I must confess my expectations were pretty high going into Final Girls. It's been receiving starred and positive reviews left, right and centre. It keeps popping up on the "must-read thrillers of 2017" lists. So I'll allow that the extent of my disappointment might have something to do with that.

Plenty of twists and turns in this thriller. Just when Ithought I had guessed the ending.... I was wrong. An ending I didn't see coming.

One of the best thrillers I have read. I loved the writing style and the way the author kept my attention throughout the book. This story completely captured my attention from page one and I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough to find out what crazy twist he story would take next. Can't wait to read more books written by her!

My apologies- I thought I had already reviewed this one, but I was thinking of another book with the same title by Mira Grant. Confusingly, there are also movies called "Final Girl" and "Final Girls", neither of which have anything to do with this book. It's tricky the way a lot of mystery stories have fairly generic sounding titles like that.

Final Girls is a terrific, gripping thriller. It kept me guessing until the end. I liked the detail about Quincy's food photos, and her need for a friend, which makes her vulnerable but also more alive.

Quincy Carpenter, when she was a college student went on vacation ten years ago, with five friends and came back alone, she was the only survivor of a massacre. In an instant, she became a member of a club - 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.
In the present day Quincy is doing well thanks to her Xanax prescription. In her life she has Jeff, her almost fiance a baking blog; a beautiful apartment; & a therapeutic presence in Coop, the police officer who saved her life 10 years ago. Her memory is not allowing her to recall the events of that night - the past is the past.

The first Final Girl Lisa is found dead in her bathtub, wrists slit, and Sam, the second, appears on Quincy's doorstep. Sam seems intent on making Quincy relive the past, all of this makes Quincy question why Sam is really seeking her out. Quincy's life becomes a race when new details about Lisa's death are revealed.
She has to deal with the police &hungry reporters, & on to top it all she must remember what really happened at Pine Cottage 10 years ago!!

This was a really gripping story.

Final Girls tells the tale of Quincy Carpenter, a young girl who goes on vacation with five friends to a cabin in the woods and comes back alone, the only survivor of a horror movie-scale massacre. In an instant, the press dubs her a “Final Girl,” coined for the group of similar survivors. From there we quickly learn there are two other “Final Girls”.

The suspense is more or less constant, and there are a few sharp, unexpected, if implausible twists; the pacing is swift, with short chapters and alternating timelines, and the book is rarely boring. It’s a page-turner with an intriguing premise, hampered only by bad writing and a general lack of literary merit.

Quincy was in college when her and her friends were attacked while staying in a cabin in the woods. She was the only survivor and at that point became one of the Final Girls.
Quincy hated this term the media gave to her. Two other 'Final Girls' were Lisa and Sam. They had never met but we're all interlinked through survival.
Quincy can't remember what happened the night in the woods only that she escaped into the arms of police man 'Coop' he became her saviour, helping her through the years of torture. Her boyfriend Jeff has also been very caring, helping her along the way.
One day Sam appears on her doorstep wanting to discuss all that has happened to each of them. Quincy's past starts to unravelling and she remembers what happens.

These three stories about three different women don't seem to connect but is there someone who connects all three?
Can you really trust those closest to you?

After hearing a lot of good things about this book, I decided it was time to take the plunge and give it a read. And I am incredibly glad that I did! This book has me on tender hooks and really blew me away. I could tell that something wasn’t right and didn’t add up but for the life of me I couldn’t quite work out what was going on. I had my suspicions but nothing further. The truth of it all was not expected at all and it was the best twist I’ve read in a very long time. I did not see it coming in the slightest which is always a good sign!

I instantly felt connected with Quincey in this story. She had so much to say and I just felt for her a lot. All of the characters are really fleshed out, which is what makes this book so very addictive. More than that though are the lies and secrets that run deep through the story, not allowing you to fully know what is happening or why. I found Samantha to be a character that I was intensely wary of. She lied a lot and her stories never seemed to make much sense. The truth of this is really intense.

All in all this book pulled me in and had me fast trying to think what was going on but it essentially shocked me to my core by the end of it. It was brilliantly written and just a fantastic thriller to read. I would highly recommend reading it and would definitely want to read it again to see if there are any hidden clues that I may have missed within it! So if you like crime thrillers full of mystery and intrigue, definitely make sure you pick up this book!

