Member Reviews
Quincy is the lone survivor after a brutal attack and is trying to live a normal life. Everything is going well until another “final girl” Lisa is found dead. After hearing about Lisa death things slowly start to spiral out of control for Quincy.
I really liked Quincy but I felt like she needed intense help with dealing with the aftermath of the attacks. She really didn’t have a solid support system. Quincy in my opinion has been living in a constant state of denial and it was no surprise she started to unravel/break after Lisa’s death.
I do have to say I was on the fence with Sam showed up. After all of these years? I didn’t trust her motives at all and I honestly felt she didn’t mean well when it came to Quincy.
This was my first time reading anything by this author and it was a good read. This story held my interest and I loved the way the author made you question everybody as a suspect. I had two theories about the real killer and what Quincy was not remembering and I was hundred percent wrong with both. I loved the way the ending unfolded and I didn’t see that coming! Way to keep me on my toes until the very end! I’ve placed “The Last Time I Lied” on my tbr pile and I can’t wait to see what this book brings me!
Yes, I'm giving a book I DNF'd four stars. Don't @ me.
I really, really was enjoying this book - until the nightmare. My empath brain just could not handle this book, so I had to take a step back. But OH MY GOSH IT'S SO GOOD AND MY HEART HURTS DOING THIS.
After the horrifying events at Pine Cottage 10 years ago, Quincy has finally built a “normal” life. She is a successful blogger, has a nice apartment and thinks she’ll soon be tying the knot with her boyfriend. So what if she still has to rely on Xanax at times to get her through the day? Lucky for her she can still also rely on her friendship with Coop, or Officer Cooper who rescued her.
Quincy joined the ranks of the “final girls” after surviving the massacre at Pine Cottage. Lisa and Sam are two other final girls, dubbed so by the media, because they were the sole survivors of similar situations. They each have found a way to cope with their pasts but Quincy has tried to distance herself and not think of herself as a final girl. She wants to move on but her life is going to be upended by Sam who finds Quincy and wants to talk about her past.
Sam is quite the opposite from Quincy. She lives a life with no rules and thinks that Quincy is not quite telling the truth about not recalling the events of the past. She challenges Quincy and while at first Quincy doesn’t want to engage in the risky behaviors Sam partakes in, at the same time she hasn’t been truthful about everything. She is slowly won over by Sam’s insistence and Quincy is discovering another side of herself.
The novel moves back and forth in time, slowly revealing what Quincy was like before the massacre at Pine Cottage as well as revealing the backgrounds of the other final girls. I liked the build up to the big reveal and thought that was really well done and kept the suspense high. My disappoint in this book came mainly in that it went in a direction I wasn’t expecting. In my mind, I had resolved it all in a great way and it didn’t pan out. So not really the story’s fault but it was me trying to get ahead of the story. Would I read another thriller by this author? Yes, absolutely.
I read a ton of literary fiction but I also love a good thriller. Riley Sager's Final Girls was a great one to read in 2018. It put me back in the mood to read and kept me engaged from page one.
Quincy belongs to The Final Girls, a group of 3 women who were the sole survivors of massacres. Ten years later she doesn't remember key details of the crime, but has moved forward the best she can. She has a cooking blog, a fiance and has remained friends with the cop who saved her life. When one of the other Final Girls Lisa commits suicide and the third Sam shows up on her doorstep her life becomes disheveled. Sam wants Quincy to confront her anger and fear and remember what happened and Quincy is thrown back into memories of her past. As the novel progresses Quincy begins to wonder if she can trust Sam and her motives.
The novel provides flashbacks of Quincy's friends' massacre and gradually reveals what happened while also staying fast paced in the current day. I had a hunch about the ending but still enjoyed every curve thrown in to get me there. I highly recommend Final Girls and am excited to read more from this author.
More like a solid 3.5 (mostly because Quincy was annoying the shit out of me 99.9% of the time) stars, but I rounded up to 4 because the conclusion managed to surprise me! One of the twists I saw coming, that Tina was not really Samantha, and was originally from the mental asylum near Pine Cottage, but the other one totally threw me for a loop! Quincy was a little too much of a self-denying trainwreck in the beginning for me to really care too much about her. By the end I was a bit more invested in what happened to her, especially when she began remembering the original attack and what really happened. I liked the full circle of the ending. Overall a pretty good read, like reading a slasher flick instead of watching it. It was nice to see Quincy become a bit more of a badass, wish she'd taken charge of her situation sooner though.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, all opinions are my own. Thanks NetGalley!
