Review: FINAL GIRLS by Riley Sager

Oh my! A somewhat tiptoeish start soon tossed me onto a runaway rollercoaster of thrills, terror, and mystery. In this environment, I couldn't be certain who was who, who was culpable of what, and who could be trusted, if anyone--including our protagonist, the woman who insists she is "normal" despite the past everybody remembers except her.

Quincy Carpenter, like two other young women earlier, survived a massacre of sorts: one at a sorority house (Lisa of Indiana), one at a motel (Samantha of Florida). Quincy was the sole survivor of a group of friends at a weekend retreat in a forest cottage in Pennsylvania. The press terms them "Final Girls," like the sole remaining heroine in B-grade horror movies. (I prefer the concept of "Last Man Standing," as in Westerns; surviving ought to imply some skill and strength of will, rather than simply be left alive because the killer died or was captured.)

FINAL GIRLS "blew me out of the water". After six decades of voracious reading of mysteries, thrillers, and horror, the author still managed to blindside me, and I truly "didn't see it coming." I can't wait to read this novel again.

First line: "The forest had claws and teeth."

Summary: 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, 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.

Highlights: Once you're hooked you can't put it down. It had lots of twists and turns and you'll never guess how it ends.

Lowlights: It really took me longer to get into then I thought it would.

FYI: Lots of graphic violence.

For a horror lover, this read was slightly off the mark for me. Let me explain.

I think Final Girls is a passable thriller. There is intrigue, introspective heroines, and a twist ending. A genre novel for the thriller category. Perhaps, that is why I didn't love it as much as I was hoping. What I expected from the title, and synopsis was a tale closer to the movie Cabin in the Woods. Namely, a parody that poked fun at one of the most well known slasher-movie tropes, while also honoring the horror genre. This is where Final Girls missed the mark for me. It didn't quite live up to this expectation.

That being said, there is still a lot to love here. Quincey, is a strong female protagonist, you cannot help but like - even as she gets dragged into the immorality of another Final Girl. The trio of Final Girls all have interesting and familiar back stories which were a small nod to the horror genre; sorority house, hotel serial killer, a cottage in the woods. I also felt these characters were for the most part multi-faceted. The mystery was decent, though again, I was hoping for a little more depth. I do commend the author for using a trope within a trope (think insane Asylums) to trick the reader, but I was still left thinking, "but where is the suspense?".

Ultimately, I suggest this is you want a fast thriller with some small nods to the horror genre. I think this is an appropriate read for those who don't typically read scary novels, as the actual gore and suspense is limited.

Great read. Dark and twisted. Can be frustrating at times when you want the main character to just get with it, but it won't slow you down. Twists weren't too far out there, and weren't obvious enough that you see them all coming.

It can be hard to find a thriller that offers a great story line, characters that bring the story to life, and twists that actually make the story super exciting. So I’m really happy that I came across Final Girls, because it had all of those elements plus more, making it a totally enjoyable book that I loved from the very first page.

Final Girls is like a horror movie – and a good one. It has an original plot that really draws the reader into the story, and yes, there are some gruesome details that those who love horror movies and books have come to enjoy. From the scary, thrilling moments to the everyday look into the main character’s life, there isn’t a single dull moment the entire way through the book – it really kept me on my toes and kept me guessing and interested, all the way to the very end.

The characters in the book are so real and full of personality, and all of their horror stories really add to the chilling atmosphere of the book. Quincy, Lisa, and Sam have all been through ordeals that no one should ever have to deal with – ordeals that they were the only survivors of, and they carry that around with them. While they never meet, despite the media trying to get them to for ages, things go south when Lisa ends up dead, and Sam decides to seek out Quincy to put a stop to everything that is going on.

Like I said, the creepy vibes that I got off this book make it a perfect summer thriller, and I think I’m adding it to my favorites list! If you like thrillers, don’t miss this one!

There are so many well thought out elements and details in Final Girls that makes it such a joy to read. I really found myself drawn to the characters the most, as this book really is a character driven novel that I honestly have to recommend to anyone who likes a good thriller .

