Final Girls by Riley SagerMy rating: 1 of 5 stars
What it's about: The story revolves around a woman named Quincy, who was the lone survivor of a mass murder in a cabin in the woods when she was a teenager. Quincy has blocked out most of the memories from that night, and is now a baking blogger living with her boyfriend in the present day. Then she finds out one of the other 'Final Girls' (what the press has dubbed Quincy and others sole survivors of killing sprees) has killed herself and another suddenly shows up on her doorstep, desperately trying to make Quincy remember what happened that night in the cabin.
My thoughts:First of all, I'm never a fan of writing negative reviews. But, sometimes a book is just so disappointing and makes me so frustrated that i have to get my thoughts out, no matter how much of an unpopular opinion it may end up being.
**WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD**
I hated this book. Hated. It.
Which makes me sad, since this was one of my most anticipated reads of 2017. I've had it on pre order for months and i was squealing like a deranged fangirl when i received an ARC through netgalley. I was so excited that i dropped the other two books i was reading in order to dive right in to this one.
It started out promising enough. In fact, for the first 50-60 pages i was all in. It kept my eyes glued to my kindle and i was excited to see where the story was going.
Right around the time Quincy and Sam decided to be vigilantes in Central Park...my eyes started to roll. Then Quincy's behavior begins to spiral and i get the whole 'unreliable narrator' (a trope that is VASTLY overused and very rarely works) vibe and my spidy senses start to kick in that i might end up having a few issues with this book.
Damn those pesky spidy senses.
I don't even know where to begin delving into all the ways this story ended up falling apart.
It had nothing to do with the over the top nod to 80's slasher movies. I loved that. In fact, that was part of the reason i was dying to read this. Instead my first problem with this story was something i keep running into in thrillers; an unlikable protagonist and cast of equally irritating supporting characters. Quincy was a selfish asshat. Period. She only cared about herself, and what she went through...not about any of the other victims, both in the cabin and her fellow Final Girls. Sam was just a crazy beyotch, and the fact that after knowing her all of 5 minutes Quincy allowed her to come and live with her and her boyfriend and repeatedly took her side over said bf? Just another reason not to like Q OR the direction this book was heading in. Other characters, like boyfriend Jeff, intrepid reporter Jonah, all the victims from the cabin.... are all flat, cardboard characters. Even the only somewhat interesting character, hero cop Coop, comes off as someone plucked out of 50 random horror movies. We don't actually know very much...if anything...about these people. In fact, so non-fleshed out were they that it wouldn't have surprised me if they all turned out to figments of Quincy's imagination.
Most of the time...the behavior and actions of these characters Make. No. Sense. None. I understand the need for a heavy dose of suspension of belief here, but COME ON!!!!!
That is especially true of the final 25-30 pages of the book. The backstory given to explain the motives behind everything that happened was out and out absurd. Even a bad 80's horror movie would have handled the climax better than this mess.
It is honestly impossible for me to sit here and try to be calm while writing this review. Because it truly made me angrier than anything else i've read in a very long time. Gone Girl pissed me off....so did The Girl On The Train. But this one was far more disappointing to me considering how promising it seemed in the beginning.
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This ARC was kindly provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
