A competent debut with a Single White Female vibe, Riley Sager debut is a solid thriller built around an interesting and original premise.
Quincy Carpenter is a final girl, the survivor of a horrible horror movie style massacre, who is trying to get her life back on track. But when a fellow final girl turns up dead, and another appears on her doorstep, it sets off a chain of events that draws her back into the world she is trying to escape.
After drawing you in with what at first appears to be a fairly formulaic thriller, Sager proves to have a few tricks, throwing a few curve balls on what turns out to be a thrilling and quite cinematic final act.
Some of the dialogue feels a little overwritten and it takes a good third of the book to really kick into gear, but it's minor gripes in what is otherwise a fun and thrilling trip.

''Final Girls'' is everything you want from a thriller; enough twists and turns to keep you on your toes, great characters and a strong edge-of-your-seat story.

Quincy is as you'd expect, a feisty character with an inner strength that seemed to be mostly made up of steel. Making up a third of the Final Girls her tragic, violent past obviously looms over the whole story, especially when another member of the group is found having apparently committed suicide. And whilst Quincy seems to have moulded herself from victim to survivor, the discovery along with the sudden appearance of the third Final Girl, Samantha Boyd, sends her into a cycle of almost self-destruction.

The characters are really well portrayed and I couldn't help but be unnerved by Quincy's downward spiral, and was left to feel increasingly worried and suspicious of the influence Samantha was having on her. Yes at times it did seem like some of the things Quincy got up to were a bit forced, but they were always understandable so I didn't mind too much.

The fact that the current storyline runs alongside the mystery of what really happened at Pine Cottages, makes the book even more of a page-turner and it felt like I had to solve one mystery to be able to unlock the other.

''Final Girls'' is a real knockout of a story, it's already being announced as a huge hit for 2017 and it's very easy to see why.

OMG...................brilliant absolutely brilliant....I actually do not know what to say other than ...I wasn't expecting that at ALL!!!
I could not put it down it had me gripped and on the edge of my seat jumping to conclusions and thinking that I knew who it was...clearly I was 100% wrong ...what a shocker.., I loved the plot adored the characters not one bad word to say about it.
One word to some this book up is EPIC

Wow, I consider myself pretty good at figuring out twists but I did not see this one coming.

Quincy, Lisa and Sam are the 'Final Girls', the sole survivors of separate massacres. Quincy is trying, and struggling, to live a normal life in New York after the murders of her friends at an event known as Pine Cottage.

When Lisa suddenly takes her own life and Sam arrives unannounced on her doorstep, Quincy is forced to confront the events of the night that led to the deaths of her friends.

Told part in the present day and flashback this is a wonderful debut from a writer I will be following in the future. The tension in the flashbacks as we get closer to the climax of Pine Cottage had me like a coiled spring ready to snap. Riley Sager is a name to watch.

Final Girls will have you gripped from the start, it's a well paced dark thriller, and great debut from Riley Sager.Three survivors from 3 separate masacre's, all trying to get on with their lives, putting the horrors of the past behind them, with the media relentless in their continuous hounding of the girls, even naming them the Final Girls Club, their lives are one long silent scream, what secrets lie behind those screams, hidden in the darkness of the past?....now rearing up it's ugly head and bringing new dangers to threaten their lives. The character's are well written, you may not like them all, or their behaviour, but this just makes the plot all the more believeable. This book was really hard to put down, it's one of those rollercoaster journeys, fast, slightly eases up to take in the view, up, down, a few quick fast turns , building up the suspence, holding your breath as the tension rises, before you zoom down into the final straight ,heading for an ending you really never saw coming, but leaves you totally exillerated, and at the same time shocked!!...it is the whole package, unwrap it, you won't be disappointed.

Such an amazing book. Thoroughly gripping from beginning to end. If you like thrillers, you'll love this.

Quincy carpenter is one of 3 girls who have survived unthinkable horrors, Different massacres at different times, the only survivors of each unthinkable event- the press has named them "The Final Girls". There is no one else like them, until one of the final girls Lisa, commits suicide .................or did she? Quincy has no memory of the events she survived, Is it time for the final, final girls to meet and work together to discover what really happened at Pine Cottage?

This book is so well written it had me enthralled, and even though (most of the time) I knew what was coming I just couldn't stop reading. It is so full of twists and turns. I think a lot of the twists you can see coming yet it is still oddly gripping.

