A very good psychological thriller, an excellent read. It is really an unputdownable book, that will keep you guessing and going till the very last page. The characters are well defined, the plot is fast paced and full of twists.
Highly recommended.

This book is a firm 5 stars plus.
This book has everything a good thriller needs a murder unreliable characters and a good plot plus I didn't guess the ending which is a good plus.
I was lucky enough to get this book from netgalley as I wished for it and got picked to read it.
Thank You.
A must read.

A really great read, very dark in places, but a killer twist I didn't see coming at all, very exciting, heart rate just calming down now

Thank you to NetGalley, Ebury Press and Riley Sager for my copy of this novel.

First of all THIS book – WOW – this is a strong and immersive debut novel. I have been hearing about this book for a while but didn’t pay much attention to it until I came upon it again and started reading the reviews and following the reviews on Goodreads (daily). I decided to check NetGalley for it and to my luck I requested and got approved for this novel. I am so grateful to have gotten a chance to read it now!

This book focuses mainly on Quincy Carpenter who is a ‘Final Girl’ – the sole survivor of a massacre. Ten years have passed since the massacre at Pine Cottage hapened and Quincy has a boyfriend and a baking blog but she still can’t shake the feeling of that horrible night and the cottage in which she lost her friends. There are three ‘Final Girls’ – Lisa Milner, Samantha Boyd and our protagonist Quincy Carpenter. Then something happens to Lisa Milner which causes an unease in Quincy. Quickly after the death of Lisa Milner, the second ‘Final Girl’ Samantha Boyd appears in front of Quincy’s building. This is where the story starts to thicken and all hell breaks loose. Being a ‘Final Girl’ has it’s consequences and the women who experienced that terrible fear and shock possess something that others don’t.

An amazing debut novel from Riley Sager. It is compared to ‘Gone Girl’ which no book can beat but this book has it’s own power which makes it unique and a MUST read. Riley Sager writes really well, she gets under your skin with scary scenes. This novel is full of twists and turns which are cleverly done. I must say that at one point I did predict what was going to happen but the last 100 pages were so fast-paced, gut wrenching and wonderfully done. Also I really loved the references to Old Hollywood movies (Vertigo..) and stars (Grace Kelly, James Stewart..). Riley Sager has become one of my top authors now.

I would definitely recommend this book to everyone – especially lovers of mystery/thriller genre. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed by this book!

I know, I know, another book with "girls" in the title. But Final Girls actually works. It's the term given to the last female character standing in a horror film. Even though these female characters have obviously been through hell and back, they're still referred to as girls. But what's worse is that this term is applied to real women who go through hell and come out the other side. Misogyny at it's finest.

Quincy (sorry, horrible name) is a Final Girl, as the lone survivor of a massacre at Pine Cottage, a cabin in the woods, when she was nineteen. It's the typical slasher storyline - a bunch of teenagers are drinking in a cabin in the middle of nowhere, their phones are all left in the car, there's sex and booze and a weird stranger that turns up and gets invited to stay, to join in the fun. And the birthday girl, Janelle, is your typical slasher movie victim. Despite any descriptions, I envisioned her as a blonde cheerleader, curvy, excitable, experienced. She encourages Quincy to sleep with Craig, and when Quincy changes her mind (hello almost rape-not-rape scene, where Quincy says stop and Craig says come on, we agreed, let's do this), Janelle fucks him instead. Quincy sees them, her feelings are hurt, but does she turn to murder? Mystery, mystery. It really couldn't be more predictable.

This review sounds negative, but actually, Final Girls was extremely enjoyable. Despite - or, perhaps, because of - the predictability, you're lulled into a false sense of security. Come on, you think, as you read with bated breath. It's got to be X, or Y. You can't fool me, Sager! But actually, Sager can, and did, fool me. The ending took me by surprise, and the final 30-ish% was utterly engrossing.

Quincy is your typical unreliable narrator, doped up on Xanax and hiding away from her memories of Pine Cottage. She's not a Final Girl, she says, her mother says, her boyfriend says. She's moved past it. She's bigger than that, stronger. But when she hears of Lisa's suicide, and Sam shows up on her doorstep, it becomes clear that Quincy is barely holding on.

Just an odd side note: Anitrophylin is mentioned a few times as an antidepressant that is also used as a sleep aid. After a quick Google, it became clear that anitrophylin doesn't exist. Perhaps the author meant amitriptyline? Because I'm on amitriptyline for fibromyalgia, & I can confirm that it is quite capable of knocking someone out. I'm not sure if the author meant to make a name up, or if they just couldn't remember amitriptyline, but there it is. Anyway.

Final Girls is thrilling. It's one of those engrossing guilty pleasures, like those slasher films that still make you jump, even though they're crap. But Final Girls isn't crap. It's full of twists and thrills that will mess you up, and keep you hooked. Apparently it won't be released until July, so, if you want to read it, sucks to be you.

Wow! Talk about twists and turns & an ending I did not see coming! What an absolute cracker of a read. I'm still in shock. This is a great read if you love crime, thrillers. I can't really say too much without giving the story away- you must read it yourself.

