Sunday, July 29, 2018

Book Review: Final Girls by Riley Sager

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-fiancĂ©, 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.

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My Review:
Final Girls by Riley Sager came highly recommended to. I was looking for a good horror book to read. While Final Girls wasn't a great read, it wasn't bad. Final Girls was just an okay read and nothing more.

The pacing is okay in Final Girls. It's not fast paced, but it's not slow either. I didn't hurry to finish this book at all. Every now and then the pacing would get better, but most times it was just okay.

The plot was alright. It's like every other slasher survival type books. Final Girls did have a few plot twists. Most were pretty predictable such as the one with Sam. I just felt like I had read and seen this plot line so many times before. Nothing really stood out with the plot of Final Girls.

The world building was done well. It was easy for me to be transported to the world of Final Girls. Even the attacks on the girls seemed realistic.

I liked the characters enough and felt that they were fairly well written. I did feel that Quincy was a little too gullible and trusting. There were times I had to shake my head at her. For example, I felt like she was too trusting of Samantha. It's like she just took her at her word all the time. Saying all that, I did love Quincy though. She did have a fighting spirit about her, and I loved her determination. Sam annoyed me. She was written well, but she annoyed me with how she said "babe" almost all the time. She was always so shady, and I never trusted her. Even though Jeff and Coop weren't major characters, I still liked them a lot. They just seemed like really nice guys.

There are some themes in Final Girls such as violence, smoking, prescription drug abuse, alcohol, sex, and swearing. Nothing is too over the top, and it fits in with the book perfectly.

All in all, I feel as if Final Girls by Riley Sager is a forgettable book. Nothing really stands out plot wise or character wise. It's just an okay read, but it's been done before.

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