Final Girls: A Novel Paperback – February 26, 2019

I'm so angry. Truly.You all know the feeling you get when you first read the synopsis of a new book, and in that moment you JUST. HAVE. TO. HAVE. IT.It goes beyond elated anticipation. It's a NEED!Yeah, well, that was me when I first stumbled across 'Final Girls' by Riley Sager. I'm a sucker for slasher films-- Modern, 80's retro, Italian giallo... I simply love the horror field in general, truth be told. Anything likened to that area of obsession falls along the vein of must have/must see/must read. So, to say my eagerness to read this novel was bursting at the seams would be a gross understatement.I've expended so much energy these past few days just abso-freaking-lutely HATING this book, that I really can't force myself to write up this review much further. If you're reading this, though, just know that the plot is predictable, the characters make dumb decisions nearly every page (because if they actually HAD IQs greater than a chipmunk, there would be no plot progression or story), the detectives are so awful at their jobs that I wondered what alternate universe this was happening in, and the entire book itself felt like a cheap, PG-13 thriller your great Aunt or fellow pre-teen friends might find "chilling":"OMG, I'm soo scared.""Oh Em Geee, I knoww."It really isn't that hard to put together who the killer is; I've seen more slasher films than I've read books. But I was hoping the writing would at least be on par with other suspense thrillers I've read and loved.It wasn't.This book could have been redeemed with anything unique or witty or clever, but it remained generic and bland and redundant in its idiocy.Riley Sager seems to think the "twists" were more clever than they actually turned out to be (predictable and stupid, in actuality).Long story short: I'm ticked off. I thought I was going to enjoy this one more than I did, and I'm severely disappointed and frustrated and will never trust another book like this again.

I just this minute finished Final Girls. Normally, I'd wait a few days before writing a review; I'd wait until I'd given the novel time to sink in, down deep, until I was certain about what I wanted to say. No need to do so with Final Girls. It's the first novel I've read in a very long time that I simply could not put down. There is first the plot itself, which starts strong and never lets up. There is then the list of characters, all well drawn, especially in their psychological makeup - detailed, fascinating, crossing back and forth constantly between likable and unlikable, suspicious and not suspicious, the possible killer or totally innocent, all the way to the end. Quinn, the narrator, and Samantha, another Final Girl, are flat-out compelling to get to know, and they come across as real human beings. And then there's Sager's style, which is, for the most part, Quinn's voice - filled with tension, fast, furious, almost breezy were it not for the subject matter. Interspersed throughout, though, are short chapters told in third-person, chronologically detailing the actual events of the night of the murders at Pine Cottage, and all I can say is that they are damnably frustrating in the best sense of the word as they tell you the story of that night little piece by little piece. They're the ticking clock, the ticking-off clock on the bomb of the novel. They add so much to the overall plot and mystery because they're so perfectly written, each one offering another direction, another suspicion, the night moving forward with one new possibility after another, and each one making you feel as though you're the guy from the bomb squad trying to decide which wires to cut in which order. And all while the same technique is being employed in the present. It's like being on two trains simultaneously, both of them hurtling out of control toward each other. Brilliant structure, riveting, forcing you to turn every page to the next and the next. My only qualm is that I did guess the killer's identity very early, but not because Sager gave anything away - I don't know why I knew, but I just KNEW. However, this did NOT spoil the story in any way at all; after all, he might yet have proved me wrong. I read somewhere recently that Riley Sager is a pseudonym for another well-known author, and I would imagine this is true; Final Girls is a bit too accomplished for a first writer's thriller. So, now that I've finished the novel and am no longer in taut suspense over IT, I'm STILL in suspense to learn which well-known author actually wrote it! Damn you, Riley Sager, damn you!

This is a bit of an odd one to rate and I'm toying between two and three stars. It's slow and superficial, with few characters who really stand out from the crowd. Even Quincey, our key Final Girl, is rather wet in reality and somewhere between her obsession with home baking and the sappy relationship, I got bored. Cooper was the only character I actually connected with and he's a satellite character for much of the novel.Quincey's degradation with the arrival of Sam Boyd was overdone, rushed and unbelievable. As indeed was the entire character of Sam Boyd in general. Undoubtedly messed up beyond belief, but aggravating so rather than believably or empathisably so. The author also seems to have a band-aid view of virtually irrevocably damaged relationships seems naive to the point of cringe-worthy so what could have been touching aspects... aren't. Even the moments in the past just before the massacre are somehow angst ridden and tedious.And the ending. Dear God, the ending. It's as though the author couldn't quite figure out what to do with it and so just pulled a name out of a hat and ran with it, little caring how unbelievable or forced it would seem. The fact that he forces an entirely new character in within the last fifth of the novel is a desperate attempt to shoehorn the forced solution even though it really doesn't fit. That is just desperation.Hell, I've nearly convinced myself to downgrade the rating to a single star...