Final Girls - a very popular slasher movie trope - is given a new meaning in this wicked thriller from an exciting new author... It's dark, fast paced, thrilling and above all, FUN. Definitely a worthwhile read for James Patterson fans.

I quite enjoyed this book! I found the pacing slightly off, but once I knew where the story was heading I was completely invested in it.

What a great book! Had me gripped from the first page, I read it in one sitting (off work poorly and this book helped me through it!) ; I never saw the twist coming at the end! Loved every page!

A full review will be posted at www.writingfromthetub.co.uk in my January review round up at the end of the month.

I am a big fan of 90's slasher films like Scream etc, so when I saw this book I had to read it. The 3 girls, now dubbed the Final Girls by the media, all survived massacres reminiscint of teen horror films and now someone is trying to kill them off, one by one.

The narrator is one of the survivors, Quincy. I really liked her character, and it was fascinating reading as she slowly tried to remember what had happened that night after losing her memory of the actual attack.

Although I knew there were big twists coming up, or did not trust certain characters, the ending was a complete surprise to me. It's hard to believe this is a debut novel. I look forward to read more from Riley Sager.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Penguin Random House UK, Ebury Publishing for an advance copy of Final Girls.

Final Girl is a term from the horror movie industry and refers to the girl left alive at the end of the film. This is the title the press give to Lisa, Sam and Quincy who have all survived separate massacres. Despite this title the women have never met and have no contact after some initial calls between Quincy and Lisa, but when Lisa is found dead in an apparent suicide Sam, who has been living off the grid for 8 years, turns up at Lisa's apartment. What happens after that is the meat of the novel.

Quincy has apparently recovered from her ordeal which she can't remember. She is comfortably off thanks to settlements arising from the massacre, lives a quiet life with her boyfriend, Jeff, and works as a baking blogger. She has a difficult relationship with her mother and gets the support she needs from the State Trooper who found her after the attack, Franklin "Coop" Cooper. Sam hasn't done so well. She is secretive about her past but seems to be a drifter with the smoking and drinking to match.

I enjoyed the beginning and end of the novel but the middle seems a bit pointless and nasty. It almost made me stop reading the book but I'm glad I continued as the ending is excellent and came as quite a surprise. Ms Sager does a good job of pacing the novel introducing initially the mystery of Pine Cottage where Quincy was attacked and what happened then segueing smoothly into the mystery of Sam's motivations and actions until it is all resolved in a near ending.

I think the changes in Quincy's behaviour, in the middle of the novel, are inexplicable and highly implausible as a character trait, but probably necessary to ramp up the tension in the plot and increase the number of potential endings the reader will inevitably speculate on.

I think Final Girls is a fairly good read but not the outstanding thriller of the year the hype would have you believe.

This was all out action packed with more twists and turns than a fairground waltzer

Wow what a fabulous psychological thriller .The story was a real page turner which had me gripped .There were so many twists and turns I was almost breathless.I guessed the ending twice and was wrong I did not guess the ending.!.Brilliant if I could give it more stars I would .

Really good premise with good build up of suspense. I guessed the 'twist' way before the reveal though which I don't usually so a bit disappointed, hence the three stars

Excellent...lots of red herrings kept me guessing right until the end

HELL YEAH!

This is everything you want from a good thriller. This is a book where the plot slowly adds up to a great climax. I did NOT see that coming.

This book is like an awesome rollercoaster ride. When you think you will go left, you go right. And most of this ride is in the dark.

The main character is awesome, you go from loving her, to hating her, to doubting her, to loving her again. The side-characters are great and really add something to the story. The plot is unbelievable good.

One of the best thrillers I've reed in a LONG time!! READ. THIS. NOW.

This book had so many twists and turns it made me dizzy. I think this year is going to be a great year for psychological thrillers and this is definitely worth a read.
It is clear to the reader from the opening passages of the book that the protagonist, Quincy Carpenter, is a survivor. The forest had claws and teeth. All those rocks and claws and branches bit as Quincy as she ran screaming through the woods. But she didn’t stop. Not when the rocks dug into the bare soles of her bare feet. Not when a whip-thin branch lashed her face and a line of blood stretched across her cheek.
Quincy runs through the woods until she gets to a main road and a policeman. With the pain came the realization. One so brutally awful that it had to be true. Only Quincy remained. All the others were dead .She was the last one left alive.
Via a series of flashbacks we learn Quincy was celebrating her friend Janelle’s birthday in Pine Cottage, a cabin paid for by Janelle’s parents. Quincy can only remember fragments of memory as she has repressed memory syndrome.
"My experience at Pine Cottage is broken into two distinct halves. There’s the beginning, fraught with fear and confusion, in which Janelle lurched out of the woods, not yet dead but well on the way. Then there’s the end, in which Coop found me in my red-not-red dress.
Everything between these two points remains a blank in my memory. An hour, more or less, entirely wiped clean".

