This horror/thriller takes place in a small town in Texas after the Homecoming party is brutally murdered, slasher film style, by a killer in a Michael Jackson mask. The lone survivor is Lindsay and she becomes the town's instant golden final girl. However, when Lindsay chooses a new Homecoming court filled with the school's misfits, we learn that Lindsay isn't the only final girl at this school. And, in typical slasher movie form, the killer Billie Jean isn't finished with this town yet.
I think the main standout aspect of the story is, by far, the narrative style. It is written as almost a screenplay or script and it is a style that takes a bit of getting used to. I've read through a good number of reviews and this style seems to be hit or miss for readers, although a number of people did mention that listening to the audio book was key in getting a feel for the narrative style and flow of the story. I've had to read a few plays in English classes so I didn't feel too out of place while reading but, of course, Jones puts his own spin on the format. The style is a mix of traditional story narrative and screenplay in that we get the character dialogue in the traditional story format with the quotation marks (example: "blah blah") but most of the external framing or description is given as almost camera directions (example: POV pans over to the window...). It does take some getting used to, but I found it very effective, especially when it came to Act 3 and we're getting a lot of action.
In regards to Act 3 and all the action, specifically, we do get a good amount of bloody slasher goodness. The description of the book mentions that there is a fight to become the last final girl and I'll be honest that, at the beginning of this story I wasn't sure if that fight would be a physical fighting or maybe some high-school drama fighting to be Homecoming queen type of fighting. I should have known better considering this is a Stephen Graham Jones book. So, if anyone is having the same thoughts, I just want to be clear that we do get some great on-page blood and kills. In regards to the horror aspects of the book, I did find the horror to be very slasher-movie-like which makes a lot of sense. I was surprised by the amount of comedy in this and I found myself laughing out loud a few times. The dialogue and references to slasher movies (and 'not called a slasher but 100% is still a slasher' types of movies) was bordering on Gilmore Girls level quippy and I absolutely loved it.
This book had a lot in common with Jones's My Heart Is A Chainsaw that came out earlier this year. Our protagonist Izzy has a very deep knowledge of slasher films and writes numerous papers on them for her classes in high school. She's a bit of an outcast with a strained family life and seems to be one of the only people in town who understands what's going on and tries to warn the other people around her. There are also a good number of pop culture references to slasher films and, of course, they both focus on the 'final girl' trope. The two books are miles apart in terms of narrative style but it was interesting to have read both books because they are so similar in some aspects but drastically different in others. I do think the narrative style of Chainsaw would be more widely liked since it is a more typical narrative and I felt it leaned toward the lit-fic side of the spectrum. But I think Last Final Girl is more commercial in terms of the pacing and plot and readers who want that tension and quick kills would be more likely to enjoy it better. [As an aside, I did read and review Chainsaw so click here for the link to that post for my full thoughts.]
My main struggle with this story came at the end when we were getting all the reveals and some very fast POV changes. This is a short book, only 216 pages, and there's a lot of white space on each page due to the nature of the narrative structure. By the end of the book, there had been so many characters mentioned that I really struggled keeping everyone straight. There were a few points where something was revealed about a character and I could tell from the way the reveal was written that it should have been shocking but I just had no idea who that character was. And this might be 100% a me-issue because I have such a hard time with character names that if two characters have similar enough names (like we had a few men with names that start with J in this book) I have a hard time keeping them straight. I had a bit of this trouble throughout the whole book but mostly could keep people straight based on the other characters they interacted with. But by the end, when all the characters are basically in the same area, I was getting all mixed up. I also think this is one of the downsides to the narrative structure choices Jones made because we don't get a lot of character description or characterization outside of dialogue which left me a little less-grounded with characters than I normally would like to be.
When it came to the execution/exploration of the 'final girl' trope, I really enjoyed this version. This really felt like the sequel to a slasher where we pick up immediately after the initial slasher kills. I loved the way the characters in the book acknowledged their final girl status and they each had a different relationship to that identity. However, the fact that they were still in high school I think did lessen their ability to reflect back on their experiences and the outcome of those events as much as maybe some other books do. The pacing was fantastic and while it did take me a bit to get acclimated to the narrative choices Jones made, I really found this to be a very engaging read and a fun exploration of the more immediate reaction/outcome of the final girl trope. I also thought it was interesting that, because of the minimal setting details and descriptions, I ended up picturing my high school quite often and that, naturally, led me to picturing the people from my school as some of the side characters in this story. Granted, I did grow up in a small town so I could really relate to a lot of the places and aspects of the story (not sure how a reader who grew up in a larger city would be able to relate in the same way). But I think a lot of the fun of horror stories, especially slashers, is the idea that this could happen in almost any place because rogue masked mystery killers aren't tied to one geographical location.
Overall, I really enjoyed this story. I can understand how the structure might not appeal to every reader but after a few pages, I really found it immersive and fun. I loved the set up and the way the plot read like a solid summer blockbuster slasher sequel.
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