I do agree with those who call Charlie an unreliable narrator. Given her visions, she is and I think that lends a lot of suspense to the story. We are also being gaslighted almost every step of the way through this book, but I liked it. It was a great read that flew by for me in under a week (a recent record for me for a novel) and I'm definitely going to check out more of Sager's books.

Reviewer: Suzanne
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: What a read and what an ending! This book kept me invested from chapter one. Following the story of Charlie who accepts a ride from a stranger, Josh, to leave university and return home to Ohio. Only Josh isn't who he seems and Charlie has to literally survive the night! This is my favourite Riley Sager to date! Suspense, mystery! Great read!

Reviewer: Cliente Amazon
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: What a ride. It kept on the edge of my seat the entire reading. I kept guessing who was the killer, although I found out before the end, this is one of my favorite from Riley. One of my favorite parts about this book was the mentions of the movies and its dialogues as well as the actors. I really felt like I was in 1991, even though I was born in 1997. Anyway, this is a book for fans of film noir.

Reviewer: Arsh Atwal
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: This neon title book cover attracted me to buy this. I am super excited to read this thriller. Riley Sager's writing style is phenomenal. Book received in perfect condition.

Reviewer: TRACY
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Product was as described. In perfect condition and on time. Excellent

Reviewer: Tayla Muller
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: This was a pretty good book, it was more psychological than anything else. What was nice was that the writer made you feel like you knew what was happening and what was coming but then the plot twist destroyed all of that.