I'm not entirely surprised. [Final Girls by Riley Sager]
After the readathon my interest in each book I was currently reading picked up. Add to that my temporary not having internet situation and trying to read through two books before the months ends and you get reading time! So I read through a majority of Final Girls yesterday and finished the last 30ish pages today.
I said it before and I'll say it again, I was not able to connect to the character at all. She went through a traumatic ordeal surviving the massacre of her friends but now she's living her life in Manhattan, a well-to-do young White woman on the Upper West Side. She gets away with consequences, routinely stealing, but that's alright because if who she is. She beats a man into a coma, but that's alright because of who she is. She contemplated murder, but that's alright because of who she is.
This is the type of person who apparently walks around with thousands of dollars on their person. Do people live like that? And of course the guy who she and friend stopped from sexually assaulting someone in the park was Brown-skinned. We don't hear about the skin color of the people on the prowl for illicit sex, but we know the would be assaulter was Brown. The type of describing people only when they're other writing that lets us know almost everyone in the story of note is white, or white passing.
I was bored for probably the first 20, maybe even 30% of the book. Thankfully the story picked up and I was able to read through the rest relatively easily. But there's no real tension in the story. Nothing that ever came off as a surprise. I really don't know how publishing and advanced praise from other authors works. Because when you attach your name to a review and it seems inflated, it only reflects negatively on you.
Nothing in this book felt like a giant surprise. Everything was "foreshadowed" in a hammer over the head fashion. The almost immediate suspicion of one person that then served as a would-be red herring the whole novel was forced. If the character was not a white woman, this story wouldn't have proceeded. But I guess that's true for the grand majority of thriller and horror stories.
At some point I thought I might give it a 4-star rating, but then I settled into a 3-star rating. But now I'm wondering if I should give 2 stars? Would I recommend this? Not really. Maybe. I don't know. I don't know who I'd recommend this to. So per the NetGalley rating system I'm still between 2 and 3 stars. Did I like it? It was okay. I can't say I liked this book and I can't give it the corresponding rating. Thanks GoodReads, I guess a 2-star rating it is.
I said it before and I'll say it again, I was not able to connect to the character at all. She went through a traumatic ordeal surviving the massacre of her friends but now she's living her life in Manhattan, a well-to-do young White woman on the Upper West Side. She gets away with consequences, routinely stealing, but that's alright because if who she is. She beats a man into a coma, but that's alright because of who she is. She contemplated murder, but that's alright because of who she is.
This is the type of person who apparently walks around with thousands of dollars on their person. Do people live like that? And of course the guy who she and friend stopped from sexually assaulting someone in the park was Brown-skinned. We don't hear about the skin color of the people on the prowl for illicit sex, but we know the would be assaulter was Brown. The type of describing people only when they're other writing that lets us know almost everyone in the story of note is white, or white passing.
I was bored for probably the first 20, maybe even 30% of the book. Thankfully the story picked up and I was able to read through the rest relatively easily. But there's no real tension in the story. Nothing that ever came off as a surprise. I really don't know how publishing and advanced praise from other authors works. Because when you attach your name to a review and it seems inflated, it only reflects negatively on you.
Nothing in this book felt like a giant surprise. Everything was "foreshadowed" in a hammer over the head fashion. The almost immediate suspicion of one person that then served as a would-be red herring the whole novel was forced. If the character was not a white woman, this story wouldn't have proceeded. But I guess that's true for the grand majority of thriller and horror stories.
At some point I thought I might give it a 4-star rating, but then I settled into a 3-star rating. But now I'm wondering if I should give 2 stars? Would I recommend this? Not really. Maybe. I don't know. I don't know who I'd recommend this to. So per the NetGalley rating system I'm still between 2 and 3 stars. Did I like it? It was okay. I can't say I liked this book and I can't give it the corresponding rating. Thanks GoodReads, I guess a 2-star rating it is.
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