*3.5-4 Stars*

Copy kindly received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Final Girls was an interesting take on a crime/thriller novel. The interesting concept of being a "final girl" takes on a whole new turn when one of them winds up dead, and another appears out of nowhere.

Of course the whole time I was thinking it was one particular person, the way the author has written the story to make you think you're onto them. But then by the end, everything I thought I knew, was totally wrong and I got the shock of my life.

This is an interesting take on dealing with the aftermath of being the sole survivor of a heinous crime, and how one proceeds with their life.

I enjoyed reading this and would probably try more books by this author in the future.

A nice twisty book with an original concept. Highly enjoyable with characters that you won’t particularly like but they’ll definitely keep you entertained. Yes there are implausibilities but hey this is fiction and escapism right? Fasten your seat-belt and enjoy the ride.

This is a atmospheric thriller I could not stop reading. It has a compelling narrative that grips, you get drawn into into the shaky and unreliable world of Quinn Carpenter. It is so well plotted to ramp up the suspense and the feeling of fear that pervades the book keeps you on tenterhooks. I was mesmerised by the character of Quinn, so stunningly developed and that of Sam, as I wondered who exactly she was and what did she want from Quinn? Sam insinuates herself into Quinn's life and apartment with no intention of leaving whatsoever. A brilliant and gripping read that I highly recommend.

Really good. Very enjoyable. Keeps you guessing right up till the end. Didnt guess the twist. Read in a short period of time. Addictive.

I really enjoyed this book. Lots of twists and turns that keep you guessing right until the end. I highly recommend this to crime/thriller readers.

Despite Final Girls sounding fascinating and having a voice we quite liked, we gave up at some point near the middle and just stopped reading. We'd lost interest and we kept losing interest no matter how many times we picked it up again. It's posible, that even though thriller novels were our thing once, that they just don't resonate anymore

At first I thought this was chick lit (baking et al) and then I realised it was much darker than that. The story unfolds from the viewpoint of a girl left alive after the horrific slaughter of her friends at a holiday cabin in the woods, and how many years later she is trying to live a 'normal' life. A normal life facilitated by Xanax, wine and nightmares.

There are 3 Final Girls in this story who were supposed to be linked up as Survivors and each tries to live on in a different way  - and as the story unfolds tragedy begins to stalk each of them. And it is this part of the story that hooked me and made think deeply about their methods of living and how would I cope? What would I do, if I were them?

The suspense builds slowly but inevitably towards a conclusion that I never suspected and yet once it happens you realise that it was inevitable. And that people in these type of novels, are never who you think they are!

I was fortunate to be given a copy of this book to read pre publication in return for an honest review. I read it on my kindle so was somewhat surprised to see Stephen King’s endorsement on the front cover and even more so that it makes a link to Gone Girl. I did enjoy this book but it is not on the level of either a Stephen King book, nor Gone Girl. It is a good read but somewhat implausible which I know a lot of people struggle with. There are some good twists but I had guessed the main one before its reveal. If you can rise above the unlikely plot and pace you will no doubt enjoy the humourous romp that this tale is.

So, what is a Final Girl? Basically it is the sole survivor of a massacre and in this book there are 3 in the whole of America. These three women are bound by their experience. The book begins with one of the Final Girls committing suicide, leaving two - Quincy and Samantha. The central character, Quincy lives in Manhattan running a baking blog and living with her lawyer partner. Samantha has been off the radar for a long time and no one knows her whereabouts....until she shows up at Quinn’s apartment.

Quinn has managed to regain some equilibrium in her life after her experience and survives with the odd Xanax, the support of her partner and regular contact with the officer who found her after the massacre - Coop. Sam threatens to destabilise Quinn’s life and a good deal of the narrative deals with Quinn trying to work out if she can trust her. Sam is a wild child and quickly leads Quinn astray, ultimately leading her to commit a violent crime in Central Park.

