Into Her Story: Survive the Night by Riley Sager

This week on FMCx2, we're talking all things Survive the Night by Riley Sager.

 From favorite moments and predictions to unhinged reactions, we're unpacking the story in our own honest(and slightly chaotic) way. Whether you've read it or are just here to listen along, you're welcome here. 

 As always, we start spoiler-free with a brief discussion and our personal ratings. We will then give a clear spoiler warning before diving deeper, in case you want to pause and read the book first. 

Follow us on Instagram @fmcx2podcast for updates and behind-the-scenes content. New episodes every two weeks. 

All opinions are our own and we are not affiliated or sponsored by any authors, publishers, or brands.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hey, I'm Nat. And I'm Samantha. Welcome to our first episode. Here we're gonna be talking about books, but not just any books.

SPEAKER_01 0:09

We're gonna talk about books where the main character is female, and we are gonna allow like dual sides from it, but for the most part, we do want to make sure that the female is a lead. Um, that's gonna be our main priority focus.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

Absolutely. And so when you guys come here, we are going to start off each podcast by just telling you the book we chose, a little bit about it, and what our first impressions are, and then we'll give you guys a chance to pause in case.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

In case you don't want to hear the tea being spilled.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Exactly. And if you want to come back and then, you know, spill a little bit of tea with us, all is welcome here. Definitely. So, without further ado, let's talk about what book we're gonna do today.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

So, we're gonna be reading Survive the Night. It's by Riley Sager. Um, personally, not an author that I have heard of. So I was intrigued. I found it off of Pinterest. Uh, actually, same.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

I'm pretty sure I screenshot off Pinterest and sent it to you. Definitely. That's definitely where I also saw it. So shout out to Pinterest for showing. Yes, yeah, Pinterest came in with this one. Yeah. So um uh what first off, I just want to say I actually love this book. I typically don't do thrillers because honestly, the anxiety is real. I feel that. Yeah, and um, but this one I will say crushed it.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

Yeah, definitely. I I thought I was in the book for some reason. I was staying up late at night reading this book.

SPEAKER_00 1:36

Same girl, but I was like, I gotta get out this damn car. Yeah. Okay, so this book, I just finished it yesterday. You finished it a few days before me. Yeah, I finished it a few days before you. I've been dying to talk to you.

SPEAKER_01 1:52

Yeah, it took like the absolute soul out of my body to not like just fully discuss the whole book with you beforehand.

SPEAKER_00 1:59

Yeah, I know. It was really hard not to, but then I'm like, but then it's gonna it's not gonna be fair. Yeah, this yeah, it's we didn't want to give you guys any stale content. Exactly. So we both had theories at the beginning of this. I feel like it's fun to talk about what our theories were. Right. But before we do that, Nat, why don't you read a little bit about what this book's about? So for those of you that haven't read it, she's gonna read the back of the book, just give you a little taste. So if you have not read it, you can decide if you want to. Alright.

SPEAKER_01 2:30

Starting off, it's in big rent font, by the way. It's November 1991. Nirvana's in a tape deck, J.R. H.W. Bush is in the White House, and movie obsessed college student Charlie Jordan is in a car with the man who might be a serial killer. Josh Baxter, the man behind the wheel, is a virtual stringer to Charlie. They met at the campus bride board, each looking to share the long drive home to Ohio. They both have good reasons for wanting to get away. For Charlie, it's guilt and grief over the shock and 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 to see her 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 fuel 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 a pitch black road and in neon-lit parking lots. Charlie knows the only way to win is to survive the night.

SPEAKER_00 3:45

Now let me just say I am notoriously a destroyer of the ends of movies. I destroy it for myself, I destroy it for people around me. I'm so sorry to my husband and everybody. I'm so sorry. It's a sickness, literally. But that being said, this time I did not want to spoil it. Just in case I was right. I didn't want to say anything, and I knew Nat had a theory. So what we did was we had these theories. I emailed mine to myself, like a serial killer. Yeah. You just wrote yours down, I'm pretty sure. So that being said, I was wrong in my theory. Were you wrong?

SPEAKER_01 4:21

I was also wrong, and ideally, we both found out that we thought the same exact thing.

