Final Girls: A Novel

Content Warning: The source material for this study guide depicts or references death by suicide, drug addiction, and sexual abuse, and it includes descriptions of gore. There are also scenes depicting violence against unhoused people. Finally, the novel briefly hints at damaging stereotypes about mental illness and psychosis in order to ultimately subvert those stereotypes.

People project themselves differently when they are alone and when they are with others. Closing this gap forces people to confront their most authentic selves, particularly when their thoughts and words are inconsistent with their actions and the way other people perceive them. In Final Girls, this divide is introduced in the context of fame and leads to an examination of how one might reach a clearer sense of self by narrowing this divide and accepting one’s true identity.

Quincy Carpenter rejects the Final Girl identity because she has been conditioned to desire normalcy by her mother. Nevertheless, she repeatedly brushes against the notion that she can ever be normal again—she privately knows that she has gone through something few people ever go through. The term “Final Girl” is traditionally associated with an individual who has gone through a traumatic experience and must live with this trauma. Quincy instead resonates with the label “survivor” as an alternative, acknowledging her past on one hand but not the outsized narrative that the world has attached to the “Final Girl” label. This ambiguous dichotomy supports Quincy’s struggle coming to terms with her experiences, which is notable numerous times throughout the text.

Quincy’s self-identification as a survivor who has largely recovered from her experiences, instead of the public’s view of her as a Final Girl, magnifies the dynamics between Quincy and the people in her life. Quincy projects a different identity to Jeff, Tina, and Coop. Her inconsistencies point to the widening gap between how she sees herself and how she tries to reshape herself for the approval of others. With Jeff, for instance, Quincy tries to be her most “normal” self, indicating that nothing is wrong even when Jeff can see physical signs of her trips to Central Park. With Tina, Quincy presents her “survivor” self, knowing that Tina won’t accept her if she pretends to be normal or acts too much like a victim. With Coop, on the other hand, Quincy often presents herself as being needy or insecure, just so that Coop can shower her with assurances and affirmations. This reinforces the role that he plays as her savior, even though he is later revealed to have been the architect of Quincy’s pain.

When Tina calls Quincy out on the inconsistencies of her behavior with her and with Coop, Quincy becomes defensive. Though she feels Tina may be antagonizing her, what Tina is really doing is forcing her to confront the possibility that her projected self may be another coping mechanism for her trauma. This resonates with Quincy’s kleptomania and her capacity for self-sabotage, which she cannot rationalize when others confront her about her habits. The novel resolves this issue by forcing Quincy to pursue the truth about her repressed memories and build a new relationship with Tina that results in her accepting her identity as a Final Girl, and thus, accepting her traumatic experience. At the end, she no longer sees herself as a victim, cutting off her ties to Coop. She acknowledges herself as a Final Girl, comes clean to Jeff, and reconciles with her mother. Ultimately, Quincy is able to use her “survivor” status as a platform for solidarity.