Quinn maintains that she has no recollection of the events at Pine Cottage, the site of the massacre that she survived. Sager uses flashbacks to gradually build a different sequence of events of that night to the one that we are initially delivered by Quinn, leading the reader to start to to question Quinn’s integrity. The frequency of the flashbacks increase building the tension and suspense and ultimately pace of the story as it reaches its climax. The personality of the Quinn and the end of the book is the polar opposite to that at the beginning. There is some gratuitous violence but this book is not the stuff of nightmares, it is more comparible with a teen slasher movie than a full blown horror.

This is an easy read and a good page turner. It was fun to read if a little frustrating regarding its far fetched plot.

Wow, did I love Final Girls! The synopsis of this book promises an intense psychological thriller and it delivers just that. Final Girls is well written, well paced and packed full of suspense that left me reading until the early hours desperate for the ending!
Quincy is the sole survivor of a massacre at a cabin in the woods. Her friends were all killed but Quincy walked away with bruises, scratches, grazes, cuts ... and PTSD-induced memory loss. Quincy has tried to put the events behind her and accepts that her memories of what really happened that night are long gone.
Two other girls, Lisa and Sam each endured their own massacres and each was the sole survivor. The press picks up on these 3 girls and labels them “The Final Girls”. They are in high demand - expected to stay in touch and invited to make appearances on daytime news and television to tell their stories. When Lisa commits suicide, Quincy finds it hard to believe. And when Sam turns up on Quincy’s doorstep saying they should stick together, they soon find out together that Lisa’s suicide might not have been suicide.
The suspense in this book is built up brilliantly and as Quincy tries to piece together the events of her own experience, we start to see flashbacks of what happened to her. At the same time, Sam is leading Quincy astray... taking over her life, moving in with her and fast becoming Quincy’s crutch as she starts to struggle through her memories.
I won’t reveal anything other than that I can’t recommend this book enough. Fantastically written and had my heart pounding in parts, Final Girls is a brilliant psychological thriller that delivers exactly what it says on the tin.

Thank you to NetGalley, Riley Sager and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Quite a good book but not fantastic
Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC in return for an honest review.

Something very clever is being mined from our collective pop culture psyche here, and that is the fascination we have with the last person standing. Plane crashes, shootings, natural disasters etc; it's the sole survivors that fascinate.
Life for Quincy is divided into two parts. Before Pine Cottage, and after Pine Cottage. Quincy's memory is fuzzy on the precise events that led to the death of all her friends on their mini holiday, but she has never been allowed to forget what it is that she will became in her survival; a Final Girl. The only one to stagger out of the forest that day, blood soaked and being chased by a knife wielding killer, was Quincy. The media continues to be obsessed with Quincy and two other “Final Girls”; Samantha Boyd and Lisa Milner – even though it has been years since their separate horrors. All three girls made it out of massacres when their school mates and friends did not. They were not untouched, but they made it through alive.
Moving away from the horrific legacy of being a Final Girl is not easy and Quincy is devastated to learn of the death of Lisa. Lisa had put her best efforts into forging on past the nightmares and was leading a productive and worthwhile life. The press latches onto Lisa's passing and unexpectedly it is the reclusive Samantha Boyd, who braves the media circus in order to reach Quincy. Samantha can't say where she's been hiding out all these years, but she wants Quincy to confront her memories of that night in Pine Cottage. Whether Quincy likes it, or not.
The concept of FINAL GIRLS is a very compelling one. Perhaps its completely new one, or perhaps it’s a variation on an old theme of wondering who will survive the carnage in a horror film – there is always one. Quincy and Samantha are two people who experienced trauma, but have developed very different ways in coping what has forever changed them. The ebb and flow of tension is dictated by Quincy's navigation around those parts of herself that have been masked in order to appear “normal” and it is a cleverly crafted balance.
FINAL GIRLS is a essentially a battle of the facades between the two survivors and the tension lies in seeing who it is that will be the stronger. A little sadness is woven in there too in that Quincy has endured so much and can’t quite get her mind around what it is to move on (much like the media can’t leave it alone, and that there are always going to be people out there who are obsessed with this sort of thing). It is a nail biting read to the end as we wait to see who will come through, and whether Quincy can marry up the parts of her memories that belong in nightmares with the horrific events that actually took place at Pine Cottage.

This book kept me going into the early hours . Twists and turns galore I didn't know were it was going
Intriguing and mesmerising read
Can't wait for the next read