SPEAKER_00 4:27

Honestly, so it did kind of feel validating to know that we were also onto a red herring. Right. But I'm usually very good at it. Are you usually really good at it? Yeah, so I think this was this was a dupe. Yeah, this was a dupe. They got me. And there were many twists in this, which I I actually like because it did me on my toes. Yes, it did. Yeah, honestly, it was so good. Okay, so here is the point where we are gonna give you guys the chance. If you have not read the book, you've heard a little bit. But right now, if you guys don't want to have some tea being spilled, you don't want the tea spilled, then pause here, read that book, and come back. And come back to us. Come back and see us, come be with the discussion. And make sure the conversation tea is piping hot. Okay, scalding is hot. This was a great book. Personally, I would say I give this book a 4.5 out of five.

SPEAKER_01 5:24

Okay. I can I can personally say a four out of five.

SPEAKER_00 5:28

Yes, yes. Okay, my critique of this book, I will say, is now first off, I want to say in the future, I will be trying to listen to the audible or audiobook versions of these. I just prefer that. They keep me company while I do chores. So if I don't think it's something I'm gonna want to listen to based off of the sample I listened to, I'm gonna be honest with you guys. This one just hit me as a little bit monotone. So I did not want this book to be destroyed by listening to the audiobook. So I actually did read the hardcover this time. That being said, my critique was if you decide to read the hardcover, this book did not have chapters. There is a certain movie element to it that they actually decided to list each chapter in a very cool creative way, I thought, but it was almost as if you were reading a script. So for instance, like instead of you know, chapter three, four, five, it would say interior, diner, night. The only hard part was I wanted to say, hey, Nat, chapter six is Buck Wild or something like that, and I couldn't. That is very true. And some of them are repeats. Yeah, exactly. Some of them are repeats.

SPEAKER_01 6:39

And you know, one thing I wanted to kind of notate with them not doing chapters, um, there are times where you kind of have to make an assumption off of context about where the perspective was. The perspective, yeah. Sometimes it wasn't always clear into maybe like the second paragraph whose like perspective we were reading it from, especially like towards the end of the book, it just started getting chaotic and everyone just kind of like started swapping perspectives, and there was so many different sides of everyone's story that it was kind of complex in some ways. But I mean, if you read books for the most part, you can keep up with for my people that are maybe just starting out and get a little bit comfy. It is a good read and it's an easy read, but you definitely have to kind of like slow down and pay attention.

SPEAKER_00 7:18

Absolutely. There's definitely like a time or two where it took me a hot minute. It does mainly go from I feel like the female Charlie's point of view, but there are a few other like perspective male and female, so it does get a little dicey, especially towards the end, where you're kind of like, okay, who is this? Exactly. But um, I did think it was great. Yeah, again, that was my my only critique really on it, was just that one part, and again, not even every page had print on it because it was done more like a movie script, which super cool, but it would have maybe been nice if it would have said, you know, maybe whose perspective it was from in like italics, and then maybe like scene four, scene five. So it could have kept with the theme of the movie vibe, but like also nodded to chapters, so it was kind of a little bit easier to follow with people. Um, okay, what was your critique of the book?

SPEAKER_01 8:09

Honestly, my critique was kind of the same thing, it's just the fact that there were points in time where I I didn't necessarily know who was who was the acting role. Um, the other thing I want to kind of notate is I just literally did not see the ending coming. And maybe I just post this type of way because I'm like used to pretending. You feel jaded. Yeah, I feel jaded. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I feel like like I they didn't even give me, like, they left no crumbs for me.

SPEAKER_00 8:33

No, literally. Like, and honestly, okay, so now we'll just basically come out and say some of like the book. Let's get into the T. So let's first start with me. Charlie's crazy, right?

SPEAKER_01 8:46

Yeah. She's losing her fucking marble. She's fucking lost her marbles. Not only that, not only that, I just wanna well first let's talk about the fact that what we both like assumed was gonna happen. My assumption and Samantha's assumption as well, after we kind of discussed it, was that the end was gonna revolve around uh I thought it was gonna be like a shuttered island moment or something where it's like she didn't take her meds and she was the murderer. She was like the murderer the whole time. But then honestly, I got to thinking like, well, dang, how does she kill those other girls? But in my mind, yeah, I was thinking like maybe she made that idea up in her head, like the other or maybe she like read about another serial pillar and was like, I'm gonna mimic this.

