Reviews tagging 'Forced institutionalization'

Final Girls by Riley Sager

28 reviews

parasolcrafter's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gore and Blood

Minor: Ableism, Death, Drug use, Sexual content, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

bookishgoob's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

“I’m the moth that got careless with the flame. Now i’m engulfed” slow paced and utterly uninteresting in the first half, you follow a girl with no memory of what happened to her after being the only survivor of a massacre that left all of her friends dead. she was the only survivor. she was a “final girl” a term used when talking about horror movies most of the time to describe the girl at the end of a movie that is the only survivor of what happened. the first 50% of this book left me with the feeling of wanting to just not finish at all but I don’t like to DNF books unless it’s so terrible or uninteresting so i pushed through and finished it. the twists and turns were surprising, but only to an extent. i called a few of them from a mile away, a few of them though were not so easy to spot. switching from the final girls perspective to a 3rd person account of what happened to her 10 years early was an interesting choice, just not very well executed in my opinion. not getting much on either end of the story made it dull and it felt slightly repetitive. all in all, i’m glad i finished it but i would not read it again and i don’t think i would really recommend it. unless you like slow paced stories that really feel like they have no direction in the beginning. i give this read a 2/5. it was an okay spooky season read. but if you have a choice between this title, or another thriller, i would vote that you get the other one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

bastieboi's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I sussed everyone, and I was still wrong. what the heck

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Grief, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Infidelity, Forced institutionalization, and Vomit

Minor: Child abuse, Pedophilia, and Sexual assault

alinwonderland's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Violence, Blood, Stalking, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Mental illness, Sexual content, Grief, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Cursing, Eating disorder, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, and Car accident

davidrb's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

1.0

Christ.

No spoilers, but this is a tedious mess. For a thriller (and make no mistake: this is a thriller and not a horror), the pace is unbearably slow. The characters are beyond flat and contrived. The writing style gives absolutely nothing. Most damningly, the author takes a very dismissive approach towards more "traditional" trauma victims (i.e. survivors of rape and assault) in favor of his prototypical final girl, which is both uncomfortable to read and doesn't at all serve the story, considering it's a narrative about how trauma shapes people. Ostensibly.

Horror satire can still be suspenseful and scary (think Scream), but this forgoes any meaningful commentary in favor of cheap twists, and, in fact, has very little to say about the genre at all. I only gave it 1 star because I gave The Maidens 1 star, and I wouldn't say I hated it more. (I'm really striking out with thrillers lately.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

sonygaystation's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.0

This was NOT the book for me!!! I predicted who was really behind everything from the minute we're first introduced to them so I didn't even really feel all that satisfied cuz I could've DNF'd it and known the entire plot. I really liked Sager's Home Before Dark so maybe his books are just a hit or miss for me. Sometimes when books irritate me I can't stop asking myself what the book added to the genre, and this was definitely one of those. I also kept asking myself why it was necessary for a man to tell a story about a woman's trauma especially when it concerns graphic physical, emotional, and sexual violence. Like why did HE of all people feel compelled to tell that story? I don't even really think he did it in a way that was sensitive either. For books with graphic discussions of suicide I feel like that needs to be addressed with care, which means literally two (2) seconds of research on the topic would churn up the fact that "die by suicide" is a much better and less stigmatizing phrase to use than "committed suicide." This is minor but it also pissed me off that one of the scenes discussing one of the character's first times having sex actively talked about how painful it would be. It bothers me that the painful first-time penetration narrative gets pushed by people (more alarming that a man is perpetuating it like damn dude that's telling) who clearly missed some important parts of sex education (news flash: it should not be painful the first time ever). This next feeling is more major, but I was also pretty frustrated that one of the pivotal scenes that help develop the MC's personality involved a homeless man with a drug addiction who just HAPPENS to be latinx/e. Like, really?? We gotta add on racism, as well?? This book was just predictable and boring and pretty much was insensitive with regards to literally every "gritty" topic it covered.

At least Sager reinforced the ACAB narrative. My distrust of c*ps came in handy this time lol.

content warnings: graphic violence, grief, death, murder, suicide, abuse (physical, emotional, and sexual), mental illness (PTSD, trauma), drug addiction and abuse (talks about crack and xanax)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Eating disorder, Vomit, and Car accident

thatsssorachael's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

What a compelling, compulsively readable, ride of a book. I really enjoyed it, but there were some things that I felt didn't work well enough to give it a 5 star rating. As always, I'm quite limited in what I can say because MAJOR spoilers. 

This was pitched to me from seemingly every booktuber and bookstagramer as "the final girls get hunted down one by one" but that's not what this story is about and not at all what happens so ???? Because of that, I avoided it for a while because it felt so cliched. Turns out the story was way more nuanced and interesting than that, so disregard that description altogether. I didn't love the ending, as I always prefer an ending that they give you the clues to solve yourself if you're keen to do so, but it's unlikely the reader will figure it out without a wild guess. There aren't really any clues leading the way to the conclusion. I also didn't really like the picture perfect ending, it felt wrong to me. 

Overall though, it was almost unputdownable and that counts for a lot. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore

Moderate: Child abuse, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, and Murder

nerysb's review against another edition

emotional mysterious fast-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I love a good twist ending, but I had to think back to see if the ending ACTUALLY made sense and if there were clues leading up to it. Some bits were very predictable, others not at all. 
I'm not a fan of stories where everyone's the bad guy/all the characters are grey, so if you're looking for characters to get attached to this isn't the one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Violence

Moderate: Death, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Blood, and Grief

Minor: Gun violence, Infidelity, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship