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fpgreviews 's review for:
Final Cut
by Olivia Worley
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Haze, the daughter of the infamous Pine Springs Slasher, is invited to audition for the lead role in a slasher film set in Pine Springs. It's a dream come true as she's always been a slasher fan, but as gruesome accidents occur on the set of the film, she starts to wonder if her father was wrongly convicted and the killer is still out there... looking for her.
I'm a big fan of thrillers and murder mysteries, less so slasher movies, but I still thoroughly enjoyed this book. My most recent exposure to slashers is the visual novel Terror Fest, so I was anticipating that Final Cut would likely be somewhat similar. It was, but it was better in my opinion. A lot of the characters were a bit stereotypical, but that worked for the genre that it was in. I enjoyed watching the mystery unravel of what really happened on that day fifteen years ago that the Pine Springs Slasher claimed his victims, and I didn't expect the conclusion. At first, I was wondering if it would really be a true slasher-inspired book as there were only accidents and not deaths, but there were plenty of deaths in the end. I can say that from my limited knowledge of the slasher genre, it did end up true to the genre.
The romance was cute and compelling as well. I liked the complicated nature of Haze's relationships with the other members of the cast, and of her relationship with her mother. It was interesting to see the "final girl" be a bit of an unreliable narrator, it rounded out her personality. There was some representation of minorities amongst the side characters — a lesbian couple, one of them Vietnamese, and a nonbinary character — which was good. One of Haze's co-stars, Nina, is Latina and there was some good representation there. She was definitely more important than the non-binary side character in general, but that makes sense as she was one of the main five cast members.
I also enjoyed the way the story was told, with alternate chapters from the perspectives of side characters. One of them was a little misleading, but I think that's pretty typical for murder mysteries. The way that certain portions of the book was told in screenplay format was also fun.
Thank you to Netgalley, Wednesday Books and Olivia Worley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.
I'm a big fan of thrillers and murder mysteries, less so slasher movies, but I still thoroughly enjoyed this book. My most recent exposure to slashers is the visual novel Terror Fest, so I was anticipating that Final Cut would likely be somewhat similar. It was, but it was better in my opinion. A lot of the characters were a bit stereotypical, but that worked for the genre that it was in. I enjoyed watching the mystery unravel of what really happened on that day fifteen years ago that the Pine Springs Slasher claimed his victims, and I didn't expect the conclusion. At first, I was wondering if it would really be a true slasher-inspired book as there were only accidents and not deaths, but there were plenty of deaths in the end. I can say that from my limited knowledge of the slasher genre, it did end up true to the genre.
The romance was cute and compelling as well. I liked the complicated nature of Haze's relationships with the other members of the cast, and of her relationship with her mother. It was interesting to see the "final girl" be a bit of an unreliable narrator, it rounded out her personality. There was some representation of minorities amongst the side characters — a lesbian couple, one of them Vietnamese, and a nonbinary character — which was good. One of Haze's co-stars, Nina, is Latina and there was some good representation there. She was definitely more important than the non-binary side character in general, but that makes sense as she was one of the main five cast members.
I also enjoyed the way the story was told, with alternate chapters from the perspectives of side characters. One of them was a little misleading, but I think that's pretty typical for murder mysteries. The way that certain portions of the book was told in screenplay format was also fun.
Thank you to Netgalley, Wednesday Books and Olivia Worley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Blood, Stalking, Murder
Moderate: Gun violence, Pedophilia, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship
Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Racism, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Alcohol