Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

Final Girls by Riley Sager

19 reviews

savvyrosereads's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense 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

3.5

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Quincy was the sole survivor of a massacre at Pine Cottage, placing her in the ranks of the “Final Girls”—women who lived through mass murder attempts—but she has no memory of the events of that night. When the first Final Girl, Lisa, is found dead, Quincy is pushed into a journey that will ultimately lead her to the truth, but may just put her in a murderer’s crosshairs once again.

I’m a big Riley Sager fan and I’ve heard a lot of good things about this one, so I was super excited to get started—especially as the synopsis seemed to promise a great slasher/horror movie vibe. But, as much as I enjoyed the writing, the first 2/3 of the book wasn’t really what I expected, and I felt like the plot dragged a bit. I wasn’t quite bored, but I wasn’t quite as entertained as I wanted to be, either.

That said, the book shifted into an entirely different tone for the final 1/3, and I flew through the ending, which I really enjoyed! Overall, if you want a unique, well-written thriller that is a fairly quick read, this is a good choice! Just make sure you hang in until the end to get the full pay-off of the plot and reveals.

Recommended for anyone, but especially if you like: slasher thriller but make it a slow burn; women finding their power; unlikable/morally gray characters.

CW: Blood/death/murder; mentions of sexual assault/child sexual abuse; mental illness/trauma/self-medication; discussion of suicide.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Child abuse, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Suicide

enchantressreads's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Blood

Moderate: Suicide, Vomit, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Infidelity, and Drug abuse

Minor: Eating disorder, Sexual violence, and Fatphobia

Harry Potter reference

angelakay's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-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

3.5

Not a bad read for sheer entertainment. Decent writing though the characters felt a little one-dimensional and some of the choices the main character makes really strain the limits of credulity, even for a genre where I'm willing to accept some irrational behavior for the sake of drama and storytelling. I'll probably try a couple more from this author.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Death, Murder, Violence, Toxic relationship, and Blood

deans_reads's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, and Sexual violence

ripxw's review

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Mental illness, Murder, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, and Violence

Moderate: Gaslighting, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Forced institutionalization and Stalking

philliesfemme's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Violence, Vomit, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Sexual content, Self harm, and Drug abuse

bookishgoob's review

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. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Abandonment, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, and Torture

papercollections's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, and Blood

Minor: Suicide and Sexual violence

carisamarie's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Vomit, Violence, Toxic relationship, Torture, Stalking, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Kidnapping, Infidelity, Incest, Gun violence, Grief, Gore, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Death, Cursing, Confinement, Blood, and Alcohol