👍👍1/2
The Hitchhikers
Chevy Stevens
Publication Date: October 7th, 2025
St. Martin’s Press
384 Pages
Amazon | Goodreads | Bookshop.org
Genre: General Fiction | Women’s Fiction
I loved both Still Missing and Dark Roads by this author, but this one? In a word: meh. The Hitchhikers takes us to 1976, where Tom and Alice are grieving and decide to take an RV trip across Canada. On their journey, they pick up two young hitchhikers, Jenny and Simon, who also go by the names Ocean and Blue. Then the violence starts, and Tom and Alice realize nothing is as they first thought. We have these ordinary folks who are pushed to extremes. Just how far will Tom and Alice go to save themselves?
Okay, this was tense at first, and I was really getting into it, but the pacing was off. A lot would happen, and then nothing for a while. I did like the 1970s road-trip setting, especially since I am Canadian. I liked how the author wrote about Alice and Tom’s grief; their vulnerability was evident, and the way they changed over the course of the trip due to Ocean and Blue’s arrival was well done. A lot of the plot felt repetitive, so I became kind of numb to the violence rather than being shocked by it. While the protagonists were well-written, the antagonists weren’t well-developed enough. I found the book didn’t go deep enough into what their motivations were; I wasn’t fully convinced. Some of the twists landed predictably, so there were no real surprises. Overall, The Hitchhikers was an okay read and is perfect for those who like lots of drama (yes, please), but I have to say this blurb is just downright wrong in all aspects: A chilling, twist-laden ride to the final page, The Hitchhikers is that rare novel that will break your heart as well as hold you in suspense. Also, NetGalley has this listed as Women’s Fiction for some reason. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
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