Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

Final Girls by Riley Sager

10 reviews

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!

---

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

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. 

---

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

chasingpages1's review against another edition

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

---

Content Warnings

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

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

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

abicaro17's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective slow-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

4.25

This book was definitely interesting! Quincy seems at first to be a flat and uninteresting traumatized woman, but eventually evolves into something much more. The inner turmoil she displays at not only her current actions and choices but reflections of her past as well develop her into a multi dimensional character worth reading to the end for. Speaking of which, the ending was both as expected and sooo very unexpected! The last third of the book had me on the edge of my seat! My qualms with this book lie with the stereotypical and expected things. Like the boyfriend and other final girls. Even the twist was somewhat expected. I just wasn't as surprised as I like to be with these books. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

cait's review against another edition

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

meenunicorn's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Rape, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Medical trauma, and Murder

boundforinfinity's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A genuinely impressive book that surprised and excited me. 

Quincy's Final Girls are comprised of three, majorly smart victims. No not victims. Survivors. Quincy Carpenter, Lisa Milner and Samantha Boyd are standout, independent, strong female characters that thrill the reader.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, 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. 

---

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

readwithzoe_'s review against another edition

dark emotional 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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Alcohol

lou_o_donnell's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense fast-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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Gore, Sexual assault, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Murder