Review: Final Girls

Posted on July 3, 2017 inFiction, Thriller

“Nothing is wrong. I’m completely normal. If I believe it enough, it’ll come true.”

 

Let me start by saying that I don’t watch slasher films, horror movies aren’t my thing, and . . . I’ve never read a Steven King novel. (I know, I know. Don’t come after me with pitchforks.) So when I kept seeing a ton of buzz around Riley Sager’s slasher/thriller novel Final Girls, I wanted to read it, but I was nervous. In the end, the plot description drew me in and I decided to throw caution to the wind and read it. (With all the lights on.) I am SO glad that I did.

The title of the book refers to the final girl always left at the end of a horror movie. In the book, there is a Final Girls club, so to speak. Over the years, three girls, each the sole survivor of their own real-life mass murder stories, become known to the media as the Final Girls. The story centers around the most recent Final Girl, Quincy Carpenter. Ten years earlier she went on a vacation with five friends to a remote cabin in the woods. She was the only one to return. Now, she seems well adjusted, has a popular baking blog, a nice apartment, and a perfect boyfriend. She still keeps in touch with Coop, the police officer who rescued her ten years ago. Everything is going well. Until Lisa, the first Final Girl, turns up dead and Sam, the second Final Girl, shows up in New York looking for Quincy. What follows is a race against time. Quincy is trying to figure out what really happened at the cabin all those years ago before someone else shows up to finish the job.

I really don’t want to say too much more about the plot, because I REALLY want you to read it. In any thriller, I am always suspicious of suspecting the obvious person as the one whodunit. In Final Girls, Riley Sager (a pseudonym for a previously published author-another mystery for you to solve) does a wonderful job of placing suspicious elements on each and every character. I didn’t even want to wager a guess as to who it was or what really happened because a believable case was made for everyone.

I read Final Girls in a day, which is something I rarely do, because I just couldn’t put it down. It’s a thriller without being gory, and with all the suspense you could want. This type of book is not normally in my wheelhouse, but I guess it is now! I hope Riley Sager continues to write more books, because I am all in for every single one.

Final Girls is out on July 11! It is also a Book of the Month Club pick for July! If you want to try Book of the Month Club at a special rate, e-mail me and I’ll send you a referral code. (I am a paying member of Book of the Month Club! I just really think it’s an awesome deal!!)

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

 

Thank you to Netgalley and Dutton Books for the digital ARC to review! All opinions are my own.