“Final girls is technically film terminology, used to describe the last woman standing at the end of a horror movie. At least that’s what I’ve been told. Even before Pine Cottage. I never liked to watch scary movies because of the fake blood, the rubber knives, the characters who make decisions so stupid I guiltily thought they deserved to die.
Only what happened to us wasn’t a movie. It was our real life. Our lives. The blood wasn’t fake. The knives were steel and nightmare-sharp. And those who died definitely didn’t deserve it. But somehow we screamed louder, ran faster, fought harder. We survived.”
Lisa Milner was the first of the so-called ‘Final Girls.’ Lisa was living in a sorority house in Indiana when a man knocked on the door. The girl who answered it was stabbed to death as were nine other girls who lived with her. One of the local papers was the first to call her a Final Girl.
Quincy was seven when it happened and saw it because her mum was watching it on the news, then four years later it was Samantha Boyd and finally 8 years later Quincy became a Final Girl.
In the present Quincy takes refuge in her baking, she likes the order of it. She has a blog called ‘Quincy’s Sweets’ on which she places her artfully arranged baked goods. Quincy’s apartment is paid for by money gained from a series of lawsuits filed by Janelle’s stepfather and the other parents.
Quincy is icing cupcakes when she receives a text from Coop, the police officer who rescued her from the events at Pine Cottage.
“We need to talk. Face 2 face. My fingers pause above the screen. Although it takes Coop three hours to drive into Manhattan, it’s a trip he’s willingly made many times in the past. When it’s important.
I text back. When?…
A spot of worry presses the base of my spine. Coop’s already here. Which means only one thing – something is wrong.”
Quincy takes a Xanex before meeting him in order to ease her building anxiety. She meets him in their usual place, he likes to check in on her every six months.
No matter how many times I see him, the moment is always there playing on a loop while I push it away.
'They’re dead,' I had choked out while clutching him, the words gurgling thickly in the back of my throat.' They’re all dead. And he’s still out there.'
Ten seconds later, he saved my life.
Their visits are a bit like a therapy session with him only giving away minimal information about his life but wanting to know every detail of how she is coming. The closest he gets to showing affection is on my birthday, when he sends the same text. ”Another year you almost didn’t get. Live it.
This time though he has a special reason for coming to see her: Lisa is dead. He wanted to make sure she knew before the press got to know and begin to hound her.
Quincy is unbalanced by Lisa’s death. Lisa who offered to help her and teach her how to be a Final Girl, how much to talk to the press, and how to cope with life after. Quincy spoke to her on the phone but chose not to take her up on the offer.
When she returns to her apartment she finds an email from Lisa sent an hour before she died. The email says she needs to talk to her about something extremely important. Quincy, and the reader along with her, wonders what she wanted to talk to her about.
When Sam Boyd turns up at Quincy’s apartment after years off the grid Quincy feels she has to invite her to stay. After all Sam is the only one who knows what it is like to be a Final Girl but does she have an ulterior motive?
The characters in this book are highly convincing, intriguing and on the whole likeable. The story is very, very good but the characters are what makes this a must read book for 2017.

Thank you Riley Sager and Netgalley for a copy in exchange of an honest review.
OMG I have just read one of the best psychological thrillers of 2017 and I cannot believe that it is a debut novel. Absolutely amazing work Riley, just brilliant. I am a reader who easily picks through the clues and red herrings, the one who knows the ending a little before time ....... well not this book, Riley you had me second guessing myself many times with your twists and turns. Many a time I had to put the book down and calm my nerves, picking it up again once my heart starting beating properly. Bravo!
I eagerly await you next novel with baited breath.
I highly recommend this novel, just clear your schedule because you won't be able to put it down until the very end ..... and then you will be a Survivor too.

Three young women who survived unimaginable horror: Lisa, Quincy, and Samantha.
Quincy is the only survivor of a massacre in a wood cabin, 10 years ago, when her friends got murdered. Lisa has lost nine sorority sisters to a college dropout’s knife.During her shift at the Nightlight Inn, Samantha went up against the Sack Man.
All three girls are named by the press as The Final Girls, even though they don't really know each other very well. They've talked a few times only, but they've never met.

Just when Quincy thinks that her life came back to normal, she is given the horrible news that Lisa is dead. Soon after that, Samantha turned up on her doorstep and turned her life upside down.
I enjoyed reading this book. Is going to be one of the best psychological thrillers of 2017. The characters are unreliable and sympathetic. Quincy and Samantha are two different girls, with so opposite personalities. One is the normal girl who dresses normally, the other one is choosing black clothes and piercings.

Their struggle to survive is magnificent. Quincy doesn't want to remember anything about what happened ten years ago, but Samantha wishes for her to do. I felt that their relationship is like having an angel and a demon telling you what to do but instead you want to do something absolutely different by the two.

The story is so well written that the writer makes you doubt about the each girl's stories.

You thought that you've figured out the plot? Don't be a fool. You didn't.

A well-written book that you must read this year.

Thank you Netgalley for this book that I've got in return for an honest review!