[Review] Final Girls - Riley Sager

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. (Pub Date: Jul 11, 2017)


Review based on an ARC provided for free by Netgalley. Thank you to the publisher for giving me this opportunity.

3.5, actually. It's definitely a page turner, it makes you itchy to know what happened and what will happen to the main character. My problem was that it still lacked some oomph and any character I could actually cheer for. But let's talk about the plot first.

Final Girls are what people call the sole survivors from massacres. Even in real life, there are three of those, Lisa, Samantha and the main character, Quincy. But Quincy doesn't feel she is one, she doesn't even remember what happened that night all her friends and boyfriend died. She only remembers being found by police officer Coop, who still now takes care of her. Despite what her current boyfriend thinks, secretly she still has a lot to deal with, like a compulsion to steal shiny things so she can see her reflex. She is under control until she hears about Lisa's suicide and so-far-off-the-radar Samantha shows up in front of her home.

The story is mainly narrated in first person from Quincy's point of view but there small parts done in third person, still from her point of view. This is a minor complaint but whenever they changed to third person, it would feel like a cold shower. I kind of understand the effect Sager was going for—this mainly happened for flashbacks to the night of the massacre—, but I don't think the pro was worth the con.

My big issue was that I couldn't cheer for any character. A big reason was that I suspected anyone, even some homeless guy who was mentioned once, lol. That's a good thing for a thriller, right? I still manage to pick a side, to want to protect someone there. It didn't happen in this book. No one came too close to being likeable. Which made this book not likeable for me.

We have quite a number of plot twists. Some I hadn't considered, so I can't call it predictable. And even those I considered, it wasn't the type I was sure it could only be that. That's why I repeat, this was surely a page turner. And very easy to read too. I'm not a fast reader but I read the second half in basically one sitting, I didn't even want to stop to go to the bathroom.

Nonetheless, the twists weren't much surprising. On the bright side, they weren't the type that makes you want to throw the book against the wall. Nor were they too expected, we had other possible options. This brings us back to what I mentioned, the book lacked oomph. The wow element. And it lacked good characters.

However, it's a book I can say very few could utterly hate. Some may even fall in love with it. If you're interested, go ahead and give it a try. As for me, I just liked it, nothing more, nothing less. In fact, I want to read more from Sager, because chances are high I'll find something I really love.

Rating: 3 out of 5