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Premise

Ten years ago, Quincy Carpenter survived a horror-movie scale massacre at Pine Cottage. The media calls her a Final Girl, along with two other women who survived similarly gruesome attacks, years apart. But Quincy doesn’t think of herself as a Final Girl, at all. In fact, she’s doing her best to move past all that ugliness—hence her cutesy baking blog. Of course, having little memory of that night helps keep the nightmares at bay. At least, that’s what she tells herself.

But when the first of the Final Girls, Lisa, is found dead in her bathtub, and the second Final Girl, Sam, shows up on Quincey’s doorstep, she is forced to face a truth she’s been hiding from for a decade: being a Final Girl is never the end of the story, it’s only the beginning.

Full Review (SPOILERS)

The Killer

A figure looming. A knife charging. A silvery flash.

SEX!

Now that I’ve got your attention… still SEX!

In laying out the “rules” of the slasher genre in her 1992 book, Men, Women, and Chainsaws, film theorist, Carol Clover, wrote that the Slasher himself is typically motivated by “psychosexual fury.” Coop is probably the most explicit example of this I’ve ever encountered. A misogynist, self-hating, woman-hating, manipulative, abusive, and VIOLENT man.

Much like Norman Bates, Coop is ashamed of his own sexuality, and feels obligated to punish women to whom he is attracted. It’s gross. And it’s terrible. And Coop is the worst. Especially since he takes his delusion about women and sex even further by deciding to “save” the woman he “loves” from his wrath, and spends the next ten years manipulating her into being dependent upon him, treating her like a doll, and himself the dollmaker. 

UGH!

The Terrible Place

Outside, the world is an unruly place where men prowl with sharpened knives.

Sager does an excellent job in creating a Terrible Place, so big and shadowy in Quincey’s partial memories; so visceral that it almost becomes its own character (consider Quincey stalking about, thinking, “I don’t want Pine Cottage to know I’m here”). The tension created by flipping back and forth in time is intensified when you realize that the whole book has been a build up to The Return to the Terrible Place. It’s absolutely brilliant.

Even though so much of the book takes place after the events at Pine Cottage, we still sense it looming over Quincey at all times. Living with her trauma means that everywhere outside her apartment becomes The Terrible Place. She’s not a recluse, but the language used to describe “outside” leaves the impression of danger and unknowns. Especially Central Park, which is used well in the book to allow Quincey to almost re-enact the violence she experienced at Pine Cottage, and change the narrative. Quincey’s survival guilt is intensified by the fact that she was “saved” rather than having to “fight back,” which makes her feel like she’s not a real Final Girl. But in Central Park, she fights so hard she herself becomes the monster in the shadows.

The Weapons/Shock Value

My entire body hums with a mixture of adrenaline and fear and pride…

Being that this book is more thriller than slasher, much of the shock value comes from plot twists rather than gore. And wow was it ever twisty! From Lisa’s mysterious suicide, to Sam’s mysterious arrival, to the reveal that Qunicey slept with Joe Hannen… to the even bigger reveal that Coop is the real Slasher! The plot never quits. And when it stumbles (because, for me, it flailed a bit in the middle with the whole ‘Quincey and Sam, vigilante-terrorism’ segment) it eventually picks itself back up.

Meanwhile, through flashbacks a proper slasher storyline unfolds, more tense than gory. Still, all the typical tropes are there: the young cast looking to let loose, the ‘slut’ archetype, the ‘jock’ archetype, the ‘virgin’ archetype (AKA The Final Girl). Only, in a book obsessed with sex and shame, our “virgin” chooses to have sex.

That’s right, folks, Quincey’s “not like the other Final Girls,” furthering the idea that she’s not a “real” FG. Thus, the book challenges the concept of the traditional, ideal Final Girl, over and over again. But by the end, Quincey more than proves herself.

Have I mentioned yet that this book is brilliant?!

The Victims

Sam and Lisa and me. Now two of them are dead. I’m the last one left alive.

Like in most slashers, the Pine Cottage victims are mostly faceless, personality-less, space fillers. Except, of course, the two key archetypes: The Virgin (Quincey) and The Whore (Janelle). The Virgin/Whore archetype is huge in literary and film studies, and always makes an appearance in slasher stories. While it obviously feels tacky at first, it does serve an important purpose in this book. In present day, Quincey is drawn to Sam because she reminds her of Janelle, which explains why she gets sucked into so many of Sam’s terrible ideas. But it’s also a red flag, because if Sam and Janelle are so alike, why is Janelle dead and Sam a Final Girl? Because she’s not.

Brilliant!

As for the present-day victims, Lisa and the real Sam are killed off-screen but because of what they represent, both are devastating blows.

That said, it’s worth noting that the book lacks diversity, and is therefore limited in its social commentary. However, the major themes (gender, sex, and trauma) were all well-explored.

The Final Girl

I’m his creation, forged from blood and pain and the cold steel of a blade. I’m a fucking Final Girl.

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t a big fan of Quincey. I understand that she was dealing with some hefty trauma, but her extreme denial pushed me to the limits of patience. And as film theorist, Robin Wood, said of the horror genre, “that which is repressed will always return.” We see this play out to Qunicey’s detriment, repeatedly, and it’s a tough pill to swallow (pass the grape soda!). 

Quincey makes a string of errors in judgement (and does some pretty egregious things, like beating an innocent man senseless), before finally taking control and getting active in her own story. Until then, her refusal to face her trauma is used to explain away all of her bad behaviour. But once she is forced to face it, she becomes the Final Girl she never thought she was good enough to be.

I started this blog because I was tired of the Slashers being celebrated over the Final Girls, of everyone knowing Jason’s name, but forgetting all of the Girls who’ve defeated him (Ginny, Chris, and Trish, to name a few). I LOVED that Quincey refused to use His name, and I deeply felt for her when she said: “it made me sick knowing my name and His will forever be associated.” But ultimately, she realizes that without the Slasher, there is no Final Girl, and she finds power in that, too. After all, he’s part of her story.

Final Thoughts

This book is a suspenseful thriller with lots of twists and turns. I love the concept of a Final Girl after the fact, living with trauma, and the Return to the Terrible Place. I’m a big fan of how the two timelines were used. The writing itself was also exceptional, with so much of the language vividly recalling the violence Quincey endured. Quincey had notable character growth, even though it all happened near the end, and felt a little rushed. Overall, an excellent story!

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Read this one? Share your own thoughts in the comments!

And for more bloody good fun, join my Final Girl Bookclub on Fable to read along with me. See you in the threads!