Riley Sager grabs your attention and sucks you in using tense atmosphere and impressive imagery. For all I thought I knew what was coming I still didn't guess the ending! I would have given the book 5 stars but I just didn;t think the ending made any sense! The author was doing so well and if he continued with the line he was going down it STILL would have been a great book, but despite this, the writing is just so good and gripping it deserved a good review!

Just be warned you will be gripped from the start but you don't get any answers until the VERY end of the book!

The Final Girls by Riley Sager is a dark, compulsive pyschological thriller. Quincy has survived the massacre of her college friends. She has become a member of an elite group called the Final Girls, young women who have also survived similar killings. When one of their number is found dead, Quincy has to confront her darkest fears in order to survive. An enjoyable thriller with twists that make the reader wanting more.

Lisa, Sam and Quincy are three young women who survived mass murders. The media decided to borrow from film nomenclature and nickname them "Final Girls".

The story is told in first person through the eyes of Quincy. She lives with her boyfriend and earns a living as a baking blogger. At the beginning of the book, she learns that Lisa has died and braces herself for the press avalanche that is bound to come her way. What she does not expect is that Sam, who's been living off the grid, will come out of hiding and look for her.

[book:Final Girls|30215662] is a character-driven book and I found it to be lacking in plot. Basically, the story is dependent on Quincy's poor judgement and fantastic ability to jump to conclusions/actions without thinking things through. <spoiler>Sam has shown up on my doorstep? Great, I'll ask her to move in! Why did Sam choose this moment to contact me? She must have killed Lisa and I am next! You know, that police officer did mention she has a criminal record. Drunken brawls, unpaid speeding tickets... That is not very far from murder!</spoiler>

As you will have noticed, I did not like Quincy and not liking the main character in a first-person narrative does not bode well for the overall enjoyment of a book.

Not a title that I would personally recommend.

(Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the review copy!)

I didn't see it coming! Interesting and easy read and all the way through, probably like most people, I tried to guess what the 'twist' would be. Certainly surprised me. Light and enjoyable.

Qunicy, Sam and Lisa are the Final Girls, so called by the press as they each survived a horrific massacre that left many others dead.

Quincy is doing well, she has a successful baking blog, a loving, understanding boyfriend and a never-ending supply of Xanex. She has no memory of what happened in the cabin in the woods the night her five friends were slaughtered and she wants to keep it that way. Her survival technique is to forget, Sam’s is to disappear and Lisa’s is to face it head on and try to help others with what she has learned. So when Lisa is found in her bathtub with her wrists slit something does not seem right to Quincy. Of all of the Final Girls she was the proudest of her survivor crown and committing suicide does not fit that bill. When Sam suddenly arrives on her doorstep Quincy realises she is not the only one with questions about Lisa’s death. Terrified that someone is trying to finish what was started years ago, the girls begin to investigate.

This is a twisting, gripping thriller from start to finish, one where everyone has a secret and no one is who they seem. Each chapter casts suspicion on a different character so that even the most shrewd of detectives will have to read right to the end to discover the truth. A great read that is both well written and well paced. Deserving of a spot on the best thrillers of 2017 list.

I enjoyed the fact that the characters presented in Final Girls weren't just clichés, and that each of them had their own complex internal mental states. It would have been easy to present them as either wretched and broken or as saintly survivors, but the author does a good job of making them feel like real people who've survived terrible circumstances.

The main plot of the novel is secondary, in my opinion, to its nature as a character study. I didn't personally feel that the twist at the end really added very much to the story and I felt a little let down by the fact that there weren't really any clues in the preceding narrative that might have let me come to it any earlier than I did.

Still, this was a solid read that I thoroughly enjoyed for its unusual premise and the rich characterisation of the main characters.

For years Quincy Carpenter has been known as a "final girl". The sole survivor of a brutal massacre that killed her friends, Quincy shares the unwanted moniker with two other women, until one of them, Lisa, is found dead and the other, Sam, arrives in Quincy's life with all the force of a full on hurricane. Trying desperately to paper over the cracks by attempting to live a normal life Quincy feels the mask start to slip once Sam is in the picture and starts to second guess what actually happened to her all those years ago.