SPEAKER_00 9:25

Yeah, like the um, what do they call it? Copy cuff serial pillar. Totally for sure, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 9:31

But that ended up very well not being the case. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

Um, but you know, they were leaving a lot, like it was when it was like, oh, she stopped taking her meds in that moment. It's like they wanted you to think that they they they fucked me up.

SPEAKER_01 9:44

Yeah, no, they did. I feel almost manipulated.

SPEAKER_00 9:46

I honestly though, but respect to them for doing it. But honestly, I'm hard to manipulate, so that was impressive. Very impressive, honestly. At first, when this whole thing started, I was like, Charlie is a nut job. She's leaving this clearly perfect man and getting in the car with this stranger after her friend just got murdered. And I'm like, okay, so survival terms. Yeah, clearly, she's white. I don't think it's said in the book, but I know, but we know based off of reading it. She had to be. Yeah, because she was like, Leave me here. I'll get picked up by myself so no one can identify who took my body.

SPEAKER_01 10:28

I literally that was that was another thing. Honestly, the beginning really left you in a state of not not knowing whether you were gonna like Charlie or not. I didn't really like her. Yeah, I didn't really like her. I was like, she's really just a stupid Maddie. Sound cool. Maddie sounded like a vibe. Honestly, though. But Charlie, I was like, uh, do we have to see it from her perspective? Like, she sucks.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

No, honestly. So then she gets in the car with this guy, and then he literally gaslights her for like straight up like at least two hours.

SPEAKER_01 10:59

Okay, and she lets him up gaslights her. I mean, and she even starts believing it. I mean, she thinks she's tripping the whole time. Yeah, she thinks she's tripping the whole time. And I'm like, girl.

SPEAKER_00 11:12

I mean, she wasn't on her meds, so part of me is like, I get it.

SPEAKER_01 11:15

But part of me is like, honestly, there got to a point where I genuinely didn't trust her. I didn't look at the license plate or anything before. Again, yeah, that's why you don't take a picture of the lace. And then, like, him not wanting to like show her the trunk. She was so like conspicuous about that. And I'm like, girl, just ask the man to open the trunk. Like, I just don't understand. But it's also like, I know I'm reading a book, and uh uh.

SPEAKER_00 11:35

Yeah, and also you're not an idiot. So you're like, no, I was gonna be this stupid, but some are, some are. So she gets this is where for me, this is where the book really, I was like, wow, this book has me shook, was the diner. Yeah. So when they get to the diner and she meets sweet little Marge, and I'm like, this lady's gonna save her, and then I get mad at her. Yeah, I thought it was over for her. You stupid whore. You should have it.

SPEAKER_01 12:04

There was literally a police driver there. You could have screamed. And all she was worried about was revenge.

SPEAKER_00 12:10

Literally, girl, go.

SPEAKER_01 12:13

But at the same time, like that wasn't the killer. No, I know. That's that's why. This is where I would have ruined it.

SPEAKER_00 12:18

See, I would have freaked out and it wouldn't have been the killer. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 12:21

Yeah, I would have been embarrassed for sure. I also want to notate, um, I had put this in my notes for like something for us to talk about. You also have to keep in mind that this was like in 1991. I feel like if it was Shout out the Year I Was Born, Holla, also in Number Scorpios for Life in the book. I also want to highlight it's so important that they put it in 1991 because all I could think in my head was there's no fucking way this will ever happen to me. But of course, like I'm not using a fucking payphone. Like 100%.

SPEAKER_00 12:50

Like nowadays, like you can background check people like exactly for like three dollars. It would have never stood a chance. Okay, so biggest shock to out of the book for you, what was it?

SPEAKER_01 13:01

Hmm, I'm not gonna lie, even though this is like the very end of the book, I still couldn't believe her man was it's just like why, Robbie?

SPEAKER_00 13:09

No, I know that was like totally out of left field. But I will say, out of everything, I don't know why. Maybe at this point, I had just been through so many twists and turns. I was just along for the ride, and I was just like, take me where you want. Um But when she got chloroformed at that diner by that waitress, I was shook. Yeah. At first, I'm like, she clearly was having one of her little lapses, and like, you know, yeah, honestly.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

It was crazy, but that's why I also stated like I'm not gonna lie, I thought that Arthur was gonna give us like a double whammy and we get to the end of the book, and the whole time she was just like playing a movie.

SPEAKER_00 13:45

Yeah, it was gonna be like I was off my meds this whole time, I killed this girl. There wasn't even a serial killer, I just ripped her fucking tooth out.

