Final Girls

A Novel

By: Riley Sager

Narrated by: Erin Bennett, Hillary Huber

Length: 12 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

The national and international best seller.

Ten years ago, six friends went on vacation. One made it out alive...

In that instant, college student Quincy Carpenter became a member of a very exclusive club - a group of survivors the press dubbed “The Final Girls”: Lisa, who lost nine sorority sisters to a college dropout's knife; Sam, who endured the Sack Man during her shift at the Nightlight Inn; and now Quincy, who ran bleeding through the woods to escape the massacre at Pine Cottage. Despite the media's attempts, the three girls have never met.

Now, Quincy is doing well - maybe even great, thanks to her Xanax prescription. She has a caring almost-fiancé; a popular baking blog; a beautiful apartment; and a therapeutic presence in Coop, the police officer who saved her life. Her mind won’t let her recall the events of that night; the past is in the past...until the first Final Girl is found dead in her bathtub and the second Final Girl appears on Quincy's doorstep.

Blowing through Quincy's life like a hurricane, Sam seems intent on making her relive the trauma of her ordeal. When disturbing details about Lisa's death emerge, Quincy desperately tries to unravel Sam's truths from her lies while evading both the police and bloodthirsty reporters. Quincy knows that in order to survive she has to remember what really happened at Pine Cottage.

Because the only thing worse than being a Final Girl is being a dead one.

©2017 Riley Sager (P)2017 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

Winner of the 2018 International Thriller Writers Award for Best Hardcover Novel

“If you liked Gone Girl, you’ll like this.” (Stephen King)

“Sager does an excellent job throughout of keeping the audience guessing until the final twist. A fresh voice in psychological suspense.” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review)

I sort of saw it coming

About 45 minutes in to this book, I sort of figured out what was going on but it was still a good read. The twists, turns were interesting but I feel like the author might have assumed we're all naive and dumb. It was frustrating in parts to listen to Quinn be so lame.

It could have been better but I'm thankful it wasn't worse.

Amazing Listen

Great book full of twists and turns that are unexpected yet brilliantly placed. The fast paced mystery will keep any reader on the end of their seat wanting to hear more about Quincy, the other final girls and those around them.

Disappointing

I read the reviews on the book and thought it would be a good listen. I felt like the book was never ending and there was no big climax. The story was mediocre at best

Good thriller!

Had a touch of Gillian Flynn, with the messy female friendship. Got it on a whim, and I really enjoyed this. Only complaint is that during the flashback scenes, the narrator sounds like a voice-to-text robot.

Twisted

There were so many twists and turns throughout that I eventually gave up on the idea of knowing who was responsible for so much terror.

Best ever

This book was so amazing it had you guessinng all the way to the end so worth it

Keeps you guessing

overall I thought both the story and perfomance were really good. There were however times when the narrator sounded robotic and a few times that I didn't enjoy the portrayal of the character's voices. the story twists and turns and just when I thought I had it figured out it twisted again. I was captivated and couldn't stop listening.

Avid reader

This book was well worth the credit or price. It was creepy, suspenseful and loaded with surprises. It was a little long but not boring. The ending I never guessed, although I thought I had things figured out several times but was wrong every time. If you enjoy psychological thrillers, you'll enjoy this one. Narration was done well. JC

Passable Thriller

Would you try another book from Riley Sager and/or Erin Bennett and Hillary Huber ?

I didn't dislike the book so I'd be willing to give the author another go assuming I like the premise.

Would you recommend Final Girls to your friends? Why or why not?

No, I think this one would do better as a movie. As thriller novels go there are a lot of better choices out there.

Did Erin Bennett and Hillary Huber do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

I didn't realize there were 2 performers.... I was never confused on which character was speaking but I just assumed it was one narrator.

Could you see Final Girls being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

I think it would make for a pretty good movie.

Any additional comments?

I think this would make a better movie than it did novel. The first half had a lot of drag but it picked up a bit in the second half. It would do well as a nice under 2 hour movie but as a 12 hour listen it wasn't that impressive. It had a few nice twists towards the end but honestly I found that I just didn't care.

No one in this book is likable.

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

It was not. I kept listening because of the flash backs.

What could Riley Sager have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Make the characters more enjoyable to read.

Any additional comments?

Honestly, this book has some okay head nods to Scream and other films but this book falls flat for the most part. Not one character is enjoyable to read or listen to. The 3rd act is better than the book as a whole. The content isn't very good, so the author uses flashbacks as a way to keep you interested to make it to the 3rd act which was pretty predictable.