Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Final Girls by Riley Sager

109 reviews

voxlunae's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Rape and Suicide

Minor: Sexual content

socialpsysteph's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I've been in the mood for a thriller and when I did a scan of my shelf, this one jumped out as a possible spooky, fun, summer read. I was not disappointed. I thought the premise was really interesting and fun. I definitely didn't see many of the twists coming and was very wrong about others. Toward the end, I just couldn't put it down and had to keep reading. This is exactly what I look for when I want to read a thriller.

This book counts for Popsugar 2023 for a book with "Girl" in the title.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Addiction and Suicide

sophiemartin's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Murder, Mental illness, Blood, Confinement, and Suicide

Minor: Body shaming

amweber's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Blood, Murder, Death, Kidnapping, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gun violence, Toxic friendship, Suicide, and Drug use

frantically's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I loved how character focused this was — for most times it was more like the aftermath of a thriller & what it did to the characters — but I didn't really enjoy the twists.

Also:

I WAS ROOTING FOR YOU COOP, WE WERE ALL ROOTING FOR YOU

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, and Infidelity

Moderate: Mental illness, Murder, and Suicide

Minor: Rape

percys_panda_pillow_pet's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

At this point in time, Riley Sager is a popular thriller author online, having published several successful thrillers in the past few years. Final Girls is his first thriller, published in 2017. I picked up this book partially because of the author's name and partially because a friend of mine who is into 80's slasher really got me into horror and the concept of a final girl, the one who survives all the horrors of a single terrible night.

Sager's Final Girls isn't unique in wanting to explore the idea of the final girl further, of what it's like after everything. Previously, there was The Last Final Girl by Stephen Graham Jones in 2012 and later, in 2021, Grady Hendrix's The Final Girl Support Group. All of these books follow a similar storyline: there are these "final girls" who each survive what is by all accounts a massacre and then they are seemingly being killed off until the main character is left. This leaves the main character a "true" survivor, I suppose.

My problem with Sager's Final Girls isn't that there are other books like it, there are many ways to tell the same story after all. More so, I could tell Sager was still inexperienced at writing when it was published. While I appreciated the thematic nature of the past being told in the third person point of view and the present told in first person point of view, since the main character and narrator, Quincy, is unreliable due to her amnesia of the horrible night all her friends were killed; in the end, I found the switch in POV jarring to go between. 

As well, I could tell Sager was inexperienced in writing women specifically. Quincy herself was very annoying, and constantly got in her own way. But there was not only a strange love triangle between her, her boyfriend Jeff, and Coop, the cop who saved her life, there were also strange homoerotic tones between Quincy and her female friends/acquaintances. I felt like the was supposed to be a commentary on sexuality perhaps, especially when it comes to final girls (Check out Dead Meat Podcast Episode 15: Final Girl on YouTube for more information about that), but so much of it flopped and came off as cringey. 

I liked that Quincy was unreliable and I was intrigued by the complexity of several of the characters. However, they were often too unlikable for me to really invest in them fully, and I constantly found myself hating each and every one of them at different points in the book. 

Overall, I personally think that maybe the concept of finals girls should be left to the movies, or perhaps women authors who may be able to understand the deeper fears that persist in today's society of violence against women. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Vomit, Drug use, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Drug abuse, Blood, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Addiction, Suicide, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Classism, Cursing, Toxic friendship, Alcoholism, Self harm, Eating disorder, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Chronic illness, Death of parent, Police brutality, Sexism, Ableism, Cancer, Misogyny, Racism, and Death

As for the ending,

I was shocked by the twist with "Sam"/Tina, but I called Coop from the start a creep and I am glad it was the cop. Real good ACAB message lol

sapphicpenguin's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

4.0

Much more suspense/mystery than action/thriller. I wasn't expecting to enjoy this as much as I did! I did often get mad at the main character, but I guess I'll give her a pass for the, y'know, slasher-movie trauma. The plot twists were well set up/thought out, and kept me guessing till the very end. I liked the subversion of movie tropes, plus the writing was very satisfying. Great nonlinear storytelling. A good all-in-an-afternoon read.  I guess I don't have the patience for too much mystery, though, as sometimes I just wished we could get to the next thing.

ACAB btw

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Medical content, Gore, Infidelity, Murder, Vomit, Death, Grief, Blood, Toxic friendship, Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, and Violence

Moderate: Gun violence, Alcoholism, Sexual content, and Suicide

Minor: Death of parent, Eating disorder, Sexual assault, Cancer, and Incest

fraise's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Drug abuse, Alcohol, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Drug use, Violence, Infidelity, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Gore, Gaslighting, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, and Death

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Suicide, and Vomit

Minor: Misogyny, Racism, and Death of parent

emilymdxn's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Suicide and Toxic relationship

Minor: Drug abuse

gretchenplz's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

One day I will write a thesis about the laziness of Riley Sager’s writing and his chronic need to write FMCs that are depressingly bland, stupid, and one-note. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Mental illness, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Rape

Minor: Pedophilia, Vomit, and Addiction