Final Girls
Ratings172
Average rating3.5
15
Ratings172
Average rating3.5
“The first great thriller of 2017 is here: Final Girls, by Riley Sager. If you liked Gone Girl, you’ll like this.”—Stephen King
Ten years ago, college student Quincy Carpenter went on vacation with five friends and came back alone, the only survivor of a horror movie–scale massacre. In an instant, she became a member of a club no one wants to belong to—a group of similar survivors known in the press as the Final Girls: Lisa, who lost nine sorority sisters to a college dropout's knife; Sam, who went up against the Sack Man during her shift at the Nightlight Inn; and now Quincy, who ran bleeding through the woods to escape Pine Cottage and the man she refers to only as Him. The three girls are all attempting to put their nightmares behind them and, with that, one another. Despite the media's attempts, they never meet.
Now, Quincy is doing well—maybe even great, thanks to her Xanax prescription. She has a caring almost-fiancé, Jeff; a popular baking blog; a beautiful apartment; and a therapeutic presence in Coop, the police officer who saved her life all those years ago. Her memory won’t even allow her to recall the events of that night; the past is in the past.
That is until Lisa, the first Final Girl, is found dead in her bathtub, wrists slit; and Sam, the second Final Girl, appears on Quincy's doorstep. Blowing through Quincy's life like a whirlwind, Sam seems intent on making Quincy relive the past, with increasingly dire consequences, all of which makes Quincy question why Sam is really seeking her out. And when new details about Lisa's death come to light, Quincy's life becomes a race against time as she tries to unravel Sam's truths from her lies, evade the police and hungry reporters, and, most crucially, remember what really happened at Pine Cottage, before what was started ten years ago is finished.
Reviews with the most likes.
Final Girls attempts to turn the horror trope of the “final girl” - the blood-stained heroine who makes it out alive at the end of a slasher-horror flick - on it's head, with great success.
Our heroine, Quincy, is one of three “final girls” but is trying desperately to move on with her life. Between her baking blog and her fiance, she's making a good start. The police officer who saved her life contacts her to let her know that the first “final girl”, Lisa, has been found dead in her home of a suicide. The other final girl, Sam, shows up at her apartment out of the blue, and the news hits that Lisa's death might not have been at her own hands.
For anyone who is a fan of the slasher horror genre, this book is a treat. As I was reading it reminded me so much of Scream that I could almost picture the scenes in my head. This book is not a wink-and-nudge commentary on the genre, though. It takes itself very seriously and, as a result, does a better job translating into a proper suspense-thriller than it might have had it attempted any level of camp. Watching Quincy's perfect facade crumble under the strain of Lisa's death and Sam's arrival was cringe-worthy, and I found myself shouting at her to just go back to baking! The flashbacks Sager used to fill us in on exactly what happened the night of the massacre Quincy survived were well executed and were a nice way to show, rather than tell, the reader about that night. Sager successfully juggles several red herrings that lead up to a twist that, I'm happy to report, I didn't see coming in the least. (Others have said they did correctly predict the ending, so perhaps I should have as well. I was just having so much fun I clearly wasn't paying close attention!)
This book is pure entertainment and a ton of fun. It's entirely suitable, though, for someone who stays away from horror but might want to dip their toes into something that will leave them up late at night with the lights on. :) (Does that classify a horror-lite?)
* Thank you to NetGalley and Dutton for an advance copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.*
Personally, I really enjoyed this book. Though that may have something to do with the baking the main character does. Give me all the cake... I enjoyed it more than a certain other book with a similar concept. I appreciated that dual timeline didn't have some weird twist where the narrator is outright lying or its someone else. That being said, I can definitely see why it wasn't the right book for some people. The pacing was occasionally odd the main character doesn't take enough responsibility for her present day actions. The whole secret drawer thing, where she never feels bad about stealing someone's cellphone rubbed me the wrong way. Similarly, she constantly blames her mother for her drug problems even though she hasn't lived with her mother for years. In addition, while I enjoyed the lead up to the ending I'm not sure it stuck the landing. It felt like the author wanted as many twists as possible, which meant the final twist didn't feel as genuine.
Tl;DR: I enjoyed the prose but the pacing means you might not feel as invested at the midpoint. The finale is good, but the final final scene just doesn't get 5/5 from me.
I like the idea behind this book, but it's not as well done as it could've been. The plot really struggled to find itself, which was a shame because the book had a lot of potential.