Note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

Final Girls was an incredibly engaging read. It had everything that I want in a mystery and psychological thriller. It had an atmosphere that pulled me in a creeped me out, a plot full of mystery and surprises, unreliable narrators and complex characters, and great ending that had me totally shocked.

So I commented prior to actually completing this review that perhaps I needed a Xanax and some grape soda before writing it. Well, I decided to skip that plan but definitely apologize to anyone who has already read this because you've probably grown really tired of that phrase since you heard it a thousand times in the book. At least that's how I feel. I went into "Final Girls" pumped and ready to find my next favorite horror writer. I mean come on, there's a blurb on the cover from Stephen King. Surely my favorite author wouldn't mislead me? Well, sorry Stephen, this is one book which can "float on" with Pennywise. I wanted to love "Final Girls" and thanks to all the hype and all the 5/5 reviews, I knew the book was packed full of excitement and twists and turns and I couldn't wait to see how it all panned out. The problem was, that promise set me up for failure. All the time I was reading I kept imagining where all the twists could lead and unfortunately, I think some of my scenarios interested me more than the reality of the book.

"Final Girls" tells the tale of Quincy Carpenter, a young woman who ten years ago escaped the massacre of her college pals while camping in a Pine Woods cottage. Riley has blacked out a lot of what happened, but was basically labeled a "final girl" by the media, along with Lisa and Sam, who also survived similar fates. And if you need help understanding the concept of a final girl, don't worry, the author explained it over and over again throughout the book. Riley lives with her public defender boyfriend and insists her life is going well, despite drinking too much and downing the previously mentioned Xanax and grape soda on a regular basis. Early on in the book, one of the other two girls, Lisa, is murdered, and the third elusive girl, Sam, literally shows up on Riley's sidewalk. What happens next is a train wreck which for me went on and on (and on and on), to determine what happened to Lisa and if Riley and Sam are the next intended casualties.

The main problem for me with the book is that I didn't connect with any of the characters. Riley was a mess which was made worse because she was always justifying she was okay. Sam is all over the place and I wouldn't trust her as far as I could throw her. Jeff, the boyfriend is unlikable and I don't know why he put up with Riley and vice versa - maybe they did deserve each other. Coop, Riley's savior cop had potential and at the end, I still probably liked him the best of all which is saying a lot. I think I would have liked Lisa but since we learn she died practically in chapter one, the reader never gets to know her very well. So see, not a great cast of characters. Also, the actual twist feel flat for me and I spent a lot of time wishing everyone would just die.

I don't mean for this review to come across so harsh. I know lots of people love this book and in the end, my expectations were probably just too much. I should know better than to allow the hype to suck me in. I wouldn't actually tell people not to read it. I mean, come on, this book is plastered everywhere so it's hard to ignore. However, if any of my comments seem like things that might prevent you from enjoying a book, do yourself a favor and borrow it from the library so you don't actually pay for it or perhaps skip it altogether. I might be interested in reading Sager's next effort, or since it's actually a pen name for an already established writer, maybe some of his past stuff. Right now, I'm just not sure.

WHAT!! Well holy $h!¥, this was so unexpected. This book kept me guessing until the very end. It is so messed up, I don't even know where to start. The characters are damaged yet compelling as in most psychological thrillers, but somehow, this novel managed to set itself apart.
I loved the writing style, I loved all the twists and turns, but most of all, I loved that the author was able to shock me with an ending I never saw it coming. It was brilliant!
Speaking of shocking, I thought this book was Riley Sager's debut. But it turned out that Riley Sager is a pseudo for Todd Ritter! Why chose a different gender pseudonym?

Thanks to Netgalley and PENGUIN GROUP Dutton! I was able to enjoy this ARC. I will certainly recommend it to my friends and library patrons!

FINAL GIRLS is a completely unique, dazzling, white-knuckle ride of a thriller which also shows great depth of understanding about trauma survivors. A "final girl" is a horror movie trope whereby there is a lone survivor of a serial killer's massacre, like Sally Hardisty in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Laurie Strode in Halloween, and Sidney Prescott in Scream. Here Riley Sager turns the device on its head by creating a story about actual "final girls," three women who outlived other victims of three different serial killers. Quincy Carpenter (29), the protagonist, is the youngest. Ten years ago she and her closest college friends went to spend an autumn weekend at Pine Cottage, her best friend Janelle's family cabin in the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania. A man, to whom Quincy will only refer to as "Him," killed everyone with a knife -- except for Quincy (who was critically wounded). She was rescued by a local cop named Franklin "Coop" Cooper, who shot "Him" dead. Quincy has Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and can only remember the beginning of the massacre to when Coop rescued her.

