The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin

Let's be real: most of us readers don't choose our books - or any other form of entertainment - based on escapism alone. If we did, Fantasy would be the only published genre and Hallmark the only channel on cable. We don't have an aversion to observing people exhibit bad behavior, but mostly when there are clear distinctions between the good guys and bad guys, and we are aware of it beforehand, and because we perceive their situations to be so far removed from our own reality. And we"ll accept morally challenged characters in exchange for a good story. So when a book comes along with characters so inherently selfish, narcissistic, and unapologetically so without committing any major legal infractions, accompanying a story that is decidedly not worth the pay-off, that is when us readers feel betrayed. Chloe Benjamin's The Immortalists is a definite disappointment; a promising story propped up by an engaging topic, taken over by truly unfortunate characters.

What would you do if you learned the exact date of your death? Would you seek out that information in the first place? Would knowing the date of your death change the way you lived? What would be the difference - if any - in finding out when you were a child versus finding out as an adult? Benjamin takes on these provocative questions with even more provocative answers by way of the Gold siblings - Simon, Klara, Daniel, and Varya - who sneak out of their childhood home one summer night in 1969, lured by the kid-gossip that doubles as campfire tales about a haunting woman made infamous for accurately predicting the exact date of a person's death. Though they are just children, they immediately grasp the enormity of the information they have just been given. And what follows is a poignant, depressing story propelled by self-inflicted guilt and victimization. Published in 2018, if ever there was a book to highlight the entitlement of middle class youth, The Immortalists is it.

The book is written well, albeit a bit crass, the research is timely, and the story is what good book discussion are made of; I made up about ten discussion questions in my head while I read. Of all the directions lives can go after learning the date of death, Benjamin takes a decidedly darker one with four self-destructive individuals completely devoid of empathy or personal responsibility, which I find personally distasteful. That aside, they are brilliant representations of the various paths one's life can take after learning the exact date of their death. The characters are decidedly unlikable, and though that exists in every entertainment medium, the Gold siblings are just awful, terrible people, hauling what could have been an otherwise engaging, interesting plot into a depressing depiction of our deep self-inflicted wounds. Did Benjamin do this on purpose merely to highlight one of the ways in which a life can go, or is her's just another voice in the race to play victim?

A book worthy of many a discussion groups, the premise had promise but is lost amongst the unfortunate characters. With such an enormous topic, what Benjamin ultimately laced together is brilliant, but I was thoroughly disappointed, and this book left me with a dent in my faith in humanity, which is definitely not why I read.

Final Girls by Riley Sager

I finally read Final Girls. By Riley Sager, Stephen King had praised, “The first great thriller of 2017 is here!” And further reviews compare it to the likes of Gone Girl because I guess that’s what we do now – compare all thrillers to Gone Girl. Personally, I found no such comparisons between the two. In fact, Final Girls reminds me a lot of the great ‘90’s slasher-flick series, Scream; particularly Scream 2 where Neve Campbell is still scared and always looking over her shoulder even though the obvious threat has been eliminated. Rare is a book that starts with everything out in the open but that is Final Girls. The crime scenes cleaned, the killers cold underground, the cases closed. All that’s left are the survivors. So what could possibly go wrong?

Some people kill for no reason; just go on murderous rampages not for vendettas or betrayals or avenging, but just to feel the sensation of a sharp blade moving through human flesh like a warm stick of butter. Those left in the wake are the survivors; people – women – left to endure the psychological and emotional pain that come with gruesome murders. Quincy Carpenter and Lisa Milner thought they had it all figured out. Lisa was turning her evil into good by helping troubled women, and Quincy moved on to a normal, quiet life as a baking blogger and would-be fiancé to a Public Defender. Another “Final Girl,” (as the press liked to dub them because what would tragedies be without cute catch-phrases?) Samantha, is in hiding as her coping mechanism of choice. But then Sam shows up on Quincy’s doorstep and Quincy learns she doesn’t have her shit together as much as her Xanax and wine would like to make her believe.

With sharp characters who make dark choices, Sager creates a pointed example of the perilous decision to ignore our emotions and try to convince ourselves that we’re “fine,” especially after dealing with anything traumatic. Quincy is a generous depiction of things resurfacing, often in violent ways, with Sam and Quincy’s boyfriend, Jeff, as the proverbial angel vs. devil, both taunting Quincy with what they think the know about her and what they think she wants or needs. Soon, after Sam’s arrival, Quincy is conflicted, and unsure of what is real and not real.

The book is written well, and the story is dark, deeply mysterious, and only gets more so with every turn of the page. There are shocking twists and constant turns, all built on the solid foundation of you not knowing the true nature of the mystery in the first place: we know the killers, we know how, and why, and where, and it’s done. So why is Final Girls so mysterious? Even so, it is.

We follow along with Quincy, but get an outsiders perspective of the events at Pine Cottage because her memory has chosen to store them in an inaccessible part of her brain. Her lack of memory doesn’t seem to be an issue, until suddenly it is. What I didn’t appreciate, and why I gave it 4/5 stars on Goodreads, is the section from several weeks after Pine Cottage to two years after Pine Cottage. I would prefer if this section just simply didn't exist; or if was put into a conversation between the two women; or maybe even part of an Epilogue. I guess I am a picky reader in that I like to be treated like a character and not a reader, learning things I otherwise wouldn’t know simply because I’m in the audience.

I’m not sure if any other great thrillers followed Final Girls in 2017, but this one definitely met my expectations. It was intense and creepy, but also human and empathetic. We all have a bit of “Final Girl” in us; survivors; after Buffy transferred her Slayer Strength to every future Slayer.