Reviews with content warning for Pedophilia - The Drift

If there was a record for sheer number of plot twists in one stand-alone novel, "The Drift" by C.J. Tudor would take the cake. This is a story about a viral pandemic, told from multiple perspectives and settings. It was a tense page-turner, where the reader enters in the middle of the action and has to play catch-up along with the very large cast of characters. In the beginning, it was difficult to keep track of all the names and backstories, but by the middle of the book, I started to gain some traction and the puzzle pieces started to come together. Just in time for Tudor to flip the script 4 more times and make me question everything all over again.

This is a quick, immersive read, but one that requires (and deserves) your full attention in order to experience the magnitude of the multifaceted story. The book was well-written with many quotable statements, some which I may include in my full review in late January.

**Trigger warning: on top of many triggers for gore, death of a child/sibling/loved one, violence against both humans and pets, I'd like to particularly note that this book might be difficult for those who are not in the mood for a pandemic-based novel. The book covers many topics that may hit close to home so soon after covid, such as descriptions of hospitalizations, medical care being over-capacity, viral spread, etc. Just felt like the abstract might have come off more wilderness-survival than pandemic-survival, so I wanted to make sure that was clear.**

Overall, Tudor does an excellent job at creating a true horror novel, filled with gore and jump scares., but still interlaced with comical moments at the same time. I was entertained and on my toes the entire time. Highly recommend.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House for the opportunity to read an advanced reader's copy of this novel prior to publication.

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