Final Girls by Riley Sager
Penguin Audio, 2017
Narrated by Erin Bennett and Hillary Huber
Ten years ago Quincy Carpenter ran from the woods covered in blood—the sole survivor of five young people vacationing in a secluded rental cottage. That experience made her a member of a group no one volunteers to join—Final Girls, the only survivors of killing sprees of slasher-movie proportions. The group is so exclusive that it contains only two others: Lisa and Samantha (Sam). The three women have never met but know about each other.
Now Quincy is doing well, despite her traumatic past, thanks to her Xanax prescription, a steady (and steadying) boyfriend, a popular baking blog, and, whenever necessary, reassurance from Coop, the cop who rescued her as she fled her attacker. But soon after Lisa is reported dead of an apparent suicide, Sam suddenly shows up trying to befriend Quincy. The plot thickens as Quincy and Sam bond while Sam, secretive and jumpy, becomes more and more erratic.
At the beginning I had trouble following how the various characters were connected, but once I got settled in the suspense was nearly nonstop. The ending was a surprise but completely credible, an effect probably heightened by the audiobook’s use of two narrators. If you like psychological thrillers, you’ll probably like this novel, which won the 2018 International Thriller Writers Award for best hardcover novel.
© 2019 by Mary Daniels Brown
