THE NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER “If you liked Gone Girl, you’ll like this.”—Stephen King Ten years ago, six friends went on vacation. One made it out alive…. In that instant, college student Quincy Carpenter became a member of a very exclusive club—a group of survivors the press dubbed “The Final Girls”: Lisa, who lost nine sorority sisters to a college dropout’s knife; Sam, who … to a college dropout’s knife; Sam, who endured the Sack Man during her shift at the Nightlight Inn; and now Quincy, who ran bleeding through the woods to escape the massacre at Pine Cottage. Despite the media’s attempts, the three girls have never met.
Now, Quincy is doing well—maybe even great, thanks to her Xanax prescription. She has a caring almost-fiancé; a popular baking blog; a beautiful apartment; and a therapeutic presence in Coop, the police officer who saved her life. Her mind won’t let her recall the events of that night; the past is in the past…until the first Final Girl is found dead in her bathtub and the second Final Girl appears on Quincy’s doorstep.
Blowing through Quincy’s life like a hurricane, Sam seems intent on making her relive the trauma of her ordeal. When disturbing details about Lisa’s death emerge, Quincy desperately tries to unravel Sam’s truths from her lies while evading both the police and bloodthirsty reporters. Quincy knows that in order to survive she has to remember what really happened at Pine Cottage.
Because the only thing worse than being a Final Girl is being a dead one.
WINNER OF THE 2018 INTERNATIONAL THRILLER WRITERS AWARD FOR BEST HARDCOVER NOVEL
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Do you like boring, flat, and stupid characters? How about terribly interwoven backstories featuring people named Rodney, Betz, and Janelle? Do awful twists really get your motor running? Then this is the book for you!
Very good…really enjoyed the entire book…
Final Girls is a compulsive read, with characters who are at once unreliable and sympathetic. Just when you think you’ve figured out the plot, the story pivots in a startling new direction. . . . A taut and original mystery that will keep you up late trying to figure out a final twist that you won’t see coming.
Smart and provocative, with plenty of twists and turns, Final Girls will have the reader racing breathlessly toward its shocking conclusion.
You think you know everything, you think you have it all planned out, then i promise you, you are very wrong. Plan to stay up late finishing this amazing book.
*3.5-4 Stars*
Copy kindly received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Final Girls was an interesting take on a crime/thriller novel. The interesting concept of being a “final girl” takes on a whole new turn when one of them winds up dead, and another appears out of nowhere.
Of course the whole time I was thinking it was one particular person, the way the author has written the story to make you think you’re onto them. But then by the end, everything I thought I knew, was totally wrong and I got the shock of my life.
This is an interesting take on dealing with the aftermath of being the sole survivor of a heinous crime, and how one proceeds with their life.
I enjoyed reading this and would probably try more books by this author in the future.
Lisa, Samantha, and Quincy are the sole survivors of three horrible massacres—Final Girls—until one of them turns up dead. Initially ruled a suicide, Lisa’s unexpected demise sets off a chain of events that leaves the other two with only each other for comfort.
Samantha Boyd, who has been in hiding for years, turns up in New York City, asking for help from Quincy Carpenter, the Final Girl with a severe case of memory loss. All of Quincy’s friends were murdered at Pine Cottage, a tragedy she’s worked hard to put behind her in favor of “normalcy.”
Quincy spends her days baking and working on her blog, living with her attorney boyfriend, Jeff, who acts, more often than not, as a voice of reason, and whose help Samantha seems to have been looking to enlist from the beginning.
Samantha is a dark presence. Someone who pushes Quincy outside of her comfort zone and sets off all the usual warning alarms to everyone around her, including to Coop, the police officer who had saved Quincy’s life at the cabin all those years ago. What is Samantha’s story? Where has she been? Why is she here? And what did she have to do with Lisa’s death, if anything? As Samantha more or less forces her way into Quincy’s life, the details surrounding Lisa’s suicide-turned-homicide casts a whole lot of suspicion onto Lisa, now comfortably nestled in Quincy’s guest room.
Riley Sager wrote one hell of a page turner. I could easily have read this in one day, but had to force myself to put it down, because… life. When I wasn’t reading this book, I was thinking about reading it. It’s been a while since I’ve been this engrossed. Excellent characters, a twisty-turny, unputdownable plot with slasher film charm, and some top-notch writing puts this among my favorite reads of the past few years. Maybe of all time. Any complaints I have (like the serious overuse of the character’s names in dialogue) are trivial nit-crits. Overall, a great book! I highly recommend it.
ARC provided for an honest review
All I can say is wow.
I have never read anything by this author before and would not hesitate again. This book is well written with twists in the plot that make you feel you have all the answers but actually don’t.
