Survive the Night: A Novel

Like most of Riley Sager’s novels, Survive the Night is a psychological thriller that incorporates many common thriller and horror tropes. These tropes include an unreliable narrator, red herrings, and plot twists. Charlie Jordan acts as an unreliable narrator, with her movie hallucinations making it difficult for her, and the audience, to distinguish between reality and imagination. Sager also uses the trope to highlight how Charlie’s mental state gives both Robbie and Josh advantages in keeping her from learning their secrets. Thus, the unreliable narrator trope supports the themes of The Blurred Line Between Reality and Imagination and Trust Versus Paranoia.

Another trope that supports Trust Versus Paranoia is the red herring trope. Sager uses ambiguity to make Josh appear to be the Campus Killer but then uses Josh’s perspective of working for Marge and wanting to help Charlie to establish him as a red herring. Sager uses the red herring trope for Marge as well. Marge seems a likely candidate to be the Campus Killer given the ambiguity of her purpose in the story and her harsh and violent treatment of Charlie, but once again, the novel uses a suspicious character as a distraction.