The Drift by C.J. Tudor

Hello everyone.  I hope your week is going well.

Do you get snow where you live?  We rarely get any of the white stuff. Sadly, we make up for it with hurricanes.  Frankly, I'd rather have the snow.  Growing up in upstate New York, we had loads of snow.  I swear we had lots more than they do now.  A year or two ago they received 41 inches of snow in one storm, can you even imagine?  What I am talking about is consistent, winter season long snow. That is what we had, picture me chuckling at southerners complaining about the occasional Snowmageddon.  We lived that for at least a solid four months, I'm quite sure at times winter lasted for six months.  Ask my husband, we visited my parents one time in June, it was so cold they had a fire in the fireplace...IN JUNE!  Then there was the time we went up in May, packed nothing warm. In fact, I brought no socks, just backless sneakers and pedal pushers.  On that trip, surely the temperature dipped below zero. Of course, as a kid I was just the image of beauty and grace on the slippery snow-covered tundra.  Think Elsa, from Disney.  I'm certain I wore the gown too and sang about building a snowman.  Our neighbors, who tried to get me to walk with snowshoes on, might disagree just a tiny bit.  Not that I took a header into a huge snowbank, but I'll just say, you can get in ice cream headache without eating anything, especially when your entire face is submerged.  Who thought it was helpful to walk on soft show with tennis rackets strapped to your feet, all those holes in between those strings (rolling my eyes for emphasis)?

I recently read The Drift by C.J. Tudor.  I read, reviewed and loved her book, The Burning Girls.  I was very much looking forward to Tudor's newest offering.  As the title indicates, this entire book takes place in the snow.  The world is on the verge of something catastrophic happening.  A huge snowstorm leaves people stranded.  The reader follows three groups.  One group is on a trip from a boarding school and their bus has crashed.  They are in the wilderness, the storm is raging, the temperature dropping, people are hurt, and wild animals await their exit from the damaged bus.  Next, we follow a group on a cable car, high above the snowy mountains, headed to someplace called "The Retreat".  As the storm moves in the cable car stops, leaving them stranded in the cold.  They can't jump down or go up, and the dangling car becomes frigid.  Then finally we follow The Retreat employees themselves.  Something odd has happened, as the storm starts their power goes out.  What is usually reliable has suddenly left them in a very dangerous situation.

This book was interesting.  I don't think I'd call it fun.  This book made me cold and uneasy.  It wasn't pleasant, although lots of thrillers aren't but this one felt dark, and I didn't want to read it.  Don't get me wrong, it had a great plot and twists that fooled me, but I came away feeling blah.  Usually, I'm racing to my husband begging him to read whatever story I've just finished so we can talk about it.  In the case of The Drift, I was just glad it was over.  As always, although it wasn't for me, you may love this one.  It is highly rated on Amazon and is Editors pick for Best Thriller.

Oh no, maybe I've living in the south for so long I've developed an aversion to snow.  But where would I wear my Elsa dress?