Final Girls by Riley Sager
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
All the praise, all the excitement and all the hoopla around this book had me very excited to start this year’s season of horror/thriller/mystery reads. What a disappointment it was! Truth be told, I wanted to quit this story about 20% in, because I could already tell that I might reach a new record in eye rolling, if I continued. Now I’m sitting here, stuffing my face with cake and shaking my head wondering how I can write a review, when I just want this book to fade into a distant memory.
The characters were ‘stock’ at best. The protagonist was a pain to follow through the story, made even more grinding by the fact that most of the story was told through her point of view; a character, who is completely self-absorbed, very dumb and possessing no trait that could invoke any sort of connection to the reader or sympathy whatsoever.
The plot felt like a carelessly constructed and thrown together mix of every thriller/Lifetime Network “horror” movie ever made. Upon reflection, I cannot for certain say exactly what the point of the story was.
The writing had me believe that the author thought it must be dumbed down, with repeated repetitions of how the character feels, of what is going on, etcetera, for the sake of the reader’s simple mind and it made this story a very tedious reading experience. On the other hand, other details that would have been helpful for the reader to create a clearer picture of the timeline of events were omitted.
Overall, this wasn’t for me. It took me about three times as long as usual to finish a book of this length. It was boring, uninteresting and flat. Depending on what type of spine-tingler a reader might crave, there are plenty of better stories to choose from. I would not recommend it.