SPEAKER_01 13:52

Exactly. Oh my god. That's what I was really expecting. So that's why I think that shock is so surprising because I'm like, I just knew for a fact it was gonna be her this whole time. Yes. Now, when I found out that Marge had did the whole like chloroform thing, I generally just thought that she was like just Josh's accomplice. Like, I still thought that he was the campus killer at this point because nothing had pointed us to Robbie. Literally, so I was like, well, maybe they just worked together and he knew that she was gonna eventually come back to the diner because that's the closest place to get back to.

SPEAKER_00 14:22

And I think what gets me especially is the only way that it alluded to Robbie even knowing that anything was going on and mobilizing to go for it. It's her calling and giving the the the words. Cause it's it's like that's what has me shook. But also it's like I thought they were driving for longer than what it seemed. And then when it said he got there in an hour, I was like, wait, was that because he was not there? Yeah, he was already on his way.

SPEAKER_01 14:48

Well, see, this is how I think of it. I think another thing with this book is because there's so many movies that plays in Charlie's head, it makes you kind of lose a concept of time. And not trust your instinct. And not trust your instinct because now we don't. I'm having like kind of a delayed instinct because I think, oh, this is just another one of Charlie's movies. Like, this isn't really happening, but really it is happening.

SPEAKER_00 15:08

But the whole thing with the police, the the um trooper driving past, I was like, when she put help and then she blew on it later and saw it, and then was like confirmed that she had been gaslighted. Exactly. I was like, thank god, I was getting so stressed.

SPEAKER_01 15:25

But honestly, again, there were so many times she just had played us so many times. I just never knew with Charlie, like whether or not she was in a movie or she was in a movie. Like, I just didn't know.

SPEAKER_00 15:35

It was smart on the author's part to add the aspect of her having those weird like mental movies because it did leave this source of you're kind of unknown the whole time.

SPEAKER_01 15:47

Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_00 15:48

You know, you don't you don't think that you're looking through like clear eyes. And you know what I think it is?

SPEAKER_01 15:52

It it causes you to have such a level of distrust and get so wrapped up in what's going on with Charlie and Josh that you completely forget about Robbie.

SPEAKER_00 16:00

I 100%. Because I'm like, as far as I'm concerned, she broke up with him. They're over. And then when she called him, I'm like, okay, he's gonna call the cops and then maybe try to get there now, he's off the case.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

Right, exactly. And then he turns out to be a little piece of shit.

SPEAKER_00 16:14

Ugh. And then the reason why, it was just like, ugh. And okay, can we just talk about for a second? How the fuck do you get chloroform? Okay, because honestly, I was like, is she in the CIA? Like, is she like one like a like a Liam Neeson, like retaped? Who is Mark? What was her life before the dining room?

SPEAKER_01 16:32

I was also very confused. Like, do you just order that off of like the black market or something like that? Where do you get chloroformed? And also, like, if you opened it, wouldn't you just chloroform yourself? Or does it have to be in like a not that I need to know these things, but like I kind of do.

SPEAKER_00 16:46

Now, you know, I'm asking these questions because I feel like maybe that would have given me some insight into the book. That's why I'm like, Marge.

SPEAKER_01 16:55

Honestly, she low key, she low-key pissed me off because it was just like She was like, I'm gonna torture my granddaughter's best friend just because I can't find out who the killer is. Like, girl, you're literally dying, chill.

SPEAKER_00 17:07

Like, chill. God, you're gonna see her in like five minutes. Okay, that was dark, but here we are. We're bringing it back.

SPEAKER_01 17:21

Okay, yeah, that might be a lot to recover from. Um but no, yeah, I definitely agree. And then the funniest shit was in like she tried to burn down with the the house and she outlived the fire.

SPEAKER_00 17:33

I was like, girl, you just need to chill. And then shot that one guy and then just fainted. And I'm like, okay, if you're gonna, if you're gonna shoot someone, like see how to do it. She's gonna be gainster about that. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 17:45

And then and then literally threatens Maddie's best friend, and then tries to say, just shoot me. Like she was gonna rip her tongue out.

SPEAKER_00 17:52

The fuck, remember? I was literally like, uh like I was reading that scene and I was like, I may have to skip forward because I was actually getting away. Honestly, I was like, this little old lady with cancer.

