Final Girls: A Novel

Quincy keeps a secret drawer in her apartment, which is first introduced in Chapter 2. This drawer is a symbol of her inner life, representing the parts of her identity that she wants to keep secret from Jeff. Quincy uses the drawer to hide the objects she’s stolen, like the cellphone of the au pair Quincy sees at the café. It is significant that Quincy sees the au pair as an alternate version of herself—one who hadn’t experienced the trauma of Pine Cottage—because it motivates her to take something valuable and personal from the au pair, signifying her dissatisfaction with the disparity between them.

When Tina breaks into the secret drawer, she effectively breaks into the part of Quincy’s identity that Jeff cannot access. This not only exposes Quincy’s kleptomania but also introduces tension between them. Quincy does not feel she cannot trust Tina. On the other hand, the knowledge of Quincy’s worst habits allows Tina to engage her anger in similar ways, such as shoplifting or fighting abusive men in Central Park.

When Quincy visits Lisa’s house, she correctly intuits that Lisa has a secret lockbox of her own. Where Quincy hides the fruits of her worst habits in her secret drawer, Lisa is revealed to have hidden her obsession with the Final Girls in hers, keeping separate folders on each of them.