I am a huge fan of horror films, specifically slasher films. I saw Scream when I was eight years old and it became one of my favourites even to this day. Why? Because Sydney Prescott was a complete badass. She fought back, she didn’t give up. She fought and won. She was a Final Girl.
So when I saw that there was a book about not one but three Final Girls I knew I had to read it. The problem was as soon as I saw the cover and read the synopsis I had built up the book immensely in my head, imagining characters and a story I was worried the book wouldn’t be able to live up to.
I needn’t have worried.
Final Girls was incredible.
Within pages I’d been pulled in to a sharp, fast paced world where each character carried secrets that brought twist after twist. I couldn’t stop reading and even when I went to prepare lunch or stopped to feed the cats I was thinking about Quincy and trying to figure out what would happen next.
The ending… that ending. I’m worried about saying too much as I don’t want to give away anything vital so I’ll just say this. You may think you’ve finally figured it out, that the pieces have all come together and the secrets of Pine Cottage are revealed.
But you’re wrong.

Quincy Carpenter is a final girl. A girl who survived a brutal mass murder. She has tried to move on from this trauma but then the combination of another final girl dying and a third turning up on her doorstep forces her to think about who she is and what has happened to her. This is a very well written story and I expect it will be widely read once it is published. The present day story is told in the first person and this is interspersed with flash backs told in the third person. There are a good number of twists and turns in the story meaning it keeps you gripped throughout

I liked how this book unravels, there is a flashback narration along with real-time, and you never quite know who to believe. Reminded me of Julia Heaberlin's Black Eyed Susans or Gillian Flynn's Dark Places - in all the main narrator is a victim (or surviver, rather) or a mass murderer. Very engaging, and not too predictable, although slightly random in places. Enjoyed the tense build up!

Thanks NetGalley and the Publisher. This was a fantastic book and its a great crime read. This is about Sam, Lisa and Quincy who have been through unspeakable things. This book mainly follows Quincy. It is a total gripping story that the hooks the reader from the start hence the 5 star review

The title of this book immediately puts it into a sub-genre with Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train and with it themes of violence and the unreliability of narratives/memories that is fair enough.
To some extent the book even address the uncomfortable use (to some) of "girl" in these titles.
For me , the title also emphasised the issue of unreliable witnesses which did make me distrust several characters and look for misdirection . Despite this I was taken aback by the last couple of twists.
Over all this is a taught psychological thriller which address the what happens next of so many of the bloody narratives we see in movies and TV series such as Criminal Minds

YES! So much YES!

This book feels like it picks up at the end of a horror film, the bloodstained heroine survives a terrible ordeal and we join her 10 years later when she’s coming to terms with the fact that she’ll have to spend the rest of her life as a ‘final girl’.
Final girls are doomed to become media fodder every time a similar event crops up and the target of weirdos and fetishists, while they try to recover from the trauma of their past.

The synopsis of this book tells you what’s going on, so no need for me to add any more here or I’ll spoil the fun. I will, however, say that it's nothing like anything you've ever read before. What I enjoyed the most is how Sager has written very complex and developed characters - everyone has a good and a bad side in this book, they're capable of anything and that's what keeps the tension going until the very last page.

Sager builds nail biting tension throughout this book, combining the art of the unreliable narrator and characters with everything to hide. I didn’t have a clue how this book was going to end right up until the final chapter and it was BRILLIANT.

Quincy is very easy to connect to as a main character, she’s understandably a neurotic mess after everything that’s happened but she’s moving forward and trying to keep herself together. She’s not a perfect human being, she’s a little too reliant on Xanax and red wide, and she has a fiery temper but she’s doing the best with what she has.

When Sam sweeps into town and forces her to dredge up the past, things start to get messy. The dynamic between the two characters is fascinating, it’s completely unhealthy from the very start but they’ve both survived the most unimaginable hell at the hands of other people and know that the other can understand them.

If you’re a horror film, thriller or murder mystery aficionado: this book will rock your world. It’s the ultimate survivor’s story, which left me with that ‘you go girl!’ feeling at the end.

Final Girls by Riley Sager

Wow, what a fantastic book! It really is something different, and I cannot remember the last time I was so scared and worried about the main protagonist.

Quincy is the sole survivor of a massacre where she witnessed the murder of her friends. Years later she is still traumatised by the event; even though it is clear she has blocked it from her memory. Her financial security has been gained through various law suits and this only serves to compound her feelings of guilt and her existence is focused on her wish to avoid any contact with the media. Her cooking blog gives her the opportunity to work from home and avoid the curiosity of the outside world. At home she is protected and lives a semblance of a normal life with her boyfriend; it is the place where she feels in control.

