Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Final Girls, by Riley Sager

46 reviews

sapphicpenguin's review against another edition

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.

Spoiler

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

fraise's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Drug abuse, Alcohol, Gun violence, Injury/injury detail, Kidnapping, Drug use, Violence, Infidelity, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Gore, Gaslighting, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, and Death

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Suicide, and Vomit

Minor: Misogyny, Racism, and Death of parent

emilymdxn's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, and Injury/injury detail

Moderate: Suicide and Toxic relationship

Minor: Drug abuse

nicheinterests's review against another edition

dark fast-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? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Sexual content, Drug abuse, and Murder

Moderate: Death

Minor: Sexual assault and Fatphobia

mapleleaf_rag's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

This is super slow for a thriller book. 70% of the book was just me wanting it to GET TO THE POINT.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Suicide, and Mental illness

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Drug abuse, Sexual content, Injury/injury detail, and Cursing

Minor: Blood and Vomit

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

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

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

ivegotyourpaperback's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

2.0

Unpopular opinion: I didn’t love this. I didn’t even really like much of it. Which is disappointing because I went into it thinking it was going to be right up my alley. Unfortunately this alley had a few wrong turns. 

Let’s start with what I did like. I enjoyed the switching of narratives depending on the time period (Present day = 1st person narrative and the Past = 3rd person). I’m thought it made for interesting storytelling.

The thing I could barely stand? The main character, Quincy Carpenter. It’s a bit of a problem when a book’s main character is so annoying that it makes you want to throw the book across the room (which I would have done, had this not been a library book).

Quincy is so stupid in the present tense that it’s irritating. I don’t know if it’s because she’s been through a trauma so she’s prone to more risk-taking behaviour; or if the author has intentionally made her act stupidly as an homage to horror films (so the reader/audience is shouting “don’t do that”, “don’t go there”, “at night, really?”). Either way, it grated on my nerves.

But the cherry on top of this Moron Pie was when Sam convinced Quincy to walk around Central Park at night hoping someone will mug her so she can try some vigilante bullshit to show she’s ‘strong’. But uh oh, she then ends up kicking in the skull of a dude who was possibly hungry/probably drug affected (but didn’t actually do anything wrong), just because she thinks he tried to slap her (don’t worry, this isn’t a spoiler - it literally had no bearing on the story).

This is where I put the book down at 46% seriously reconsidering whether I really wanted to continue following a dipstick of a main character. The only thing keeping me intrigued at this point were the flashback chapters detailing the night of the massacre.

I then skim read the rest of the book only because I wanted to find out how it ended and I’m behind on my Goodreads reading goal. I actually enjoyed the tension once the story reached it’s crescendo, but getting there just felt like a slog.

Content warnings:

⚠️murder (duh)

⚠️depression/PTSD

⚠️eating disorder 

⚠️mention of suicide

⚠️substance abuse 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Violence, Eating disorder, and Drug abuse

Minor: Suicide

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: 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

jmkendall0218's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Body horror, Grief, Mental illness, Death, Murder, Suicide, Drug abuse, Infidelity, and Toxic friendship

fictionaladventures's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense

2.5

This wasn’t my favorite of Sager’s books, but I did like it. I definitely didn’t see the twists coming. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Suicide, Gore, Violence, Infidelity, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Drug abuse, Injury/injury detail, Mental illness, Addiction, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Grief and Sexual content