Final Girls, by Riley Sager (2017)
Winner of the 2018 International Thriller Writers Award For Best Hardcover Novel
Audio Book format on Clevnet-Overdrive
Reviewed by: Dawn Bechtel, avid Andover reader (listener)
About the author: Riley Sager, as well as Alan Finn, are the pennames of Todd Ritter, an American author of thriller novels. He is a former journalist, editor and graphic designer.
Ritter is a native of Pennsylvania who now lives in Princeton, New Jersey. As of 2020 Ritter has released four novels as Sager and three novels as Ritter (the Kat Campbell series) and one novel as Finn.
Definition of a “Final Girl” – A final girl is a heroine left at the end of a horror movie. She’s the one who defeats the bad guy, or escapes, and is left standing (usually) at the very end. It’s the final girl and not the final guy because, at the end of these movies, it’s almost exclusively women.
The story: It has been 10 years since six friends went on a vacation to Pine Cottage…and only one made it out alive.
College student Quincy Carpenter became the third member of a group of survivors the press called “The Final Girls”: Lisa, who lost nine sorority sisters to a college dropout’s knife; Sam, who endured the Sack Man during her shift at the Nightlight Inn; and now Quincy, who ran bleeding through the woods to escape the massacre at Pine Cottage. The three girls have never met.
Quincy is doing very well thanks to Xanax; a caring boyfriend; a popular baking blog; a lovely apartment; and a therapeutic presence in Coop, the police officer who saved her life.
Quincy’s mind won’t let her remember all of the details of that night. Then the first Final Girl, Lisa is found dead in her bathtub, and the second Final Girl, Sam appears on Quincy’s doorstep.
Sam seems intent on making Quincy relive the trauma, as disturbing details about Lisa’s death are discovered. Quincy desperately tries to unravel Sam’s truths from her lies while evading both the police and bloodthirsty reporters. Quincy knows that in order to survive she has to remember what really happened at Pine Cottage.
Book quote: “Nothing is wrong. I’m completely normal. If I believe it enough, it’ll come true.”, Quincy Carpenter
This book has very good narration and holds your interest throughout. There are many emotions and interesting twists. I enjoyed listening to “Final Girls”.
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