Review of Final Girls by Riley Sager

 

I had started to read One by One by Ruth Ware, and it was going great. Then I woke up on Saturday to continue reading it, when I realized my library loan had ended😩 I was just getting to the part where the bodies were starting to pile up! Well, I went ahead and added myself to the waitlist again for it and will hopefully have it back soon.

Since I needed a book, I picked the loan that was going to run out next, Final Girls by Riley Sager. I read Lock Every Door in December and enjoyed his style of writing. The title of this book was what made it a must read for me.

I love scary movies and have a soft spot for Final Girls, probably because my two favorite horror movies are Halloween and Scream. Of course when it comes to horror films, Laurie Strode and Sidney Prescott are the ultimate final girls. I was very curious what story Sager would craft with the topic.

 

He did not disappoint! The story was perfectly paced and kept me reading. He did a great job giving the reader a troubled yet resilient final girl. Just as you would expect of anyone who has survived some sort of extreme trauma, our final girl, Quincy Carpenter is trying to move forward from the events that made her a final girl. However, a new event forces her to face her past and makes her realize that she's not over it like she thought. 

The book alternates between the present events and the event of the night at Pine Cottage that turned Quincy into a final girl. This back and forth, kept me reading as not only was I eager to see what happened to Quincy in the present, but I desperately wanted to see what happened on that night. Sager did an excellent job dropping clues and keeping me guessing throughout the story. I'm the type of reader who tries to guess the bad guy by the end of the first chapter. While I had my hunches, Sager gave us a twist and villian I didn't see coming. Sager makes all the details work with the twist and gives us a satisfying ending with our final girl. 

How Much Coffee Was Needed?

I didn't end up reading this much at night like I usually do with my reading, however I had a difficult time putting this book down. Any bit of down time I had, I picked up this book and kept reading. So even though I didn't stay up late reading, I still would say it had the potential to be a book that needed several cups of coffee. 

Next Book:

High Five (The Stephanie Plum Series) by Janet Evanovich