Quincy Carpenter was a college student a decade ago, when she went on vacation with five of her friends, but only she survived the massacre that took the other's lives on the trip. Quincy and several other survivors of murderous attacks are dubbed, The Final Girls by the media.
Now, years later Quincy, with the help of medication has moved on with her life. She has a boyfriend, authors a blog, and lives in a comfy apartment. Everything seems as it should be until one of the Final Girls is found dead in her bathtub. That's when Sam, another girl in the club no one wants to be a part of, shows up at Carpenter's home and drags her into a past she would rather not remember.
This is a great psychological thriller that keeps you guessing as you read. You begin thinking you know whodunit, but after so many twists and turns, you realize you had no idea. Quincy is a Final Girl, a young woman who survived an attack where all her friends were slaughtered. She is one of three, Sam, who have suffered the same fate. When one of the other young women comes to her home saying that they need to talk, she takes her in, even if reluctantly. When she gets an email from one of the other survivors before she is killed, Quincy begins to question Sam and her intentions. Suddenly, everything she had once believed begins to be turned on its head.
I loved this book and have recommended it to everyone on my blog, Goodreads, and library. This is a must read. I am reading it again on audible, and cannot wait to write a glowing review there as well.
Thank you to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for the ARC.
It took me a long time to begin this one because I have to be in a certain mood to read thrillers or horror-they are not my favorite genre but I do enjoy a good book of any type. This was a good one. It certainly loved up to its hype and it was a pretty riveting psychological thriller. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys this genre.
What a book! Sager weaved together a story that is tense, gripping, and a bit frightening. I cannot wait to read what is next from this author.
The Final Girls by Riley Sager Book Review
A lot of my fellow book lovers LOVE this book & I think that's great. This review is not meant to take anything away from anyone's reading experiences.
A Reluctant Party Goer
To say I'm late to the party called The Final Girls is a huge understatement. This book came out last summer & I even bought a copy when it was on sale at Target. Then, I saw this article. In case you're still reading & you don't want to click on the link, it outlines several authors using pseudonyms, all of whom are men using gender neutral names. A line in the article about this being "good for business" had me feeling particularly icky.
I know authors have used pseudonyms for centuries & will continue to do so moving forward. It isn't about that for me. My takeaway from the above article & this one is that publishing houses may be deceptive when they market a particular type of thriller to women. I'm not about that life. It just doesn't sit well with me.
Back to The Book
Despite my hesitancy to read The Final Girls, I honestly tried to go into it with a clean slate. I chose the audio version & listened to it as I drove around & went for my evening walks. I'll put this out there, the narration isn't my favorite in this audio. I pressed on & finished the story.
The general idea is great. The story centers around Quincy, who is a lone survivor in a horrific attack. One of the first scenes describes her wearing a red dress that was previously white. That's a graphic image that I expected & is warranted in what is marketed as a slasher type of novel. As the story went on, I found myself rooting for her less & less. I wanted her to be a bad-ass survivor ready to kick ass & take names. Sadly, she's the only fellow baker I've "met" & didn't really like.
THE VERDICT
I am Kind of Into This book. I felt lukewarm about how the story developed. Maybe I just had a sour outlook from the start? Cue Scott Weiland singing Sour Girl. I really tried to keep an open mind I wanted to LOVE this story. I mean, hell. A.J. Finn is named in both the articles mentioned above & I rave about The Woman in the Window. I'm so glad a lot of my book friends love The Final Girls, but the bottom line is, it wasn't for me & that's okay.
Special thanks to Riley Sager, Penguin/Dutton Books & NetGalley for providing our copy in exchange for an honest & fair review.