Quincys evolving journey through being a final girl eminates a number of emotions and especially when she meets Sam you wonder what will become of her.
Sams character is so well written that you have a love /hate relationship with her.
I had a lot going on when I read this book so had to keep putting it down and coming back to it but it was like I had never left the story,it pulled you straight back in.
I can’t wait to read more by this author. A must read.
inal Girls by Riley Sager is the must read book of 2017. I was blown away as I read, constantly on the edge of my seat, biting my nails because this is the ultimate horror/thriller that will give you the chills. You do not want to read this book alone or in an empty house later at night. You’ll definitely won’t want to go camping or spend a relaxing weekend at a cabin in the middle of nowhere. Riley Sager ups the terror tenfold in a way I can’t compare to other thrillers of this magnitude. The horror aspect isn’t supernatural, but it does feel like that at times, especially during the flashbacks. This has a great horror atmosphere on par with Friday the 13th, Evil Dead, Halloween and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The twists and turns will you keep you guessing until the very end. The main protagonist is unreliable at times, much like the ones in Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train, but Riley doesn’t stereotype her protagonist or copy her traits we’ve seen in both these prior blockbuster novels. Final Girls is on a level all it’s own that will be one of the most talked about books of the summer.
Quincy is a food blogger who lives with her district attorney boyfriend in New York City. Ten years ago Quincy survived a horrible massacre by a deranged killer who murdered her friends from college, including her best friend and boyfriend. She was dubbed as one of the Final Girls, a trio of young women who were the only survivors of serial killers. Quincy has recovered from her trauma, but barely. She doesn’t speak to her mother, and she is always looking over her shoulder. She hides in plain sight, but is cautious because of the press and paparazzi who would love her to give them a tell all about herself. She is also friends with Coop. the police officer who found her that night, and ended up shooting to death the man who brutally killed her friends. They have kept in touch, but Coop keeps her at a distant for some reason. But then one day he ends up in NYC suddenly because he wants to warn her. The first Final Girl Lisa, has killed herself by slitting her wrists in her bathtub. And then out of the blue, the second Final Girl shows up to speak to Quincy. She’s Sam who survived from a serial killer at a motel she worked at.
Quincy is suspicious of Sam because she has trouble trusting people in general, but as she gets to know Sam, they bond. Quincy even invites Sam to stay with her and her boyfriend for a few days. But as Sam asks Quincy about that night of horror, which Quincy can’t remember, she begins to have flashbacks of that weekend, leading up to the night everyone she cared for was murdered. As her memories return, Quincy is finding out things she doesn’t want to acknowledge, including an anger and rage she has kept hidden below the surface that’s ready to bubble over.
The best parts of Final Girls are Quincy’s flashbacks when she and her friends were carefree and enjoying their weekend at the cabin in the woods. As Quincy’s memory slow returns of that weekend, the terror and tension increases in a way that you’ll be holding your breath. The last 50 pages will make your heart race and cause major breathing problems because you’re taken on a rollercoaster of a ride as Quincy figures out everything. When all is revealed, it’s a major shock; and what a shock it is.
The only issue I had, which is very small, are the ways Sam forced Quincy to confront her past and the fear and rage she had inside of her. Their actions that takes place in Central Park to battle their demons was a little out of left field and felt fake, as if to set up a certain path for Quincy, a possible red herring to keep readers guessing. But if you can get past this plot device, Final Girls delivers the goods. This is one book that deserves all the praise.
A scary, heart-stopping thriller, the kind of book you probably shouldn’t read when your husband/wife/roommate/partner is out of town. It’s that scary.
I also read this book recently on vacation and it was a definite page turner! Highly recommend.
Suspenseful
Final Girls is one of those books where I’d love to sit and chat with the author and ask all my WTF questions. There are still places in the story where I want answers, and it’s really hard to give a review without giving spoilers. I can say that this is a very interesting read, the beginning is a bit slow, and I wanted to throat punch Quincy a few times, but overall, this is a good suspense story, and I’d recommend.
I could barely put this book down! I had it for about 2 weeks before I dare read it (it’s not my usual read; I’m a bit of a chicken), and it was a final book on my summer reading bingo for the library. That said, I was actually looking forward to it, despite my procrastination. The cover alone drew me in.
Every time I thought I got things figured out, I was wrong, and the plot moved in another direction. Turns out even when some of the plot was how I thought it might be, there was something about it that was totally original and exciting for me. Sometimes I felt irritated by the characters’ choices and that was fine; I was right to be…! The writing style was fluid and even with the jumps back to the past (they were done in a coherent manner), I enjoyed Riley’s writing. I think I expected the book to be different somehow than it actually was, but nonetheless, thoroughly enjoyed it. Looking forward to another book from her!