Everything between those two points remains a blank in my memory. An hour, more or less, entirely wiped clean. "Dissociative amnesia" is the official diagnosis. More commonly known as repressed memory syndrome. Basically what I witnessed was too horrific for my fragile mind to hold on to. So I mentally cut it out. A self-performed lobotomy.

Quincy now leads a very ordered, though somewhat solitary life. Her live-in boyfriend Jeff, an attorney with the city's Public Defender's Office, is very loving and supportive. Quincy has a baking blog, a Xanax prescription, and a two-bedroom apartment in on the Upper West Side of Manhattan (bought with money from lawsuit settlements). Because of the heartache of losing her friends, she doesn't allow herself to get close to anyone. She still remains in touch with Coop, her self-appointed guardian. Coop makes the three-hour drive in to see Quincy because he has some news. He tells Quincy that Lisa Milner, the eldest of the "final girls," has killed herself.

Quincy is stunned. Lisa (42) had been in touch with Quincy over the years to offer support. Lisa survived a massacre at her sorority house in Muncie, Indiana, and went on to become a child psychiatrist. Only Lisa, Quincy and Samantha "Sam" Boyd (36), who survived a massacre at the Tampa motel where she worked as a maid, know what it feels like to be the only person to endure and outlive their assailants. Samantha went off the grid years ago, so Quincy feels truly alone...until Sam shows up at Quincy's door. These two "final girls" form an alliance which may help--or destroy--Quincy.

Riley Sager has written a mesmerizing thriller, and Quincy Carpenter is an unreliable narrator with great complexity. Her trauma has caused her to lose trust in herself. She has survivor's guilt, she has amnesia, and, being lonely and over-medicated, she is easily psychologically manipulated. She spends a lot of effort trying to appear "fine," when she most definitely is not. Quincy, however, is not someone to be underestimated.

The narrative is told in two ways. Present-day Quincy is written in the first-person. Scenes from Pine Cottage are in the third-person, which helps maintain the mystery of what really happened ten years ago.

The character development and the plot development are subtle yet strong. Nothing is revealed before the author wants it to be, and there are delicious twists and shocks. Sager's pacing is flawless, speeding up during action scenes, and sensitive when dealing with exposition and Quincy's internal monologue.

The author clearly knows film history and, with a deft touch, pays homage to classic films like Gaslight, Diabolique, Rosemary's Baby, and Single White Female. FINAL GIRLS is a true original, and will be the psychological thriller everyone will be dying to read this summer.

Thank you to the author and the publisher, Dutton, who allowed me to read this novel through NetGalley. Publication Date: July 11, 2017 Length: 352 pages

It has been ten years since the night that Quinn Carpenter survived the massacre at Pine Cottage and became a "Final Girl." The press dubbed her a "Final Girl", along with Lisa, who survived a sorority house massacre and Sam, who survived a massacre at a motel. It has been hard to move on, especially since the details of that night have escaped her memory, but Quinn is a survivor. She lives with her boyfriend in an NYC apartment that she bought with survivor money, she runs a successful food blog, and is doing well. Until the day that her friend and savior, Coop, calls to tell her that Lisa has committed suicide. Coop was the officer on duty that night she ran out of the woods covered in the blood of her friends. It has been Coop to be by her side as she reintegrated into the world and tried to move past the events of that night. It is Coop who makes her feel safe. It is Coop who cautions her when Samantha Boyd, another Final Girl, shows up on Quinn's doorstep. Quinn is hesitant to welcome her, but she is really the only person who can even understand a fraction of what she has been through. When it is determined that Lisa was murdered Quinn's world quickly starts to spin out of control. Will she be able to finally recover the memories of that night? Or will someone do everything in their power to keep Quinn from remembering?

