Final Girls by Mira Grant

Final Girls

by Mira Grant

What if you could fix the worst parts of yourself by confronting your worst fears? Dr. Jennifer Webb has invented proprietary virtual reality technology that purports to heal psychological wounds by running clients through scenarios straight out of horror movies and nightmares. In a carefully controlled environment, with a medical cocktail running through their veins, sisters might develop a bond they've been missing their whole lives while running from the bogeyman through a simulated forest. But & can real change come so easily? Esther Hoffman doubts it. Esther has spent her entire journalism career debunking pseudoscience, after phony regression therapy ruined her father's life. She's determined to unearth the truth about Dr. Webb's budding company. Dr. Webb's willing to let her, of course, for reasons of her own. What better advertisement could she get than that of a convinced skeptic? But Esther's not the only one curious about how this technology works. Enter real-world threats just as frightening as those created in the lab. Dr. Webb and Esther are at odds, but they may also be each other's only hope of survival.

Reviewed by Melanie on

5 of 5 stars

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Review originally posted at BooksOfMyHeart.net.

4.5 stars

This is a stand alone novella by horror writer Mira Grant. I’m a huge Mira Grant fan ever since I started reading the Newsflesh series back in 2015. The thing I love most about Mira Grant is her characters. She’s great a writing diverse and complex characters. Now, since this is a novella, the characters are smaller in number and bit less complete, but I still really liked them.

Dr. Jennifer Webb has developed a new type of therapy using virtual reality. She puts you in these pods with some psychedelic drugs and run you through different scenarios depending on what you need help with.

Esther Hoffman is a journalist who gives new meaning to skeptic. Her father was a victim of regression therapy. Some girl accused him kidnapping and child abuse, which was later proved that the girl was manipulated and didn’t remember correctly. She was not attacked by Mr. Hoffman, but his life was ruined anyway and later killed himself.

Esther is convinced into the pod to test out the system for herself, because that is the only way to really write about the system objectively. Things start off okay, but something happens and it goes all wrong.

This was a pretty interesting story which has a lot of creepiness to it. Fans of Black Mirror will enjoy this story. I highly recommend Mira Grant’s stories if you are at all a fan of horror.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 25 December, 2018: Finished reading
  • 25 December, 2018: Reviewed