Not quite a 4 but better than a 3.
Riley Sager has done a very god job of holding my attention with Final Girls. The overarching premise follows the horror film generic ending of the sole survivor of a massacre which is always the woman/girl. Mr Sager’s book picks up where the horror films end. What happens after? How does the life of a Final Girl change, or does it?
There are 3 Final Girls, Lisa, Sam, and Quinn. All 3 have gone through separate ordeals. What ties them together is their survival when all the others died. The primary focus is on Quinn. 10 years ago she was the sole survivor of an attacker who claimed the lives of 5 of her friends at a weekend getaway. She has apparently moved on with her life. Or so she likes to tell others. But moving on requires Xanax, wine and petty theft. She receives news that Lisa, the only Final Girl she has met, has committed suicide. This is when Sam appears on the scene to connect with Quinn even though she dropped from sight after her attack many years ago.
So the stage is set. The questions that arise are, Why has Sam suddenly decided to rejoin the world? Why did Lisa commit suicide when she seemed to be the most stable of the 3? Why can’t Quinn remember the night of her attack?
Riley Sager gives a clear voice to Quinn. Although we don’t know much about Sam we can see how she influences Quinn to begin to recall that night. The dialog, the shared events, and the blurred memory have a ring of truth. This is where I think Mr Sager shines. He gives the few days that Sam and Quinn spend together a natural evolution. You may not understand Sam’s underlying motive but you can clearly see Quinn’s reaction.
The story, in my opinion, misfires on the ending. It is unexpected but in an unnatural way. The fluidity of the story now becomes “Oh Look, I’ve got a Pretty Monkey Wrench to Show You”, when there was no need to throw that particular wrench into the machinery. A more plausible ending would have garnered this read a solid 4.
My thanks to Riley Sager and to Dutton Publishing for my free copy in exchange for my honest review.
This is a good thriller with a tight plot and LOTS of red herrings…I kept changing my mind about who the culprit was…and at the end I realized I should have guessed right away. I highly recommend this book even if it is about 100 pages too long.
The “Final Girl” is the name given by the press in this book to similar sole survivors of large massacres. Quincy Carpenter is one of the Final Girls who slowly pieces her life back together after being the only one to survive a stabbing massacre during a weekend college birthday bash at a cottage in the woods. Final Girls is Quincy’s story, a story that does not include any memory of the night of the massacre. Quincy gets through each day with one Xanax and a swallow or two of grape soda. She has Jeff her lawyer fiancé and Coop the policeman she remembers saving her life giving her strength and helping her move on. Quincy’s story would not be complete without the two other Final Girls. Lisa, the survivor telling them all to be strong and win and Sam that we slowly get to meet. Page by page you are drawn into Quincy’s life and you begin to wonder just what is going on until… Yes, you guessed it there are twists.
I loved this book the only thing I wish were different is I wish the story would have been told about the pine cottage massacre! My favorite parts were the flashbacks but honestly I’m a sucker for a good scary movie, which explains my love of the flashbacks!
I was not expecting the ending though, and I was constantly questioning everyone’s motives throughout the whole book and I PROMISE you won’t guess the ending either
I went into this book with very few expectations. I know that it has received a lot of hype from many people but I’ve discovered that often times that sort of praise leads me to expect more from a book than I normally would. With that said, I really liked this book! I had no idea what a “final girl” was before reading however.
The book centers around 3 final girls (Quincy, Lisa, and Sam). They are all sole survivors of horrific incidents where multiple people were murdered. When one of the final girls commits suicide, another one comes out of hiding to connect with the third and only remaining final girl. All is not what it seems though!
The story is told in two different threads. The first thread narrates the story of Quincy in the present. She has little memory of what occurred at Pine Cottages the night she was attacked and her group of friends were murdered. She doesn’t want to be labeled as a final girl and simply sees herself as a survivor. When Sam seeks her out, after Lisa’s suicide, Quincy struggles to keep her memories repressed while Sam tries to force her to remember. The second thread is a gradual retelling of the events that occurred at Pine Cottage.
I liked the unpredictability of this book. I had thought there were several different ways the plot could go, and to my delight, something completely unexpected happened. While some readers may be disappointed by the reality of it, I was willing to suspend belief and enjoy the story for what it was. I also liked that there were times when I felt a genuine creepiness and was on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to happen. The story had a slow simmer with bouts of intensity scattered throughout that was a perfect reading blend for me.
In my opinion, this is a definite read and I would certainly recommend it to others!