However, Quincy is just one of three Final Girls; Samantha who has disappeared from the grid and Lisa.

Then it starts to unwind when Lisa dies and Quincy feels her security is threatened, by exposure to the media, by Samantha?

This is really well-written with exciting, unexpected twists and turns and the characters are amazing.

Think ‘Gone Girl’ or ‘The Girl on the Train’ and then multiply it by four. Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy.

An extraordinarily original concept, this book had me gripped in anxiety from start to finish. A fabulously written piece that just teases with snippets from the past - enough to let you know that all is not as it seems, but not enough to give the plot away. Each character had the potential to be friend or foe as layers of their personalities were exposed. An excellent book all round that is without doubt going to be a huge success.

I received this book in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. Thank you to the author, Riley Sager, and the publisher, Ebury Press, for this opportunity.
Final girls is one of those psychological thrillers that slowly starts and manages to grip you by the throat when you’re about halfway. And just when you think you have it all figured out, the author has some very nice surprises for the reader.
What I especially liked about the book was the fact that the story is told with flashbacks, and you can almost feel the anxiety that is building up in Quincy, the main character. There is really something happening here, and we, the readers, have to wait and see what the real story is behind everything that is happening.

A very good psychological thriller, an excellent read. It is really an unputdownable book, that will keep you guessing and going till the very last page. The characters are well defined, the plot is fast paced and full of twists.
Highly recommended.

This book is a firm 5 stars plus.
This book has everything a good thriller needs a murder unreliable characters and a good plot plus I didn't guess the ending which is a good plus.
I was lucky enough to get this book from netgalley as I wished for it and got picked to read it.
Thank You.
A must read.

A really great read, very dark in places, but a killer twist I didn't see coming at all, very exciting, heart rate just calming down now

Thank you to NetGalley, Ebury Press and Riley Sager for my copy of this novel.

First of all THIS book – WOW – this is a strong and immersive debut novel. I have been hearing about this book for a while but didn’t pay much attention to it until I came upon it again and started reading the reviews and following the reviews on Goodreads (daily). I decided to check NetGalley for it and to my luck I requested and got approved for this novel. I am so grateful to have gotten a chance to read it now!

This book focuses mainly on Quincy Carpenter who is a ‘Final Girl’ – the sole survivor of a massacre. Ten years have passed since the massacre at Pine Cottage hapened and Quincy has a boyfriend and a baking blog but she still can’t shake the feeling of that horrible night and the cottage in which she lost her friends. There are three ‘Final Girls’ – Lisa Milner, Samantha Boyd and our protagonist Quincy Carpenter. Then something happens to Lisa Milner which causes an unease in Quincy. Quickly after the death of Lisa Milner, the second ‘Final Girl’ Samantha Boyd appears in front of Quincy’s building. This is where the story starts to thicken and all hell breaks loose. Being a ‘Final Girl’ has it’s consequences and the women who experienced that terrible fear and shock possess something that others don’t.

An amazing debut novel from Riley Sager. It is compared to ‘Gone Girl’ which no book can beat but this book has it’s own power which makes it unique and a MUST read. Riley Sager writes really well, she gets under your skin with scary scenes. This novel is full of twists and turns which are cleverly done. I must say that at one point I did predict what was going to happen but the last 100 pages were so fast-paced, gut wrenching and wonderfully done. Also I really loved the references to Old Hollywood movies (Vertigo..) and stars (Grace Kelly, James Stewart..). Riley Sager has become one of my top authors now.

I would definitely recommend this book to everyone – especially lovers of mystery/thriller genre. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed by this book!

I know, I know, another book with "girls" in the title. But Final Girls actually works. It's the term given to the last female character standing in a horror film. Even though these female characters have obviously been through hell and back, they're still referred to as girls. But what's worse is that this term is applied to real women who go through hell and come out the other side. Misogyny at it's finest.

Quincy (sorry, horrible name) is a Final Girl, as the lone survivor of a massacre at Pine Cottage, a cabin in the woods, when she was nineteen. It's the typical slasher storyline - a bunch of teenagers are drinking in a cabin in the middle of nowhere, their phones are all left in the car, there's sex and booze and a weird stranger that turns up and gets invited to stay, to join in the fun. And the birthday girl, Janelle, is your typical slasher movie victim. Despite any descriptions, I envisioned her as a blonde cheerleader, curvy, excitable, experienced. She encourages Quincy to sleep with Craig, and when Quincy changes her mind (hello almost rape-not-rape scene, where Quincy says stop and Craig says come on, we agreed, let's do this), Janelle fucks him instead. Quincy sees them, her feelings are hurt, but does she turn to murder? Mystery, mystery. It really couldn't be more predictable.

