Quincy Carpenter is a Final Girl. She is the sole survivor of the Pine Cottage massacre when all her college friends were brutally murdered by an escaped psychopath. (I did laugh when I found out Pine Cottage is in the Poconos, but having stayed in a cabin there I can picture the scene. Not sure I’ll be staying anywhere near there again though…) Thankfully Quincy can’t remember any details of the night the knife-wielding maniac slaughtered her friends and injured her, but there are a few people that find it curious (and convenient) that she can’t remember anything.
Quincy is one of three Final Girls. Lisa Milner survived a sorority house massacre and has devoted her life to helping women overcome their problems and the horrible things they’ve experienced. Samantha Boyd is the third, surviving a killing spree at a hotel in Florida, but she disappeared years ago out of the public eye. Quincy is shocked to find out that Lisa is dead, apparently by suicide, and soon after Samantha comes out of hiding and shows up on her doorstep because they are the last two Final Girls and need to stick together.
I want to say more, but anything I say will mess up some of the reveals of the book. This psychological thriller takes the typical slasher movie ending of one girl standing and writes the “what happens after the cops come” part of the story. There were a few twists I didn’t see coming and I really liked how the author kept switching my opinion of who was the evil one of the piece. You get to know these Final Girls and how damaged they are after their ordeals, but also how strong they really are.
