Book 21/30.
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Ten years after surviving a brutal massacre that killed all her friends, Quincy Carpenter is one of three women known as the “Final Girls”, i.e. survivors of infamous mass killings. She has rebuilt her life and buried the trauma of that night, even losing her memory of what happened.
But when one Final Girl is found dead and the other suddenly appears at Quincy’s doorstep, her carefully constructed life begins to unravel. As secrets emerge, Quincy must confront her forgotten past, uncover the truth about the other women, and figure out who she can trust before the events of ten years ago catch up with her.
This was my first Riley Sager read and I was quite excited for it because he is all over bookstagram. But, only after buying it, did I realise I had it confused with The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix, which I added to my Goodreads Want to Read shelf in February 2022 😅
The story follows a dual timeline, alternating between the present day and Pine Cottage ten years earlier. I found the Pine Cottage chapters more interesting than the present-day sections, which were a little repetitive and lacking in tension. The present-day storyline only really picked up in the last quarter of the book, which is something several Goodreads reviewers took issue with, although it did not bother me as much. I liked Final Girls well-enough to rate it 3 stars, but it would have been a much more satisfying read with better plotting and pacing, and better characterisation.
** A guide to ratings **
1 star – did not like it
2 stars – it was okay
3 stars – liked it
4 stars – really liked it
5 stars – it was amazing