Reviews tagging 'Forced institutionalization'

Final Girls by Riley Sager

24 reviews

snoopyfanclub's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Suicide, Alcohol, Blood, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Violence, Grief, and Infidelity

Minor: Forced institutionalization, Incest, Pedophilia, and Sexual assault

riannonsbookishera's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Murder, Sexual content, Violence, Body shaming, Death, Grief, Infidelity, Blood, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Self harm

kaylokay_'s review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Infidelity, Emotional abuse, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Alcohol, Murder, Drug use, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Violence, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Eating disorder, Forced institutionalization, Toxic relationship, and Gun violence

itsheyfay's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Murder, Blood, Drug use, and Addiction

Moderate: Alcoholism, Sexual content, Stalking, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Vomit

chasingpages1's review

dark emotional mysterious sad 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Murder, Gore, Grief, Drug use, Infidelity, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Death, Addiction, Blood, Drug abuse, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Stalking, Violence, Alcoholism, Medical trauma, Kidnapping, Medical content, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, and Vomit

Minor: Eating disorder, Rape, Self harm, Suicide, Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicide attempt

kyriannaj's review

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Alcohol, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Addiction, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Toxic friendship, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Violence, Blood, Cursing, and Grief

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Confinement, Eating disorder, Forced institutionalization, Infidelity, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Stalking, Suicide, Mental illness, and Sexual harassment

violetbentbackwards1036's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

i would’ve given the a five star rating if it hadn’t been for the painfully slow beginning and the unbelievably perfect ending. i think it was just how mundane the first half of the book was, but when the plot actually picked up, everything happened so fast. the ending was also just really perfect. everything, and i mean everything, gets resolved. i also found it really weird how after quincy gets her memory back, we don’t get anything else about her mourning her friends? you’d think after having to relive watching her friends be slaughtered in front of her, there’d at least be something about her accepting what happened to everyone. i just found it kinda disappointing how quickly quincy moves on from everyone’s deaths, how there’s nothing else about the friend group. i wish we got to see more of the friend group, more about rodney, amy and betz. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Addiction, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Violence, Murder, Fatphobia, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicide, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Confinement, Cursing, Eating disorder, Gore, Kidnapping, Blood, Death, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Rape, Pedophilia, Alcohol, Child death, Grief, Infidelity, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Injury/Injury detail

percys_panda_pillow_pet's review

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

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

mfrisk's review

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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

2.0

I really wanted to enjoy this book - I love a cheesy horror movie with slasher elements and figured this would also delve into how that intersects with how we consumer true crime and survivor stories. 

I kept waiting and waiting for more exciting moments to happen in this book but the beginning really dragged, the middle felt like it was headed somewhere, but then ultimately the ending was disappointing and overly reliant on tropes and cheesy lines. 

Additionally, there wasn’t really any discussion or thought put into the discussion of true crime, survivor stories, and how the media shapes how we view these events. 

The whole book felt like an unfortunate missed opportunity. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Sexual assault, Drug use, Blood, Death, Drug abuse, and Sexual content

Moderate: Alcohol, Toxic friendship, Addiction, Alcoholism, Fatphobia, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Misogyny, Violence, and Toxic relationship