Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

Final Girls by Riley Sager

11 reviews

lottieingham's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Vomit, and Alcohol

Minor: Fatphobia, Gun violence, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, and Car accident

haileyhardcover's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Who doesn’t love a good ole slasher serial killer mystery? I know I do! 

This is my second Riley Sager book and I’m officially counting myself as a fan. Though I think I was more gripped and surprised by The Only One Left, Final Girls was a really fun read and was a much more visual experience for me! The story jumps back and forth between the event that made the main character, Quincy, a “Final Girl” to begin with and present day. In the chapters detailing what occurred at Pine Cottage, it almost felt like I was watching a slasher movie; the images were so clear in my head. Really compelling writing, with just enough detail to build the image in your mind without overdoing it and getting overly descriptive. If Sager wrote a book that was just entirely a slasher story, I’m certain I would absolutely devour it! (Has he? Clearly I need to check out the descriptions of all of his books now!)

I will say, I figured out the mystery to this one pretty early on, but I still really enjoyed the story leading up to finding out I was correct! I think Sager does a really fantastic job of planning his stories and finding ways to subtly work in clues for those of us who like to race to solve the mystery. His are books that, if you were to read them a second time, I think you would spend most of the time smacking your own forehead and exclaiming “How did I miss that?!” 

I’m looking forward to more Riley Sager in the future. Final Girls is an easy 5 stars!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Child abuse, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Rape, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Gaslighting

ecmcmahon's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

dopaminereading's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Cancer, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

tini_turtle'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? It's complicated

4.25

Kept me so hooked for hours!! Felt it sagging a bit in the middle but the ending saved it. So so good and well written!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Alcohol

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

killmoore_'s review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Had me going there for a minute, bud. The twist got me. 

Truly despicable characters, all of them, and a unreliable narrator trope that isn't exactly what it seems. This was fun, and while I don't normally like books that end all wrapped up with a bow, this one felt complete. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

ohyeahshebomb's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

Definitely kept me guessing up until the very end! Successful first Riley Sager book and I was not disappointed! Riley's writing style was absolutely perfect for a gooey thriller such as this. IT felt like I was truly watching a movie. He did a great job of giving descriptive without outright telling you everything you needed to know. You had to piece it all together. And just because you know something in the beginning, doesn't mean it's exactly as it seems...

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Cursing, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Gore, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Murder, and Alcohol

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

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

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

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

rachaelbunny's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

Graphic: Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Sexual content, Vomit, Mass/school shootings, and Stalking

Minor: Cancer, Sexual assault, Police brutality, and Death of parent

mfrisk's review against another edition

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

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