HOLY COW! Final Girls is by far the best thriller that I have read this year. There was more than one night that I had to close the book rather than read it alone in my dark bedroom. It truly terrified me. Quinn is the kind of character that appears to be strong but is really just a hot mess. She is addicted to Xanax, has a horrible relationship with her mom, and keeps secrets from her boyfriend. And all of that is before Sam Boyd even shows up. The book has an "80's horror flick - where are they now?" vibe - but that is not a bad thing. It is very fast paced - but not so fast that you can't keep up. And the author knows how to build the story so that you just cannot stop reading. You are hanging on to every word because you, like the media in the book, are morbidly fascinated by the Final Girls. It all builds to an explosive conclusion that will leave you absolutely shellshocked. I had NO IDEA how this book was going to turn out, but wowzers did it have a great conclusion. --CLICK HERE FOR SPOILERS

Bottom line - While Final Girls doesn't really get explicit with the gore, the graphic nature of the plot cannot be denied. These characters survived bloody massacres. Get past that though and you have a well written, incredibly intense thriller about a survivor just trying to live her life. You will not be disappointed with this one if you are looking to scare yourself and get your heart rate up.

Details:
Final Girls by Riley Sager
On Facebook
Pages: 352
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Publication Date: 7/11/2017
Buy it Here!

I need to start off by saying how much I loved the author’s attention to detail, there was the perfect amount without going overboard. I thought the writing flowed so beautifully, and how each flashback was introduced. It just flowed so amazingly.

Each character has completely different thought processes, which made for much better character development. Quincy was an admirable and strong character, I absolutely loved her. Sam tended to frustrate me with her almost fearless actions.

The twists and turns are like none I’ve ever seen and really added to the overall story. I loved all the quotes that were empowering to survivors of any trauma, I even wrote a few down in my personal notebook. I loved that there were touches on the subject of untreated PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). This book is easily one of my favorites of 2017!

This was a twisty read. I thought I had it all figured out about halfway through and I would’ve have been so disappointed if I had. I was wrong. This was an interesting story that revolved around 3 women who were known as Final Girls, meaning that they were the only survivors of horrific, murderous events.
The majority of this story is not really about those events but more of the lives of these women after. We do find out what had happened during the murders but the focus is the present.
I really liked this book and it was different then the type of thrillers I normally read. I gave this book 4 crowns.

This was a good one. Sorry I can't remember all the main characters names. It was about 2 books ago, so if I get names wrong I apologize.
Quincy is a "Final girl" a name derived from films where a horrible tragedy has taken place with a lone female survivor. When she's found by a police officer running from the woods, a grisly murder scene is found at a cabin where she had been staying with friends. All her friends are dead. Except Quincy. Ten years later she is making a new life in NYC with a new career and new boyfriend. But then she finds out a fellow Final girl has killed herself. She and Quincy and a girl named Samantha had all been linked in the press as Final girls but they had never kept in close touch. Soon after the girl is found dead, Final girl #3, Samantha shows up at quincys apt. What does she want? Why has she been off the grid for years?
Sam brings more questions than answers to Quincys life. And shows her a side of herself that Quincy would rather not know.
This was a great read - fast-paced, twists, and a couple of red herrings. I certainly will be looking for more from this author.

Eye-roll of an ending, bit of a slow, somewhat silly beginning. The writing felt overeager and stilted at the same time. Very typical of the genre. Didn't care for any of the characters at all by the end and few had any dimension at all. The twists were fine, but predictable by the end. Not very satisfying, felt like a mediocre Law & Order episode.

Talk about edge of your seat reading! I'm absolutely sure my fingers were glued to my kindle, white knuckled! I fell into this so much that reality disappeared.

The premise is pretty simple, Quincy Carpenter survived an attack on her friends and lived to tell the tale. Sadly, she got a badgering because of it. Not only from the cops that didn't totally believe her story, but from people that started to obsess with her.

Quincy settles into a routine and winds up making a life for herself, something far and away from the slaughter that happened ten years ago.

Downside, there are two views in this, the present and Quincy's past. I didn't fully care about the present Quincy although through getting to know her she tells the reader more about her past. It's not Quincy that is opening up though, she has refused to think about that night and pretends that her life is all cupcakes and roses. Literally. Sadly, she's not past it so when Samantha Boyd enters her life she is thrown for a whirl but instead of just telling Samantha to get out, she goes with it. Leaving me to believe that she wasn't fully happy with the facade she created anyway.

