*Starred Review* Quincy Carpenter became a Final Girl when she survived the massacre that killed five of her college friends. Along with Lisa Milner and Samantha Boyd, who survived other, similar attacks, Quincy achieved instant fame as a rampage killing's sole survivor. She remembers little about the Pine Cottage attack besides fleeing through the woods to be rescued by a cop, Coop, who was searching for a patient who hadescaped from a nearby psychiatric facility. Coop shot and killed the knife-wielding suspect, creating a connection between the two of them that's helped Quincy navigate a decade of Final Girl notoriety. Now, as Quincy feels she's moving forward, Lisa's suspicious death thrusts all the Final Girls back into the spotlight. After years in hiding, Samantha appears at Quincy's door, and they bond by challenging each other to shake their fears with steadily increasing risks. Their alliance feels unbreakable until one of their maneuvers ends in a crime, and Sam uses their secret to control Quincy, who can't fight her rising paranoia and becomes convinced that Sam played a role in Lisa's death. Sager cleverly plays on horror-movie themes from Scream to Single White Female, creating an homage without camp. Despite comparisons to Gone Girl (2012), this debut's strong character development and themes of rebirth and redemption align more closely with Flynn's Dark Places (2009).--Tran, Christine Copyright 2017 Booklist

As a teenager, Quincy Carpenter endured a terrible event at a cabin in the Pennsylvania woods. As the lone survivor of a massacre (one she does not remember), she was labeled by the press a "Final Girl," making her one of three such survivors. Ten years later, Quincy has rebuilt her life in New York City, with a lawyer boyfriend and a popular baking blog. The policeman who saved Quincy that fateful night still checks up on her regularly. Lisa and Samantha, the other two Final Girls whose stories are told as the book unfolds, play important roles, especially when Samantha gets in touch with Quincy to help her realize her internal anger. Soon, the suspense ratchets up with a mysterious murder, violent late-night escapades in Central Park, and the appearance of multiple suspects in past and present crimes. The tale builds to a fantastic conclusion that will have readers thinking of Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl and Paula Hawkins's The Girl on the Train. VERDICT Sager (a pseudonym for a published author) is a "new" star in the making. This brilliant horror/psychological thriller will fly off the shelves. [See Prepub Alert, 2/1/17.]-Jason L. Steagall, Gateway Technical Coll. Lib., Elkhorn, WI © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.