Book Review: “The Drift” by C.J. Tudor
Three Novels in One
C.J. Tudor’s new novel, The Drift, was one that I had to wait for. I don’t want to get into the particulars of how I eventually got a copy of the book — suffice to say that it involved a “comedy of errors” — but this was a novel that I wanted to read, once I got wind of its existence. It had been billed in publicity copy as a book that dealt with redemption, and those types of books are exactly what I feel that my soul could use right about now after more than two years of pandemic life. Well, The Drift wasn’t exactly the kind of novel that I was expecting, but it was still oh-so-good. I don’t want to give too much away, but it’s a pandemic novel to be sure — the idea for it came to the author in 2019, so she wasn’t simply latching onto topicality for the sake of it. The striking thing about this popcorn piece of entertainment — it’s the sort of thing that reads like a screenplay, which is apropos considering that it is now being developed for the screen — is that it offers readers real bang for their buck. You get not one, nor two, but three different novels with The Drift. There are three competing plotlines and although they are connected by a thread, they are all as different from each other as oil in water. This is the sort of wintery book released in the depth of winter that will have you turning pages fast and furiously just to see how it all comes together and concludes. And, for a bubble-gum novel of sorts, you won’t see that ending coming.
If you had to describe this novel, I’d say that it is one part horror novel, one part locked-room mystery, and one part straight-up thriller. One storyline sees a woman named Hannah trapped in a bus with fellow students of a prestigious academy that has crashed down the side of a wintery road with no way out and a snowstorm raging. Plot two features a woman named Meg who is en route with a bevy of others to a mysterious retreat in a stalled cable car with winter again raging outside and seemingly no escape from her predicament. The third story is about a man named Carter who is trapped in a facility in the woods with others in the middle of a blizzard with mysterious zombie-like people called Whistlers who make it an additional risk to step outside. Each of these characters must contend with the fact that there is a fate worse than death. From there, the book effectively bounces between characters and different points of view with each chapter ending in cliffhangers. And because this is a tale of survival, characters suddenly having to use the bathroom plays a part sometimes. If anything, The Drift — for all its escapist trappings — is firmly rooted in everyday problems.
As you can tell, this is a highly original and captivating yarn. It’s a rollercoaster ride of pure adrenaline and the plots keep moving along at a sometimes-breakneck speed. It all culminates in a single plot line that most readers won’t be able to see in advance, as already noted. The real ingenuity of the novel is that it pulls no punches — while there are a ton of characters to keep straight throughout the book, some major and some not, the body count ratchets upwards in grisly amounts as The Drift progresses. That’s probably the only real failing of this commendable work: there are so many people to track that when someone meets their demise, it’s as though they’re little more than cannon fodder for the author to get rid of (akin to excess baggage) rather than be treated as real human beings with a tangible backstory of their own. So, yes, The Drift is a bit of a slasher novel. However, this is a book with brains even though it’s true that if you think about the outcome a little too much, the story kind of feels flimsy. Still, that’s not a knock against this work. This is your usual “park your brain at the door and enjoy the ride” kind of novel. No dissertations will likely be written about it, and that’s kind of the point. This is just a good ol’ break from reality — albeit one that takes significant risks and chances with who it kills off in the end. If I’m not saying too much.
All in all, The Drift may not be a perfect read, but it is fun, fresh, and fascinating. I must commend Tudor for juggling three narratives that are completely at odds with each other. To be fair, it sometimes doesn’t work because you must read two other chapters before you return to a particular character’s plotline, at which point you may have forgotten what the cliffhanger was that the characters are now working to resolve. However, is that a criticism? This is a book that demands that you read it fast and in as few sittings as possible. Hence, this is what makes The Drift as refreshing as a can of cold soda water on a humid day. It has one job and one job only: to tell a story that will enthrall readers. At this, it more than admirably succeeds. So, even though I’m not sure how this works out as a redemption story of sorts (though I have clues, but to say anything would give parts of the book away), The Drift is a terrific way to kill some time. It’s effective at all the genre mashups it pursues, even if it’s perhaps not the happiest of books about survival in tough circumstances ever written. And yet this is a glorious piece of pop confectionary. Thrillers, mysteries, and horror novels don’t get too much better than this, so if those are the go-to books that you enjoy reading, then you’re going to adore The Drift. Here’s hoping that you don’t have to break a sweat to track down a copy as I did, but even if so, it would be well worth it. More than worth it. This is pretty fantastic stuff for what it is.
C.J. Tudor’s The Drift was published by Doubleday Canada on January 31, 2023.
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