The entire telling of the story was interesting. There is a build up in both narrations. It's hard the way it is written to be able to see what Quincy does remember but I think that what the reader is shown is what the present Quincy can see. As she goes further down the rabbit hole, more and more is opening up, for her and for the reader, making almost a jigsaw puzzle as she sees more about that evening.

Samantha is a bit of a strange one though. Like seriously, I don't care who you are, some crazy person shows up at my door she is going to be seeing that door again really soon. I don't think there was quite enough holding the girls together. Quincy had a lot more choices than she is left to believe which frustrated me. She is also frustrated but she rolls with it and even gets herself into more trouble!

As she was catapulted to the end it seemed that there were clues, but not the ones I was suspecting. While I usually love when I do not figure out the main culprit, I don't love it when I CANNOT due to lack of evidence. There has to be something sprinkled somewhere, and although there are many clues that will lead the reader to many different endings the actual ending was a bit of a shocker but without the electricity to back it up.

I loved the book and even with the lack of clues I definitely recommend this one. The story has enough world and character building, maybe even too much, to drag the reader in and leave them wanting to know the answers. I was left thinking about this one for days after reading, which is always a good thing. Minus that one part at the end, all of it was great.

I had promised myself not to read any more thrillers with the word “girl” in the title because it has become so overused but I listened to my Goodreads friends, who never lead me astray, and read this novel, I’m so glad that I did. This has been the first thriller this year that has seriously felt like a thriller and honestly scared the heck out of me in parts!

If you’ve read the blurb or any reviews you know the the press had named three young women survivors of what could be called massacres “The Final Girls” because they were the ones left behind. None of them like being in this group.

The book is told from the POV of Quincy Carpenter, the only survivor of a grisly killing that took place in a cabin that she and her friends had rented to celebrate one of the girls birthday. Quincy has never been able to remember anything about the tragedy except the part where she is running through the woods and comes upon a highway patrolman who saves her life. Coop, as she has dubbed him has kept in touch with Quincy and she feels he is her personal hero. Quincy has never met the other two Final Girls, Lisa Milner and Samantha Boyd. She has managed to build a life for herself with a baking blog and some money from a fund that was set up when the tragedy occurred. She has a solid boyfriend, Jess, who doesn’t really play much of a part in the novel.

Things start to get rolling when Lisa is found dead, supposedly a suicide as she is found in the bathtub with her wrists slit. Samantha then shows up on Quincy’s doorstep and camps in her living room for days convincing her that they have to solve Lisa’s murder. Jeff senses trouble and doesn’t trust Sam.

Sam is able to convince Quincy that they need to stick together because they are the only two left and begins to try to get Quincy, in one way and then another, to remember what happened on that horrible day. She takes her back to the cabin where it all happened “I try not to think about the woods surrounding Pine Cottage, even though it’s all I can think about. That thick forest, filled with hidden dangers. It’s like I’m back there again, ready to break out into my life-or- death race through the trees. Sam heads deeper into the park and I follow even as a chant of worry forms in my thoughts -- This is dangerous. Wrong. “

I’m not going to spoil this great read for you with any more plot but this is a razor sharp thriller. I had my ideas of what would happen but in all but one I was proven so far off the mark that if it was a target I would have hit the wall, tree or whatever. The characters are well described, unique and extremely interesting. The plot moves at a very quick pace and there is no lag time anywhere in the book.

If you want to read what I think will be a blockbuster thriller this summer, pick up this great one by Riley Sager and you can thank me later.

Will also post to Amazon upon publication

Review posted to Amazon on 7/20/17

The mystery was fine. I did not guess the outcome, which is usually a plus for me, but it really came out of left field in a way that left me feeling unfulfilled.

Looking for a tricksy plot and an unreliable narrator, something like Gillian Flynn or Megan Miranda might cook up? Then check out Riley Sager's Final Girls (Dutton, digital galley), a well-constructed thriller whose title comes from the old horror film trope where one girl survives a mass murder. In Sager's tale, Quincy Carpenter has rejected the tabloid moniker and moved on in the years since her college friends were massacred in a cabin in the Pennsylvania woods. She has a successful baking blog and a live-in lawyer boyfriend, and it helps that she has almost no memory of the murders and appeases her survivors' guilt by regularly checking in with Coop, the cop who saved her life. But then another Final Girl -- Lisa, who survived a sorority house attack -- is found dead, believed to be a suicide -- and Samantha Boyd, who fought off a mass murderer in a Florida motel, shows up at Quincy's door. As troubled Sam provokes Quincy to tap into her buried anger and memories, interspersed chapters flash back to the fateful Pine Cottage weekend, generating menace and suspense. Readers may think they know where the story is headed, and maybe they do, but they also may be in for a shock. Quincy sure is.

from On a Clear Day I Can Read Forever

I know I am in a minority here but wasn't a fan of this book. In the books defense I think the story was so similar to another book I had just finished so I was bord

You all know my deep deep love for horror movies, and that I have a serious guilty-ish pleasure for the slasher film genre. There are so many things about it that are kind of grotesque and trite, but I really do enjoy a slash ’em up kind of flick like “Halloween”, “Friday the 13th”, or “Scream”. I think that my love for that subgenre stems from my time as an awkward teenager who was a bit more cautious and shy than some of her lady friends. Because of this, I really related to the “Final Girl” trope that those movies almost always trot out: the virginal good girl who triumphs over evil and is the only one who can vanquish the bloodthirsty villain. The movie “Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon” did a great job of deconstructing the concept of the Final Girl, as did the movie “Final Girls”, and I’ve been aching to read a book about it as well. When Lauren Beukes “Survivors’ Club” didn’t quite get there, my only hope left was “Final Girls” by Riley Sager, and BOY am I THRILLED to say that this book nailed it and gave me everything I needed.

The very scenarios given in this book as the mass killings that the Final Girls endured are so textbook 80s slasher film that I was living a Dayglow glittered fever dream. You have the college kids in a cabin in the woods, the sorority house massacre, and the isolated motel ambush with a killer who is wearing a sack on his head! PERFECTION. But even beyond setting up the perfect slasher scenarios, Sager also painted pictures of how an actual ‘Final Girl’ might endure after the trauma. As much as we love the idea of Nancy Thmpson or Laurie Strode going on to live happy lives, in the real world the consequences would be far more long lasting. Quincy is a complete mess whose outward appearance is a lie to the pain underneath. She has her baking blog and her true blue fiance, but she is addicted to Xanax and unable to let go of Coop, the cop who saved her all those years ago from a killer in the woods. She has distanced herself from other survivors of violent massacres, Lisa and Sam, because while the media loves to lump them together, she just wants to be herself and to live her life. I really loved Quincy for her full damaged self.

The thing that surprised me the most about this book was that it wasn’t the meta and self referential homage that I was expecting it to be, even though it’s set up was one hundred percent spot on for such a novel. Instead there was a serious mystery here, specifically involving Sam. After Lisa, the original and perhaps most ‘with it’ Final Girl is found dead of an apparent suicide, Quincy is approached by the second, Sam, who had been off the grid for years. The mystery at the heart of this book is about Sam’s experiences, as well as Quincy’s. Though I went in thinking that it would be about the two of them teaming up to find a killer, it turned out to be something much different. And then it superseded my expectations AGAIN when it also became a question about Quincy and her experience at a cabin in the woods. The movies like to portray these Final Girl types as innocents caught up in a whirlwind of circumstance, the ultimate Madonnas who are better than the Whores that surround them and therefore they get to live. But Sager poses that perhaps it’s more interesting if they are just complex, well rounded people instead of just a trope, and questions whether being innocent is the absolute only thing you can be to deserve to survive something as brutal as a slasher killer.

I truly enjoyed this book as a fan of the slasher genre, even if it wasn’t the self satisfied wink fest I thought it was going to be. Fans of this genre really need to go out and get their hands on “Final Girls”. Quincy has every right to stand with Laurie Strode, Nancy Thompson, and all those other badass women who take out those who wish them ill, and she can do it while still being damaged.