Final Girls

by Riley Sager

[lessthelonely]

Four out of seven Riley Sager books in, I think I can confidently say what is the author's style: slow burn tension, culminating in a usually very twisty third act. I have found that this structure of Thriller leaves me wanting something a little bit more shocking and satisfying - when you reach like 80% of a book and you still have no real answers to the mysteries, only to be hit with red herring after red herring, though it might be entertaining in theory, I'm going to be a little mean and call it lazy.

You see, when you go through supposed shock after shock, it feels as though the book is only going through the motions of it, not really making it shocking or entertaining, because as soon as one reveal is settled, another one comes. It's exhausting and, honestly, frustrating to read plot twists where you don't really have a moment of Oh! THAT MAKES SO MUCH SENSE?!, or, at least, feel the tension only being cranked up even higher for an explosively satisfying third act - this was Lock Every Door for me. I've been chasing its high ever since. I want bonkers, I want ridiculous, I want bone-chilling shock and satisfying tension. I don't feel like this book gave it to me.

This does suffer a bit as a debut: there's not one but two love (tri)angles, which leads to jealousy from women who feel way better than the cause for said behavior; the tension isn't as razor sharp, rather kept through more enticing than not breadcrumbs surrounding the main characters and their motives, even if I can instantly recognize the structure behind the author's other novels.

I'm in too deep, and I still haven't been entirely lost on Riley Sager - I believe the remaining books by him I haven't read still look promising, I just might wait a little longer before getting into them.