This review sounds negative, but actually, Final Girls was extremely enjoyable. Despite - or, perhaps, because of - the predictability, you're lulled into a false sense of security. Come on, you think, as you read with bated breath. It's got to be X, or Y. You can't fool me, Sager! But actually, Sager can, and did, fool me. The ending took me by surprise, and the final 30-ish% was utterly engrossing.

Quincy is your typical unreliable narrator, doped up on Xanax and hiding away from her memories of Pine Cottage. She's not a Final Girl, she says, her mother says, her boyfriend says. She's moved past it. She's bigger than that, stronger. But when she hears of Lisa's suicide, and Sam shows up on her doorstep, it becomes clear that Quincy is barely holding on.

Just an odd side note: Anitrophylin is mentioned a few times as an antidepressant that is also used as a sleep aid. After a quick Google, it became clear that anitrophylin doesn't exist. Perhaps the author meant amitriptyline? Because I'm on amitriptyline for fibromyalgia, & I can confirm that it is quite capable of knocking someone out. I'm not sure if the author meant to make a name up, or if they just couldn't remember amitriptyline, but there it is. Anyway.

Final Girls is thrilling. It's one of those engrossing guilty pleasures, like those slasher films that still make you jump, even though they're crap. But Final Girls isn't crap. It's full of twists and thrills that will mess you up, and keep you hooked. Apparently it won't be released until July, so, if you want to read it, sucks to be you.

Final Girls - a very popular slasher movie trope - is given a new meaning in this wicked thriller from an exciting new author... It's dark, fast paced, thrilling and above all, FUN. Definitely a worthwhile read for James Patterson fans.

I quite enjoyed this book! I found the pacing slightly off, but once I knew where the story was heading I was completely invested in it.

What a great book! Had me gripped from the first page, I read it in one sitting (off work poorly and this book helped me through it!) ; I never saw the twist coming at the end! Loved every page!

A full review will be posted at www.writingfromthetub.co.uk in my January review round up at the end of the month.

I am a big fan of 90's slasher films like Scream etc, so when I saw this book I had to read it. The 3 girls, now dubbed the Final Girls by the media, all survived massacres reminiscint of teen horror films and now someone is trying to kill them off, one by one.

The narrator is one of the survivors, Quincy. I really liked her character, and it was fascinating reading as she slowly tried to remember what had happened that night after losing her memory of the actual attack.

Although I knew there were big twists coming up, or did not trust certain characters, the ending was a complete surprise to me. It's hard to believe this is a debut novel. I look forward to read more from Riley Sager.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Penguin Random House UK, Ebury Publishing for an advance copy of Final Girls.

Final Girl is a term from the horror movie industry and refers to the girl left alive at the end of the film. This is the title the press give to Lisa, Sam and Quincy who have all survived separate massacres. Despite this title the women have never met and have no contact after some initial calls between Quincy and Lisa, but when Lisa is found dead in an apparent suicide Sam, who has been living off the grid for 8 years, turns up at Lisa's apartment. What happens after that is the meat of the novel.

Quincy has apparently recovered from her ordeal which she can't remember. She is comfortably off thanks to settlements arising from the massacre, lives a quiet life with her boyfriend, Jeff, and works as a baking blogger. She has a difficult relationship with her mother and gets the support she needs from the State Trooper who found her after the attack, Franklin "Coop" Cooper. Sam hasn't done so well. She is secretive about her past but seems to be a drifter with the smoking and drinking to match.

I enjoyed the beginning and end of the novel but the middle seems a bit pointless and nasty. It almost made me stop reading the book but I'm glad I continued as the ending is excellent and came as quite a surprise. Ms Sager does a good job of pacing the novel introducing initially the mystery of Pine Cottage where Quincy was attacked and what happened then segueing smoothly into the mystery of Sam's motivations and actions until it is all resolved in a near ending.

I think the changes in Quincy's behaviour, in the middle of the novel, are inexplicable and highly implausible as a character trait, but probably necessary to ramp up the tension in the plot and increase the number of potential endings the reader will inevitably speculate on.

I think Final Girls is a fairly good read but not the outstanding thriller of the year the hype would have you believe.