Riley Sager’s ‘Final Girls’ – Book Review

In my free time, you can find me perusing the shelves of local movie or book stores. On a recent trip, I struck out on my movie hunt, but I began to wonder if there were any books that would spark my interest. I had just finished The Drawing of Three (check out my review here), the second book in The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. If I’m reading a book series, I like to have a buffer in between each entry to keep everything fresh, so I made my way to the book section and began skimming the shelves.

A few books caught my eye, but they weren’t really what I was looking for. After almost giving up, a shiny, red cover grabbed my attention called Final Girls by Riley Sager. I figured it was worth a shot, so I dropped some cash and home I went with my new find.

Final Girls follows Quincy, survivor of the Pine Cottage Murders. Her tale begins in the middle of her transition from victim to survivor. Be that as it may, Quincy does not want to be known as a Final Girl, a title that the media has slapped not only on her, but also on Lisa and Sam, girls who survived similar yet separate traumatic killing sprees. After Lisa allegedly kills herself, Sam pops up at Quincy’s front door. Is she there to befriend her? Did Lisa really kill herself? Is Quincy’s memory of that fateful night at Pine Cottage really gone, or is it just lying dormant? Those questions won’t be answered in this article, but what I thought of Final Girls will be.

First, Final Girls is the reason they came up with the term “page-turner.” Okay, okay. That term was created a while ago, but it gives the term relevancy. I was hooked from the very first chapter and found myself getting incredibly agitated anytime that I had to stop reading to function in everyday life. I guess you could say I had a temporary problem. My name is Preston and I was a Final Girls-aholic. “Hello, Preston!” Now that we have gotten that out of the way, can we all move on?

Everything – from the style of writing to the characters involved – was delicious. I found myself loving Sam’s character. She was wild, carefree, and her flaws only made her more beautiful. Do any of you remember that cool girl in high school? She wasn’t part of the in-crowd because she just thought it was so lame to be cool? That is the best way I can describe Sam. The entire time I read this, I pictured Sandy at the end of Grease, with her leather jacket, red lipstick, and puffing on a cigarette. I could stroke your ego all day long, Sam, but I must move on to other things.

Final Girls also plays literary sleight of hand with the reader. My focus was shifted so many times during the read that my head was spinning by the end. For the last half of the book, I didn’t even know who to trust, who to suspect, and what to think. That is what this enjoyable book does. Final Girls is fantastic at letting predictability work in its favor, thereby causing chaos and mayhem when everything doesn’t work out the way you thought it would. Red herring, anyone?

If I had to pick something for constructive criticism purposes, it would be the main character. Don’t worry, Riley Sager! I absolutely fell in love with Quincy as a character. However, no matter how hard I tried, I could not come up with a mental image of her to save my life. I could picture Coop, Sam, and Lisa. Hell, I could even picture The Sack Man. I don’t know if I zoned out during her description or if it was just glossed over. I even tried placing the faces of famous final girls like Julie James or Sydney Prescott in my head to put a face on Quincy, but it just didn’t work. However, Final Girls didn’t suffer one bit because of this. It was just something I noticed.

If any of you are looking for a fun, intriguing, and utterly entertaining read, then you should pick up Riley Sager’s Final Girls. I loved the book so much that I hopped online right after finishing it. I wanted to know if the author had written anything else. It turns out that Riley Sager is a pseudonym for an already published author. The trail went cold really quick. There are no other books yet by Riley Sager. The name that the author previously published novels under isn’t listed either. If anyone has a clue who it is, please let me know in the comments.

Currently, I am patiently waiting to see what Riley Sager will come out with next, but until then, you guys can check out Final Girls. I am sure all of you will enjoy it and can’t wait to hear what you all think. For all of your horror needs, make sure you like and follow PopHorror’s Facebook page. That way you can stay up to date on the latest horrifying news and reviews!