This is a book full of spidery twists and turns and the plot is a labyrinth of rabbit holes and wrong turns. The arrival of Sam turns Quincy's carefully constructed world upside down and there becomes a big gap between the person she thinks she is and actually is. The characters are drawn cleverly enough that everyone (even Quincy) is under suspicion, her "good guy" fiance, Jeff, works as a public defender putting him at odds with Quincy's views on the justice system and Sam is a force of nature who immediately has a huge effect on Quincy's behaviour.

There were about three or four points in this book where i thought i had the ending figured out, then it turned out I was wrong so I just threw my hands up and went along for the ride. It's a smart thriller which zips back and forth and constantly keeps the reader on edge. If you're a fan of the unputdownable book, then this is one for you.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

A gripping, tense roller coaster of a novel! Just when you think you know where the story is going it doubles back on itself or takes a twist and leaves you guessing once more. I read a lot of books of this genre but I can honestly say I have never been so fooled so many times. A fantastic story that I can easily imagine translated to the silver screen.
I would recommend this book to any that enjoys a mix of crime, mystery and horror.

The blurb should already have you wanting to read this book like it did me, and what a fantastic read it is too.

If you especially like trying to guess the outcome and still enjoy a surprise then this is definitely worth a read because with all the twists, turns, thrills and spills you will be kept page turning to get to an incredible ending.
Like so many people already have said, this is a must read for 2017 and Sager has written a sure-fire hit. Brilliant.

Thank you to Netgalley for a free copy in return for an honest review.

The Final Girls is a book that really keeps you guessing. The characters are far from straightforward and, at times, are not too likeable but they are always believable. I found that I trusted none of the characters and that each one had some kind of secret or mystery about them. There are twists and turns that I certainly didn't see coming and I'd definitely recommend this book to friends and would read more by this author.

As usual I just want to specify that there will be no spoilers in my review, so read at will!

Thank you very much to NetGalley for facilitating, and to Ebury Publishing for allowing me to read this book in exchange for a review. And finally, a big thank you to Riley Sager for letting me READ a horror film!

When I read the description of this book I thought it sounded a bit teenage (but probably purely because my teenage years were spent watching Scream and Nightmare on Elmstreet on repeat). However, it struck an nostalgic chord in me and I wanted to give it a go. And I'm so happy that I did.

This is actually written exactly as a horror film would be, feeding you snippets and further details of things you already touched on in the first scene (in the form of dreams and "flashback chapters"), mixed with the dramas of present day that gradually begin to pick up pace until the past and present collide in a thrilling climax.

This is what I always hope for whenever I pick up a best selling thriller, but they always stop themselves short of going full on "slasher movie". This book went there. And just like when those types of movies are on TV, you don't want to look but can't tear your eyes away - you don't want to read the next chapter but you literally can't stop because Sager is pulling you along in a strong and growing riptide.

I am so familiar with the general formula behind horror films that I usually have it all figured out quite early on, but this one I didn't get until about a sentence before all was revealed. It definitely kept me guessing which was actually really impressive considering I am usually pretty quick with horror analysis! lol!

I wasn't expecting to genuinely like this, I just thought it would be a welcome distraction for a few days, just something to fill my time and maybe keep me mildly entertained whilst my hubby plays on GTA for hours on end. But actually I loved this book. I thought it was awesome.

I could not get into this book. It did not grab my interest enough to carry on reading. I did not get to the end of the first chapter.

I must admit I'd never heard the phrase 'final girl' used before so it took me a little while to realise it was a 'thing' rather than just a great choice of title by the author. Nobody wants to be a final girl but Quincy seems to be coping. Unable to remember the crucial details of the night her friends were murdered she has settled down with a nice man and fills her time running a baking blog. When a fellow final girl is found dead in her bath however Quincy is going to be forced back to the dark woods surrounding Pine Cottage in order to uncover what really happened that night.
This is a cracking thriller that really keeps the reader guessing mostly about Sam but sometimes even about Quincy herself. The ending is a real surprise I'm normally quite good at predictions but this came out of left field. Highly recommended.

The story is centred around Quincy, labelled by the press, as "a Final Girl" . She is not the only member of this group that nobody wants to belong to - to qualify the girls have survived horrific acts of violence whilst their friends have not fared so well. Their stories are interwoven and told in flashbacks as well as in the present day until events eventually collide.
The book is fast paced and easy to read, there is a lot of violence and sex that I found a little distasteful at times. Overall the story was not predictable, which is always a plus, and I did not guess the ending correctly.