Riley Sager | Final Girls

final girls riley sager

The Book: 

Final Girls by Riley Sager, 2017

Rating: 5 out of 5.

The Characters: 

Quincy, her boyfriend Jeff, and her cop friend Coop

Get it on Amazon.


The Plot (from Goodreads):

Ten years ago, college student Quincy Carpenter went on vacation with five friends and came back alone, the only survivor of a horror movie–scale massacre. In an instant, she became a member of a club no one wants to belong to—a group of similar survivors known in the press as the Final Girls. Lisa, who lost nine sorority sisters to a college dropout’s knife; Sam, who went up against the Sack Man during her shift at the Nightlight Inn; and now Quincy, who ran bleeding through the woods to escape Pine Cottage and the man she refers to only as Him. The three girls are all attempting to put their nightmares behind them, and, with that, one another. Despite the media’s attempts, they never meet.

Now, Quincy is doing well—maybe even great, thanks to her Xanax prescription. She has a caring almost-fiancé, Jeff; a popular baking blog; a beautiful apartment; and a therapeutic presence in Coop, the police officer who saved her life all those years ago. Her memory won’t even allow her to recall the events of that night; the past is in the past.

That is, until Lisa, the first Final Girl, is found dead in her bathtub, wrists slit, and Sam, the second, appears on Quincy’s doorstep. Blowing through Quincy’s life like a whirlwind, Sam seems intent on making Quincy relive the past, with increasingly dire consequences, all of which makes Quincy question why Sam is really seeking her out. And when new details about Lisa’s death come to light, Quincy’s life becomes a race against time as she tries to unravel Sam’s truths from her lies, evade the police and hungry reporters, and, most crucially, remember what really happened at Pine Cottage, before what was started ten years ago is finished.

final girls riley sager
Get it here.
Click here for book spoilers for Final Girls
Book spoilers ahead–if you haven’t yet read Final Girls, I suggest you turn back now.

The Twist: 

Sam wasn’t the read Samantha Boyd, but a childhood friend of Joe’s pretending to be Sam to find out what Quincy knew about that night (Joe is the man assumed to have killed everyone at Pine Cottage, an escapee from a nearby mental asylum). 

Joe wasn’t the one that killed everyone in the cabin. Quincy’s memories come back when Tina/Sam brings her back to the cabin to try to get her memories to come back. It was Coop–he was already covered in blood when Quincy ran into him in the woods. He was a serial killer and Lisa had almost figured it out. Coop had also slept with all the final girls and killed Sam and Lisa. 

Tina knew Joe wouldn’t have done it, and stalked Quincy to figure out the truth. Coop follows them there, confesses to Quincy, and then she kills him. 

The Ending:

Tina lives but goes to jail. Quincy and her boyfriend Jeff split up, and Quincy tries to recover from her Xanax addiction.

The Review: 

This is one of those books that I’ve owned for years and for some reason never got around to reading, despite all the hype. Despite the fact that I’ve read almost all of Riley Sager’s other books and loved every one!

I’ll just say that it definitely lived up to my expectations. Final Girls had all the marks of a good thriller–an unreliable narrator, constantly building suspense, interesting characters, and multiple twists (both expected and unexpected). I loved how it all came together and was pleased with the ending. I can definitely see why Riley Sager became so popular after this debut! 

final girls riley sager

We're trying to grow our mailing list. If you join us and stick around, you will automatically be entered into two giveaways as a token of our thanks. And that's just the start!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *