Title: Final Girls A Novel

Author: Riley Sager

Rating: 4.5 stars

Synopsis:

Quincy is a final girl. She is the only survivor of a mass murderer who killed all her friends during their stay in a cabin in the woods. In a form of self-preservation, her memories of that night were blocked. She remembers going to the cabin and spending the day with her friends, she remembers meeting him, and then she remembers running to the road and to the cop who shot the killer and saved her life.

This incident made her part of a club no one wants to be a part of. The Final Girls. With Liza, the survivor of sorority killings and the one who helped her adjust to life as one of them, and Sam, the survivor of motel murders and the one no one has seen in years.

Now years later, Quincy is blessed with a good life. She has a beautiful apartment, a boyfriend who loves her, a job as a baking blogger, and a friendship with the cop who saved her life. Everything is going well until she hears the news; Liza has committed suicide. The next day, a homeless Sam is at her doorstep asking her if she’s okay.

But the more Quincy thinks about it the less Liza’s suicide makes sense. While Quincy tries to find out if she might be the next victim to a new killer, she has to decide who to trust, including the only other surviving final girl.

The story is told in alternating chapters between the past (the night of the murder) and the present. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys slasher movies and/or psychological thrillers.

Non spoiler:

This book is the definition of a thriller that saved itself in the third act. It had a well enough beginning, but it started dragging around the middle. I was certain I would have given it 2.5 stars, maybe three if the ending was satisfying and boy was it more than just that. I was surprised by a certain twist that I did not see coming. Some things I did expect but wasn’t disappointed when they happened but that ending really did blow me away.

Thankfully, the book also avoided a certain trope/twist I really, really despise that for a while I thought would be used. Quincy is very much the opposite of Jules, the main character from Lock Every Door (the first book I read by this author, also my favorite by him). While Jules was smart and resourceful, Quincy was naïve and careless. She didn’t act on her suspicions until too late, she trusted way too easily and she had me yelling a few times at her stupid decisions. But she did catch on at a certain point in the book, thankfully, and that’s when I really started enjoying this book.

Alternative Cover

Spoiler:

Okay, first things first. How can a girl who thinks her friends were killed by a stranger, who they let spend the night, let another total stranger spend the night at her place? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love this book, I really do. It’s not easy for a thriller to get 4.5 stars from me. But Quincy is simply not the smartest protagonist out there.

Seriously, you suspect someone in your house is a murderer whose weapon of choice is poison and you leave all your food and drink and MEDICINE accessible to them?! What were you thinking, Quincy?!

Something else I was very apprehensive about was the “she was the killer all along” twist where Quincy turns out to be the one who killed her friends. There are not enough words on this planet to describe my hatred for that trope. I was so happy that it wasn’t. I think the thing that makes Riley Sager’s books so good is that he never just plants one red herring. He always has at least two; one obvious and straightforward for the inexperienced reader, in this case Sam being the killer, another for more attentive readers who read more of this genre, in this case, Quincy being the killer, and the truth that is both obvious and hidden. Coop. 

Here’s the thing about Coop. I shipped him with Quincy. A lot. I even kind of cast Tom Welling to play him in my head (I thought he deserved to be the hero after his role on Lucifer. Oh the irony…) Well, I shipped them until the part where he admitted his feelings and didn’t take no as an answer when Quincy tried to push him away. At the time I thought it was just another author writing how no is actually yes. I felt uncomfortable reading it, annoyed even, but I thought it’s just a bad romantic subplot climax (no pun intended). Turns out it was a clue all along. 

 To be honest, before that twist, I was sure I would give this book a low to average rating. Mainly because of Quincy’s naivete and the blackmail element (another plot point I’m not a fan of) but that twist made it a winner for me. It’s strange how we always knew that he was present during that night and yet not even once did I doubt him. I think it’s because I was too busy shipping him with Quincy to even consider it.

I enjoyed the past chapters much more than the present ones, especially around the middle when the present chapters started to drag and Sam’s malevolent intent was glaringly obvious to anyone but Quincy. They were short, and yet we learn a lot about her friends during those chapters. I felt like I was watching “Scream” or “I Know What You Did Last Summer” at some points. I did find the part where she took the knife to the woods a little jammed-in-there-out-of-character but the rest of the book made up for that.

As for the ending, I have to admit I was happy to see Jeff and Quincy break up. Sure, he’s nice, and no, she shouldn’t have cheated, but I really can’t see a mass murder survivor dating a lawyer who would willingly defend and acquit a killer just to get a raise. She deserves better, or maybe after this, she should just stay away from men for a while seeing as the guys she’s dated and or slept with in the last ten years are either cheaters, slimeballs or psychopaths. Something that did bother me with the ending though was the fact that it kind of hinted at a growing friendship between “Sam” and Quincy. I mean sure, she didn’t kill Liza. And sure, she’s been trying to prove her best friend’s innocence, but this woman lied to you, manipulated you until you almost killed a guy, blackmailed you, drugged you, kidnapped you and put a fricking knife to your throat. No amount of jail time is going to erase that. If it were me, I would not come anywhere near her ever again. 

For me, Final Girls is a great thriller. But I still prefer the other books I read by Riley Sager to this. Lock Every Door and Home Before Dark are masterpieces. Which is a good thing. Seeing as this is his debut, it means his writing keeps getting better and better. He is definitely my favorite thriller author and I will keep recommending his books until the end of time.