Format: Kindle, 259 pages
Release Date: August 6th 2021
Publisher: Amazon
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Genre: Horror
Five teens went camping. One survived.
Seventeen-year-old Jill Turner is the final girl, the lone survivor of a campsite massacre. Now, a killer is on the loose, and Jill holds the key to catching him. But this killer is no ordinary man. He is a monster, both alive and dead, and Jill knows this all too well. She knows what the monster is. She knows where he comes from. And she knows that he will kill again.
For veteran homicide detective Darlene Moore, this case is personal. Having lost her daughter two years ago, she finds herself drawn to Jill, and she will stop at nothing to protect her. But there is something strange about Jill’s story, something that leads Darlene to wonder if the girl knows more about the killer than she is letting on.
Jill is keeping a secret, one that has cost the
lives of four of her friends. As Jill struggles with her past and the
knowledge that her actions may have created a monster, Darlene races
against time to stop a killer before he strikes again.
Author Kenneth Preston's The Final Girl is a take on the Horror genre with a nod to Stephen King's Carrie. Key Characters: Jill Turner, Detective Darlene Moore, Detective Harry Mitchell, and Amanda Turner. When a game called the Final Girl based on horror movies goes awry leaving four teens dead and one injured but alive, a troubled investigator whose own daughter died several years ago insists on taking the case. But will her emotions blind her to the ugly truth?
Seventeen-year-old Jill Turner is the final girl, the lone survivor of a campsite massacre. Now, a killer is on the loose, and Jill holds the key to catching him. But this killer is no ordinary man. He is a monster, both alive and dead, and Jill knows this all too well. She knows what the monster is. She knows where he comes from. And she knows that he will kill again. Jill is an unreliable narrator. Not to belittle the fact, but she was abused by her own parents for a long time which left her with no friends. Even in school, she was bullied by kids because she was a bit strange. Until she met a boy who came up with a plan that ended in horror.
For veteran homicide detective Darlene Moore, this case is personal. Having lost her daughter two years ago, she finds herself drawn to Jill, and she will stop at nothing to protect her. But there is something strange about Jill’s story, something that leads Darlene to wonder if the girl knows more about the killer than she is letting on. Jill is keeping a secret, one that has cost the lives of four of her friends and could lead to four more if the killer isn't stopped. As Jill struggles with her past and the knowledge that her actions may have created a monster, Darlene races against time to stop a killer before he strikes again.
I choose to read this book because it was rather short at 250 pages, and I knew I could read it within my reading window of a day. It was hard for me to like Darlene. I thought her participation in this investigation bogged down the story because she never really reached out and asked for help from anyone except her partners wife. When she's having a bad day, she does reach out to her ex, but he tells her the same thing. Seek help from a therapist, or drop the case because of the emotional toll it takes on her. While Darlene and Harry make a good team, I was kind of not surprised by the ending and what it means for both Jill and Darlene going forward.
I had a hard time connecting to Jill. Jill is this story's Carrie White, a shy, friendless teenage girl who is sheltered by her domineering, religious mother who gets involved in something that ends up killing a group of Final Group fans. Not unlike Carrie, Jill had to deal with an overbearing mother who believed that she needed to shelter her daughter from being sullied by boys, and those girls. She also had to deal with consistent mocking and bullying at school. Like Carrie, Jill honestly believed she was Carrie who used telekinesis to stop the bullies in their tracks. Except it wasn't the bullying that shatter Jill.
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