Final Girls: A Novel

Tina has been a patient at Blackthorn for over three years. When the hospital is forced to close down, Tina is allowed to leave. She takes her knapsack, a keepsake from Joe, and remembers that she isn’t allowed to think about him or the murders he is accused of committing anymore. The attending nurse, Hattie, gives Tina the name of a social-services agency that will allow her to reacclimate to life outside Blackthorn.

Tina returns home to Hazelton. She is turned away by her mother, who tells her new family that Tina is “no one important” (296). Tina’s mother refuses to believe that Tina’s stepfather molested her.

Tina works as a bar dishwasher. One night, she recognizes one of the patrons as Matt Cromley, the orderly who sexually abused her and other female patients at Blackthorn. Joe once threatened to stab Cromley for Tina, though he had ended up at Blackthorn after stabbing a bully many years before.

Tina seduces Cromley outside the bar, then beats him until he is unconscious. She strips him and ties him up. She writes words on his chest to expose him as a molester.

Tina has settled down in Maine, working as a diner waitress. Shortly after taking her revenge on Cromley, she tattooed the word “survivor” on her wrist. This has elicited the pity of many passing patrons, allowing her to get enough tips to buy a car.

One day, a goth diner patron mistakes her for Samantha Boyd. Though Tina doesn’t know who he means at first, she looks up Sam on Google and notices their resemblance. She remembers Quincy Carpenter, the Final Girl associated with Joe, and hatches a plan to meet her.

Tina visits Lisa, pretending to be Sam.

Quincy is now aware of Sam’s true identity, Tina Stone. She wakes up in Tina’s car, unaware of where they are headed. Quincy attempts to escape but is still too weak to succeed.

Tina refuses to believe Quincy can’t remember what happened, citing that Lisa remembered everything that happened to her. She confirms that she had attempted to get information from Lisa and Sheila before coming to Quincy. Lisa had discovered Tina’s true identity and threw her out. Tina denies that she killed Lisa.

Tina reveals that she wants Quincy to reveal information about Joe Hannen. Quincy soon recognizes the area they’re driving in as the woods around Pine Cottage.

Quincy refuses to reenter Pine Cottage. Tina urges her to reveal more information about her experience. Quincy can’t remember anything else.

Tina tries to open the cabin by herself, giving Quincy an opportunity to retrieve the au pair’s stolen phone from her bra. She texts Coop to rescue her at Pine Cottage. When Tina returns, Quincy appeals to her experience as a survivor to let her go. When Quincy asks what “He” meant to Tina, Tina indicates that Joe Hannen was her only friend. Tina holds Quincy at knifepoint and forces her to say Joe’s name. Quincy obeys and vomits in response.

Quincy suspects that Tina had been Joe’s collaborator on the night of the Pine Cottage murders. Tina brings Quincy inside the cabin to resurface her memories.

Looking inside Pine Cottage for the first time in a decade, Quincy’s memories of the hours before midnight begin to resurface. Tina drags Quincy to each room to trigger her recollections. Nothing happens until they reach Janelle’s room. Quincy weeps remembering her best friend and what happened with Craig that night.

They finally reach the room Quincy shared with Craig, where Quincy realizes that having sex with Joe saved her from being killed. She pretends that she doesn’t remember anything new, but when she recalls being on the floor as the killings began, she cries out. Her repressed memories finally resurface.

As her past and present intertwine, Quincy recalls being left for dead by Craig and the others. The killer unlocks the door and kills Amy. Betz and Rodney carry Quincy to safety, reaching Craig’s SUV. When the vehicle’s lights turn on, the three rush to it, pursued by the killer. Craig leaves the group behind, but then he crashes into a tree. The killer pulls Craig out and kills him.

Quincy reawakens in her room, brought there by Rodney. Betz has already been killed. The killer bursts through the door and stabs Quincy in the gut. He kills Rodney next.

Quincy reawakens once more, having survived her last stab. She tries to escape but encounters Him in the great room of the cabin. He indicates that he was about to leave when he heard the screams. He grabs the knife, following Quincy as she runs out into the woods.

In the present, Quincy returns to the great room, bothered by the memory of her last encounter with Joe. She realizes that Joe had been afraid of her, thinking that she had committed the murders. This leads her to conclude that someone else had taken the knife and killed Quincy’s friends. She also realizes Tina’s ultimate purpose: to exonerate Joe for the killings.

Tina explains that she was supposed to escape with Joe, but he promised to come back for her. While Quincy is wondering who killed her friends, another memory comes back, this time of Coop. Quincy had assumed his uniform had been stained with motor oil when she found him, but she realizes now that it was actually blood. Coop then arrives at the cabin in the present, shooting Tina down.

Quincy sees the red class ring on Coop’s finger and remembers that she had seen it in Lisa’s photos at her house. Approaching Quincy, Coop explains that his desire to kill began after he lost his virginity to a classmate with an active sex life. The shame made him want to kill his classmate, so he tried to repress his thoughts by enlisting in the military. His experiences abroad only exacerbated his desire to kill, so he decided to satisfy it by killing a hitchhiker. Afterwards, the desire came back, so he stabbed two campers in the woods. The night he came to Pine Cottage to look for Joe, Coop was testing his ability to repress his bloodlust. The sight of Quincy wielding a knife both enamored and inspired him to kill, however. He killed Janelle and Craig as retribution for Quincy and soon killed their friends to ensure that he wasn’t caught. He only spared Quincy out of admiration for her as a new Final Girl.

Coop reveals that he had written Quincy the threatening letter as a way of reasserting his role in her support system. Coop had seduced Lisa and the real Samantha Boyd to compare them to Quincy. Dissatisfied, Coop killed Sam. When Lisa deduced that Coop was the real Pine Cottage killer, he killed her as well. He has always known that Tina wasn’t Sam, but he planned to kill her eventually too.

Coop encourages Quincy to repress her memories of Pine Cottage again so they can start a new life together. Quincy sees that Tina is still alive, pushing the pocketknife she had stolen from Rocky Ruiz towards her. Quincy draws Coop in, then stabs him with the knife. Before Coop dies, Quincy nods to let him know that he made her what she is: a Final Girl.

Tina survives but is sentenced to 15 months in prison for various crimes, including the assault on Rocky Ruiz. Tina takes the blame for the assault, believing that she had pushed Quincy to do it. She is satisfied, however, knowing that Joe’s name has been cleared of suspicion. Quincy visits Tina in prison. She refuses now to say Coop’s name, only referring to him now with masculine pronouns. Thanks to Coop’s confession, the police are searching for the real Sam’s body. Quincy assists with the search.

Quincy and Jeff break up after Quincy confesses what she did. She focuses on reviving her baking website while also recovering from her dependency on alcohol and Xanax. Quincy reconciles with her mother and gives an exclusive interview to Jonah, which gets him a job at the New York Times.

Quincy apologizes for ruining Joe’s name for a decade. Tina forgives her because they saved each other’s lives. Quincy hints at visiting Tina again. After leaving the prison, Quincy gets a “survivor” wrist tattoo. A news report announces that several teenagers were recently killed. There is only one survivor: a girl named Hayley Pace. Quincy travels to the hospital where Hayley is recovering and offers to teach her how to be a Final Girl.