CY@CY Says Welcome to my dreamscape. Where a Lim is also a Ling.
Touted by master of horror Stephen King as “the first great thriller of 2017,” Final Girls, the debut novel by Riley Sager, is a dark and unsettling psychological thriller with an intriguing premise. I find it so engrossing that I finished the 339-page book in just a day.
Final Girls by Riley Sager
Ten years ago, Quincy Carpenter, then a college student, became the sole survivor of the Pine Cottage massacre that claimed the lives of five of her friends. She became the third girl of a group of similar survivors known in the press as the Final Girls. The other two girls are Lisa Milner, who lost nine sorority sisters to a college dropout’s knife, and Samantha Boyd, who survived the Sack Man’s killing spree during her shift at the Nightlight Inn.
As the books opens, Quincy is now a successful baking blogger, living with her public defender boyfriend in a beautiful Manhattan apartment bought with the proceeds of legal settlements and media interviews after her survival from the Pine Cottage massacre. She has no memory of that night’s events due to her trauma and depends on wine and Xanax to cope with her life. Coop, the police officer who saved her life during the Pine Cottage massacre, gives her unwavering support whenever she meets up with him.
When Lisa is found dead in her bathtub with her wrists slit from an apparent suicide and Samantha suddenly shows up on Quincy’s doorstep, Quincy’s seemingly normal life starts to disintegrate. Sam seems dead set on releasing Quincy’s demons, including her repressed memories of the murders. When Lisa’s death was revealed as a murder, Quincy’s life becomes a race against time as she tries to unravel Samantha’s truths from her lies. She begins having vivid flashbacks, setting off a series of events that puts the two women’s innocence in question and their lives in danger.
This book is a gripping read with its many twists. As the book winds down to its climax, what really happens at Pine Cottage is revealed. You probably won’t see the twist coming!