[Book Review] Final Girls by Riley Sager

Ten years ago college student Quincy Carpenter went on vacation to Pine Cottage with five friends and came back alone, the lone survivor in a horror movie style massacre. It was in that moment she became a Final Girl, a club of survivors of similar tragedies. Now, Quincy is doing well, she has a food blog that she loves running, her love of baking giving her a sense of purpose and normalcy. She has a great boyfriend, Jeff, a beautiful apartment, and a friend in Coop, the cop that saved her the night of the Pine Cottage massacre. That is until one of the other Final Girls is found dead in a bathtub and another arrives on Quincy's doorstep forcing her to relive the past, something she's buried deep inside of her. So deep she cannot remember what happened that night at Pine Cottage, or even say her attacker's name.

3.5 STARS 

I need to read more thrillers, because this was a lot of fun. I love getting swept up into the story and finding myself frantically flipping the pages trying to figure out what is happening. Final Girls definitely had me on my toes and second guessing both my intuition and the characters in the story. The last hundred pages or so were so fast paced and insane that I could not do anything but focus on finishing.

However, a good chunk of the story is a bit slow for me. I almost always expect the beginning of books to be slow, but it went on for too long. The flashbacks peppered into the story is what kept me reading because I was interested in what actually happened that night. Especially since Quincy couldn't remember. Because I needed to know, I pushed through and forced myself to keep reading. It was slow, and at times boring, but interesting enough that I finished the book in about three sittings. My stubbornness to know the ending was the champion in the fight of putting it down to do something else or pushing forward. Once the story started to slowly unravel (and my guesses ended up coming true) is when I was really swept up into the story. It is that roller coaster of tension and suspense that keeps me wanting to read thriller novels.

I have a habit when going into thrillers of not trusting any of the characters, which sometimes helps because I figure out the ending quicker that way but it can sometimes affect my opinions of them. I am not sure if the latter is the case or not, but I really didn't care too much about the characters, which isn't ideal when you're supposed to want the hero to get away safely. I cannot think of one character in the book I was particularly fond of, and that is a bummer because I am definitely a character driven story type of gal.

Overall if you're in the mood for a fun quick thriller, I highly recommend this one. I can see someone bringing it to the beach or on vacation. I would say maybe don't go in with really high expectations. I think that this book was a bit over-hyped, in my case at least, which may have caused a little bit of my disappointment. Like always, I suggest checking it out if you're interested, and I hope you enjoy it!

Thanks for reading!

What are some thrillers you suggest? I have two more I am waiting to arrive at my local library. I am hoping to get more experienced with the genre.