THE DRIFT by C.J. Tudor – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The Drift by C.J. Tudor
Published by Ballantine Books on January 31 2023
Genres: Adult, Dystopian, Horror, Thriller
Pages: 352
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: C.J. Tudor’s latest is an action-packed dystopian thriller that rubs elbows with the horror genre. Tense, scary and atmospheric, this was a fun one!

To call this story “crazy” would be an understatement, but perhaps if you’ve read C.J. Tudor’s books before, you’ll know what I mean. This was my first book by the author, and despite a few issues, I had a hell of a time! Readers who aren’t afraid of graphic violence, characters getting killed off right and left, zombie horror and epic twists will probably have just as good a time as I did.

The story takes place in the aftermath of a terrible viral pandemic. Society has broken down and those who have managed to stay healthy live in fear of becoming infected. Most victims die, but some survive, although their lives are never the same again. The story takes place during a fierce winter snowstorm and alternates among three different groups of people who are all in dire straights and struggling to survive.

First there is Hannah, who is on a bus with other students, when the bus crashes into a snowdrift, trapping the survivors inside with no cell phones, food or water. The bus was headed to a safehouse called the Retreat, where those who don’t test positive for the virus can safely quarantine. 

Next, Meg wakes up in a cable car, suspended high above a snow covered landscape. She doesn’t remember how she got there, and she’s stuck with a bunch of strangers. Even worse, there’s a dead body on the car, and the cable car has stalled, leaving them all stranded with no way to get out.

Finally, Carter works at the Retreat, a secluded mountain research facility funded by a man named Professor Grant, a brilliant virologist who established the Retreat in order to find a cure for the virus. But things at the Retreat are breaking down. The generator is failing, and the electric fences that keep out the Whistlers have gone down. Even worse, Carter finds one of his coworkers, a girl named Julia, dead at the bottom of the Retreat’s swimming pool.

All three groups of characters are connected in surprising ways, and as events begin to spiral out of control, their storylines begin to converge. 

That’s about all I’ll say regarding the plot, as half the fun of The Drift is to experience the craziness for yourself. Tudor sets her story during a winter snowstorm, and this make the stakes even higher, because there is the real threat of freezing to death, especially for Hannah and Meg who are both stuck in their respective conveyances with very few resources. Add in all sorts of dangers, and you have the perfect recipe for a fast-paced thriller. What kind of dangers, you ask? Well, first we have the Whistlers, those infected by the virus who haven’t died and who lurk in the nearby woods. With their pale skin and emaciated appearance, Whistlers are violent and terrifying. Then there is the Department, the shady government agency that’s trying to kill anyone who becomes sick. There’s a character named Jimmy Quinn who has a deal going with Carter, and although he’s the ultimate caricature of a mob boss, I was so worried for Carter and his coworkers whenever Quinn popped up. Finally, you have the individual characters, most of whom cannot be trusted, and they might be the worst danger of all. Except—there’s also that pesky virus that’s extremely contagious, so the characters really don’t stand a chance. 

I really enjoyed the three main characters, especially Meg and Hannah. Meg’s storyline is the most emotional, because of a tragedy in her past that she’s unable to recover from. Hannah just happens to be the daughter of Professor Grant, the man who founded the Retreat, so everyone thinks she can get her father to help rescue them, but Hannah also knows what kind of man her father really is. I loved this dynamic and it added even more tension to the story.

Carter’s storyline was probably my favorite of the three, however, and also the bloodiest. Maybe that’s why I enjoyed it so much! Carter and the others he lives with at the Retreat have a little bit of freedom, although there are dangers outside the walls. For example, in order to get food and other supplies, they have to ski down the mountain once in a while to trade with Jimmy Quinn, and those scenes were so tense!

So what didn’t work for me? Well, I think I’m sort of getting pandemic fatigue in fiction, because it seems there’s no end to pandemic stories. Here, I felt the pandemic itself was a little “hand wavy” if you know what I mean. I never fully understood all the details of the sickness, how it was transmitted and which people became Whistlers and which didn’t. In other words, the “rules” of the sickness were kind of a mess. I think a lot of readers won’t care, though, since the action and tension were so good, but for me, I had a lot of questions about the virus that were never answered.

The story is confusing at times, especially in the last half as the pieces start to come together. Tudor has a lot of elements to juggle, and while she did a great job overall, there are a lot of reveals in the last half that were very hard to keep up with.

My last complaint is that the story is sooo far over the top at times, it got to the point where each time someone died, I had to stop myself from laughing, it became so ridiculous. I do understand that’s probably what the author intended, but still, there’s a tipping point for me and The Drift veers into the absurd quite quickly. 

Despite all that, I had a blast reading this book. C.J. Tudor doesn’t hold anything back, so if you’re craving adrenaline-fueled storytelling with an overall creepy, dystopian sensibility, then The Drift is a must read.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.