“I make no attempts to disguise my scars. I just pretend they don’t exist.”
The Final Girls by Riley Sager tells the story of Quincy Carpenter, a wealthy baking blogger whose past life is shadowed by an accident that has marked her existence forever. Many years ago, Quinn was the sole survivor of a mass murder where a cold-blooded killer took the lives of all the girls that were staying at a remote chalet called The pine cottage. All girls, except Quinn.
Ever since that tragic event, she has been known in mass media as one of the Final Girls, one of the few survivors of a mass murder, along with two others survivors that had been through similar tragic fates, Lisa and Sam. The three Final Girls have never met, but because they share a similar tragic story, the press considered them to be bound together.
While Lisa became an inspirational book writer that helps victims worldwide to recover from tragic events, Sam has kept a low profile, staying away from the eyes of the press. Meanwhile, our heroine decided to move on and live a quiet life with her boyfriend and her cupcakes, living a comfortable existence thanks to all the money she has received from mass media.
Quincy was content with her small intimate life. She has survived and moved on from the tragic event. Even though she doesn’t remember anything from the moment her friends were murdered, she is okay. However, she can’t utter his name, the killer’s, after so many years. Although she is addicted to Xanax and alcohol, she is fine. Great even. Until Lisa, the perfect Final Girl, kills herself. And Sam shows up at the door, bringing more questions than answers into her existence.
Quincy’s repressed hurt and anger are meant to resurface, and the memories erased from that night might decide to come back to haunt her… One way or another, she is one of the Final Girls for a reason.
“There’s such a thing as too much sweetness, Quincy, he told me. All the best bakers know this. There needs to be a counterpoint. Something dark. Or bitter. Or sour. Unsweetened chocolate. Cardamom and cinnamon. Lemon and lime. They cut through all the sugar, taming it just enough so that when you do taste the sweetness, you appreciate it all the more.”
I enjoyed this book so much, it gave me such a thrill to read it, and I felt so dizzy after I finished it. I might have even forgotten to breathe for the last 30 pages – this is how mind-blowing it was.
I am a huge fan of Riley Sager, reading almost all of his books. He surely did not disappoint me this time either. I would truly recommend this to everyone who is obsessed with memory-loss thrillers like I am and who may want something that will shake every single of their senses while reading every delicious twist.
For more amazing mystery reviews to find out what to read next, check out this amazing review of Beartown.