Ten years ago college student Quincy Carpenter went on vacation with five friends and came back alone , the only survivor ! This book blew me away ! An absolute must read ! A horror tinged mystery that is frighteningly believable and keeps you guessing till the end ! This was my first time to read a book by this talented author but won't be the last ! I loved this book ! Thanks to #Netgalley and #PenguinGroupDutton #FinalGirls
I expected more from this book with all of the positive reviews I've seen. It was slow paced and I found the lead Final Girl insufferable in her attitude and coping mechanism (constant baking and blogging, and this is coming from someone who loves baking).
I like to do things backwards, clearly. I read TLTIL by this author and loved it so, I had to get my hands on Final Girls.
Final Girls is described as scary, while I wasn’t scared, I did find myself saying oh crap multiple times. Yes, there is death. Yes, there is blood. But it’s not all ghosts and gore.
The story follows the main Final Girl. Mysterious things keep popping up one after the other. It’s a mind game of ‘who done it’.
Sager leaves you guessing at each twist and turn. I thought I had a clue for the answer but no, that’s too easy!
I love a good heart pounding thriller to keep me on my toes. I don’t want to know what’s going on till the very last chance I get.
The last half of the book does just that. It’s an information overload that keeps you turning pages till the end.
Watch out for this authors next work. They are on a roll, definitely on my top fav list.
Something horrible happened to Quincy Carpenter at Pine Cottage. What she experienced there was so terrifying, much of her memory of that time has been wiped out. Along with Lisa Milner and Samantha Boyd, she becomes what the media dub a 'Final Girl'. All three were the sole survivors of separate serial killer massacres. Now Lisa is dead, apparently having committed suicide. Will the Final Girls have to pay a price for being the last girl standing?
Quincy maintains an ongoing friendship of sorts with Coop, the cop who saved her life. They have an interesting relationship. He is very protective of her, but there is also a lot of mystery surrounding him. Although he continues to look out for her, he keeps his distance physically and emotionally.
Shortly after her ordeal, Quincy suffers from anorexia. She acts destructively, but can't remember anything after the incidents occur. Now she appears to have a fairly enjoyable life with the help of prescription drugs. She runs a successful blog and lives in a lovely apartment on the Upper West Side with her public defender sensitive boyfriend, Jeff. However, there is a lot going on beneath the idyllic surface. From early on it's apparent that Quincy is still deeply troubled. She responds in unusual and somewhat disturbing ways to ordinary situations.
The story flashes back to when Quincy first approaches Pine Cottage. The scene is made all the more terrifying because it's already clear it's not going to end well for the five friends accompanying her.
After Lisa's suicide, Quincy is visited by Sam, the other Final Girl and allows her into her life and home. From there things start to get really interesting and suspenseful, with Quincy's repressed memory becoming an important theme in what happens next.
I thought Final Girls was great fun with lots of thrills. It had me on the edge of my seat and I couldn't read it fast enough. There was a depth to the characters and story that made it stand out for me. I loved all the surprises the author revealed throughout the book and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys fast-paced psycho-killer novels and slasher films.
My first five-star read of 2018! This book was so different from anything I've read before and I was pretty much instantly drawn in to the story. So good and I flew through it!
Quincy is the sole survivor of a mass murder that took place ten years ago. She's just trying to get on with her life, with the help of her Xanax and the policeman who saved her life all that time ago. She doesn't really remember what happened to her, and she doesn't want to relive the darkest day of her life. When two other survivors of similar crimes try to contact her to share experiences and find healing, Quincy isn't interested. Then one of the girls dies, and Quincy begins to remember.
A neat thriller with a somewhat predictable outcome, the book was entertaining overall. 3.5 stars.
I just didn't buy the premise of this novel. A baking blogger in NYC able to afford a house? Little details like that kept me from sinking into the story, and the protagonist's stealing habit seemed more like a rip-off of Gillian Flynn's Libby from DARK PLACES than an homage.
An inventive and intoxicating thriller. Riley Sager has crafted a masterpiece. I loved this story and can't wait to read more from this author!
Suspenseful! I could NOT put this book down. It was a real page turner. Everytime I thought I'd figured it out, I had not. Kept me guessing and thinking to whole time. A great story of survival and who can/can't be trusted when ones world is torn apart by extreme tragedy. I highly suggest this book.
I love thrillers and this book did not disappoint! It makes you think about how you would react in that type of situation. I really liked the main character and her quirks. I will recommend this book!