Final Girls

In the past year, I’ve learned that few books enthrall me as much as thrillers, and Final Girls was billed as just the book for me when I heard about it on a book riot podcast.  I put it high on my TBR list and devoured it in less than 24 hours once I finally got my hands on it. I was certainly not disappointed, and if you love thrillers and suspense novels, you won’t be either.

Final Girls is the way the media describes lone survivors of massacres, and that’s a title that Quincy Carpenter has been trying to avoid for years, ever since she was the lone survivor of the Pine Cottage murders that left many of her friends dead and her wounded. She was found by a cop, Coop, who has become her friend and confidant through the years. Now, she lives in New York City, runs a baking blog (which was an adorable little addition that made the story feel alive and gave some comic relief) and lives with her public defender boyfriend, Jeff, who hasn’t proposed yet, but should soon.  Quincy’s life is going well, until one of the other final girls, Lisa, is found dead of an apparent suicide and the other final girl, Sam, shows up on Quincy’s doorstep to get to know her and check on her mental well-being. What follows is a sharp-witted, increasingly tangled web of truth and memory, past and present, that leaves the reader wanting more and devouring the pages until you finally find out, along with Quincy herself, what really happened at Pine Cottage that night.

I’ve read some pretty good thrillers recently, including Behind Her Eyes, Good as Gone, and Into the Water, and I’m a big fan of Gillian Flynn’s books, so I was kind of anxious going into this book. I had heard such high praise for it, and I really wanted it to live up to the hype. It did, thank God! The writing was good, especially since mystery/thriller writers often skimp on non-crime details and dialogue, and the plot was driven well. The conclusion explained a lot of the lingering questions concisely and without making it feel too forced. Quincy was overall a likable character, despite a xanax addiction and some cringe-worthy behavior overall. One issue I did have was with how easily she forgave Samantha in the end, but that’s a bit too spoilery to go into details about here. You’ll understand what I mean when you read it. It felt a bit too mushy for me, but whatever.

If you like being kept on the edge of your seat, this is the book for you.