Anyone who liked Gone Girl will love this book. Three victims all connected by the fact that they survived horrendous massacres.Quincy or Quinn is the protagonist who survived the slaughter at Pine Cottage. The book starts with her escaping the carnage and running to the safety of a police officer who was at the scene. It is the Pine Cottage chapters which form the basis of her memories. After the incident she has total amnesia about what had happened at the cottage and it is as her memory gradually returns that our views shift one way and the other. All these chapters are in the third person which allows the author to be more objective and explain what happened with the other characters, even though these are Quincy’s memories, so there are some restrictions on what is revealed. For example we do not know exactly what happened to Janelle, but as she stumbles out of the wood into Quincy’s arms we know her throat was cut. The interspersing of the Pine Cottage chapters throughout the book form the basis of the tension and the intrigue, although circumstances in Quincy’s life do act as trigger points for her memories.Quincy has two men in her life, Jeff her partner and Coop the officer who was at the scene of the murder at Pine Cottage. Both are involved with law enforcement, Coop as a police officer and Jeff as a public defender. The author does not make it clear if this is a need to feel protected following her experience, certainly her use of Xanax would suggest she is suffering the after affects. Her choice of profession, a cake blogger and baker, also suggests a withdrawal from society. Into this sedate world comes Sam/Tina another final girl, a survivor of another massacre. She enters the story just after we find out the first final girl Lisa Milner is dead, presumed suicide. Introducing herself as Sam she explains she changed her name in order to avoid the press and publicity. Her role in the story is to provoke, to make Quincy angry, to disturb her neatly ordered life, to shock her into remembering what happened. This she does very effectively and makes us question deep down what Quincy is really capable of? Perhaps what we are all capable of, deep down?Lisa’s death provides the suspicion needed to prompt Quincy into looking at Sam/Tina’s background and provides another strand of intrigue and tension in the book. We also learn about Joe’s background, the man accused and convicted of the Pine Cottage murders and how he had spent time in a mental institute. This reinforces the guilt of the criminally insane and plays into the hands of readers assumptions of what must be true. Yet at the end of the book Joe’s name is cleared.My main criticism is the ending. From chapter 38 onwards where the memories start flooding back things get messy and confusing. This may be deliberate on the part of the author who wants to show Quincy’s distress and confusion as she tries to put the remaining pieces into place. In terms of the reader I found it difficult to follow. I am not sure the perpetrator of the crime was exactly logical either. I’m not convinced we needed to know the background of Tina’s story either. The chapters detailing the time after Pine Cottage seemed to slow the pace. Her role was one of provocateur and I’m not convinced readers would necessarily be emotionally invested in her character.Overall I thought this book was really good and will definitely go on my favourite shelf, despite the ending.

This book is not what I expected at all. The first maybe half of the book it feels like not a lot is happening, it's a good thing small snippets of what happened (to our main character Quincy on the night all her friends were murdered and she survived) are sprinkled throughout, otherwise it would have been a rather boring, non eventful reading experience. It felt like the same things over and over - we get it, Quincy takes Xanax with grape soda as a chaser, you don't have to remind us every three pages - surrounded by mundane day to day things.But, when the story finally starts getting interesting, it goes in a really strange direction that I never would have imagined (maybe that's a good thing? It's not predictable. But it isn't compelling either) Yeah, I get it. The author wanted to do the whole 'is this an unreliable narrator' shtick, but it just seemed like a weird choice.There are quite a few twists in here, some I enjoyed more than others. The first 'big reveal' I thought was a great explanation of why Quincy acted the way she did. Guilt, disgust, shame - I totally get it. Another important one was 'who is Sam?' Again, I really liked how this one played out.The twist I wished was the main one - brilliant! love that! Leave it there! Imagine an open ending...but this is a thriller, and thrillers need to wrap up...But the last twist. That's the one I didn't like. It felt so cheap. I know thrillers are meant to set you up with all the main players, then you find out who is who etc etc. But...I just didn't like it. It felt both left field and obvious at the same time somehow. Slightly eye roll. It could have been so clever, but it didn't quit hit for me.All in all, it was a decent read. I am slightly disappointed though, the synopsis and idea of the final girls and them mysteriously dying is such a great concept, that could have been explored in so many other, more interesting ways. Instead we got half a book of not much, and half a book of slightly lack lustre suspense.