SPEAKER_01 18:03

Honestly, I would have really beat her up. Took every little bit of her little strength that was left. Chocolate. Somebody selling chocolate. Like, that's the vibe that I got from her. So I think it's ironic that Charlie let that that old lady. Yes. I I will she did mention that she was relatively strong though.

SPEAKER_00 18:25

She yeah, she did. She did.

SPEAKER_01 18:26

She did.

SPEAKER_00 18:27

I I will say I do really appreciate the pace of this book. Yeah. Some books I can kind of like get distracted, but this one had things going on at least almost all the time.

SPEAKER_01 18:38

Yeah, it was enough to keep me like fully engaged for sure. Definitely. And even if it even if there wasn't anything like actively going on, well, then she was just playing a movie in her head.

SPEAKER_00 18:47

So either way, something was always going on. Absolutely. And you know what? Did you read like the end end end where it was like the fact that she turned her life into a movie? I actually thought that was a nice little twist. I was she I was like, she's obsessed with movies. It's good to know she moved on. I'm glad to know she got with that one guy that seemed obviously hot, even though he was a presumed serial killer. I still was like, he's hot, right? Yeah. Like in my head.

SPEAKER_01 19:13

Yeah. Honestly, there's a piece of me that wished that dang, what was his real name? Was it Joss or Jake?

SPEAKER_00 19:19

His real name was Jake.

SPEAKER_01 19:21

Okay. There's a piece of me that still hopes in a way, and maybe this is just me being like hopeless romantic. But I kind of hope they still like stay in contact.

SPEAKER_00 19:29

No, they're together. They're together?

SPEAKER_01 19:31

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 19:32

Oh, yeah, they have a they because she said she got in the hair pat her car and got in the passenger seat, and that he was married. Yeah, it was such a little quick blurb in there.

SPEAKER_01 19:43

And it was in bold and italic.

SPEAKER_00 19:45

So I probably really didn't think it was very much at the end, but it was a good little tidbit. I like that. I did like that. That was a good turnaround. Make sure you read that little section afterwards, because yeah, that was a nice little like tie-in, like a little for those of you that like a happy ever after. Yeah, it's like I appreciate yes, that was great. That was great. Um, R. I P Marge, I'm sure she probably died at the end of the book. It didn't seem like that. Definitely.

SPEAKER_01 20:08

I don't know. She seems so miserable that it's almost like someone would like keep her here on purpose.

SPEAKER_00 20:12

Oh no, wait. I lied. I'm remembering now. I think it did say that she like climbed into the pool and shot herself in the head, right? Or did she try to? Hang on. We're gonna pause real quick. One second. This just in. Um, yeah, Marge definitely died. Yeah, I definitely forgot about again. That's why. Because her hallucination slash it was a movie whole thing. Because there's movies in her head plus the movie that she makes at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_01 20:48

And maybe twice. Yeah. Maybe twice. Yeah, because clearly we don't remember.

SPEAKER_00 20:55

It was action-packed, apparently. There was a lot.

SPEAKER_01 20:57

It was a lot, it was a lot to digest, honestly. I can only remember like the the the basic part. Can we talk about how she straight like finesse Robbie in the in the water with the handcuffs? The handcuffs?

SPEAKER_00 21:07

I literally was like, if she dies now, it would the whole book will be for nothing. I mean, don't get me wrong, I get it. Not everything in life has a happy ending again, not my forte. I kind of prefer a happy ending. Like I can get down with it. But you know, this book was really that part was a good tidbit. Like I'd forgotten about the handcuffs.

SPEAKER_01 21:25

Yeah, totally forgotten. That's why I say, like, this book just has so much going on that you can't even keep up with. That's why it's so unpredictable. Yes. You can't keep up with anything that that has actually transpired.

SPEAKER_00 21:37

And honestly, I would probably at a different point read more from this author.

SPEAKER_01 21:42

Yeah, I could definitely agree. If if the books from them are as spicy as this one was, I'm I'm definitely down.

SPEAKER_00 21:48

Yes, and again, like the pace of it really kept me super engaged. Yeah. So next week's book is going to be We are gonna be missing Still Missing by Chevy Stevens. So if you guys want to. to go ahead and pre-read the book. That way you can listen to the whole episode next week. If not, you can always listen to the beginning, decide if it's worth it, pause and come back. And come back to us. But either way, we will be back and we'll have a new book to talk about with you guys. Bye. Bye.