Final Girls
Riley Sager, 2017
Mystery, thriller & crime HorrorContemporary fiction
A baking blogger who survived a notorious massacre is drawn back into the final-girl mythology when another survivor turns up dead.
Feels like dread and curiosity. About society.
A page from the book
When the details become a way of not looking.
I understand that urge for more information, that longing for details. But in this case, I’m fine without them. I know what happened at Pine Cottage. I don’t need to remember exactly how it happened. Because here’s the thing about details-they can also be a distraction. Add too many and it obscures the brutal truth about a situation. They become the gaudy necklace that hides the tracheotomy scar. Riley Sager.Riley Sager is the pen name of American author Todd Ritter; Final Girls was his first thriller under that name.
Books that feel like this
More by Riley Sager
Home Before Dark
Riley Sager, 2017
A troubled family's chilling memoir of a house that captivated the world, only to leave them haunted by a truth that is much stranger than ghosts.
Lock Every Door
Riley Sager, 2019
A broke young woman takes a dream apartment-sitting job in a Gothic Manhattan building, where the rules are strange and the neighbors are watching.
The Only One Left
Riley Sager, 2023
A home-care aide tends a notorious invalid in a crumbling mansion, where every kindness feels like a clue.
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Questions readers ask
- What is Final Girls like?
- Feels like dread and curiosity. About society.
- What should I read after Final Girls?
- If you liked Final Girls, try The Outsider (Stephen King), The Perfect Marriage (Jeneva Rose) and The God of the Woods (Liz Moore).
A taste of the feed
How one photograph can make a man look guilty before he speaks.
Terry frowned at Ramage. He understood the words, they were simple English words forming a simple declarative sentence, he knew who Frankie Peterson was and what had happened to him, but the meaning of the words eluded him. All he could say was “What? Are you kidding?” and that was when the sports photographer from the Flint City Call snapped his picture, the one that appeared on the front page the next day. His mouth was open, his eyes were wide, his hair was sticking out around the edges of his Golden Dragons cap. In that photo he looked both enfeebled and guilty.
The Outsider · Stephen King
What it costs to make yourself unnoticeable in a crowded room.
She was trying to make herself as small as possible, blending into the background, going unnoticed. But to me, she was the only person in that room.
The Perfect Marriage · Jeneva Rose
The particular fury of someone who has never been held accountable.
Rich people, thought Judy—she thought this then, and she thinks it now—generally become most enraged when they sense they’re about to be held accountable for their wrongs.
The God of the Woods · Liz Moore
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