Until a friend asked how I was getting on with this book, I had no idea that Riley Sager was actually some dude named Todd – but it’s amazing how much more sense the first two thirds of this book, in which two ‘Final Girl’ survivors of various massacres do little more than bake cupcakes, braid each other’s hair and call each other “babe”, makes when you realise that these Strong Female Characters TM were not written by a woman. Final Girls goes above average on the number of out-of-left-field twists and turns – it just so happens they’re all squeezed into the last 50 pages of an otherwise incredibly dull book.

Implausibilities and poor characterisation aside, Final Girls is a grippingly twisted thriller and an utter blast of a page turner. This fun and wickedly humorous yarn will have readers turning the pages frenetically in an effort to see where debut author Riley Sager is taking a refreshingly original premise and is best enjoyed as pure escapism. Resist from over-analysing as some of the more questionable elements of the plot arguably make every part of this story a struggle to add up and simply roll with the action for a deliciously addictive and very rocky ride!Dubbed by the press as the ‘Final Girls’ and evoking a macabre teen horror movie memory of the last girl standing are the young and pretty all American girls who are the sole survivors of noted massacres over the years. Three women who are bound together by their tragedies a decade after the atrocities and the shock news of the suspected suicide of the most vocal and positive of the trio, Lisa Milner, leaves just two standing; baking blogger, Quincy “Quinn” Carpenter and Samantha Boyd whose whereabouts is unknown. Lead character and narrator is Manhattan dwelling Quinn who ten years on from the massacre that left her companions at Pine Cottage dead is still piecing together the fallout and diligently working on her baking blog and living a settled domestic life with caring fiancé and public defender, Jeff. Quinn refuses to kowtow to the victim persona that the media demands and is doing her best impression of conducting a normal, functioning adult life, aside from the odd Xanax and five-finger discount slipped in as necessary coping mechanisms!Quinns’s sole contact from the Pine Cottage trauma is the Pennsylvania state trooper who rescued her, attentive and dependable Franklin “Coop” Cooper. When Coop reports that Lisa’s suicide was staged and is now considered a homicide, Quinn is understandably rattled and with the press keen to moot the suggestion that someone might be intent on finishing what the massacres failed to do and slaying the remaining Final Girls, her anxiety escalates. Already feeling vulnerable the arrival of the other Final Girl in the form of hard drinking and confrontational wild child, Sam Boyd threatens to destabilise Quinn’s ordered life still further. Seeking to befriend Quinn, much of the psychological suspense of the middle part of this book is primarily concerned with the fluctuating emotions of Quinn who questions whether she can afford to trust Sam. More worryingly, could there be an alternative agenda behind Sam’s fascination in urging Quincy to confront her own memories of Pine Cottage? Regardless of these concerns Quinn needs little persuasion to be hijacked into a darker and riskier underworld where getting angry and living dangerously rules. Her gullibility and swift descent into senseless violence in late night Central Park stretches credibility and aside from the obvious action element, this diversion adds nothing to the greater plot.Admittedly Quinn is a fairly superficial character with little evidence of real depth and the story that unfolds lives and dies on her supposed psychological repression of the events of the massacre of Pine Cottage, which she claims to have no memory of. Author Riley Sager cleverly uses flashback sequences to suggest that there might be more to the exact nature of the events at Pine Cottage, thereby raising the question of Quincy’s reliability and the prospect of her memories being somewhat selective. The jaunty narrative is no frills straightforward and undoubtedly works well as the voice of a twenty-eight-year-old Quincy in turmoil. In the final third of the novel the flashbacks comes with increasing frequency and the tension ratchets monumentally higher with the details of Sam’s past and whereabouts becoming clearer and Quinn belatedly starting to sense the greater danger. As the denouement reveals exactly what went on at Pine Cottage and makes apparent Sam’s true motivations for tracking Quinn down readers are advised to fasten their seatbelts and hold on tight. Littered with twists and underpinned by a brisk pace, Final Girls is a tongue in cheek look at the outrageously far-fetched storylines of horror movies as opposed to a depraved tale that is likely to trigger nightmares, however some of the violence midway might put off readers who shy away from gratuitous violence.In short, Final Girls is an uneven debut with a bizarre volte-face change in the personality of lead character, Quincy “Quinn” Carpenter and a pointless diversion into violence (female vigilantism and then some).. but gosh, more importantly it is also insidiously good fun and I enjoyed every minute of a tale which had me fooled! Four stars for sheer page-turning entertainment and some very wry humour!Review written by Rachel Hall (@hallrachel)