FINAL GIRLS BY MIRA GRANT

BY TONY JONES 

“Fancy some virtual reality total emersion healing? Zombies included free of charge….”

My kindle informed me that reading Mira Grant’s latest novella “The Final Girls” was going to cost me 135 minutes of my time, having read a few of Mira’s books in the past I was happy to reacquainting myself with her new release. I’m pleased to say it didn’t disappoint and was an highly efficient mix of horror, speculative and science fiction. This author is particularly effective when she mashes up horror with these other genres. Great examples are the “Newsflesh” series which begins with “Feed” (2010) which has news hungry and techy brilliant teens fighting it out after a zombie holocaust. Also very entertaining is the “Parasite” series, a complex blend of hard science and horror, in which a genetically engineered tapeworm eradicates illness, but the tapeworms soon get nasty and mankind is in serious pearl. Both these sequences are great examples of what Mira can do. However, her real name is Seanan McGuire, and this highly prolific author also writes urban fantasy under that name.

 
 
My kindle informed me that reading Mira Grant’s latest novella “The Final Girls” was going to cost me 135 minutes of my time, having read a few of Mira’s books in the past I was happy to reacquainting myself with her new release. I’m pleased to say it didn’t disappoint and was an highly efficient mix of horror, speculative and science fiction. This author is particularly effective when she mashes up horror with these other genres. Great examples are the “Newsflesh” series which begins with “Feed” (2010) which has news hungry and techy brilliant teens fighting it out after a zombie holocaust. Also very entertaining is the “Parasite” series, a complex blend of hard science and horror, in which a genetically engineered tapeworm eradicates illness, but the tapeworms soon get nasty and mankind is in serious pearl. Both these sequences are great examples of what Mira can do. However, her real name is Seanan McGuire, and this highly prolific author also writes urban fantasy under that name.
 
“Final Girls” has a whiff of both series mentioned above. Pulling in at just over 100 pages, it’s a good length for this compact and tight story which has a high technological drive. I also think it is a very assessable book for YA readers as this brisk read has no excess flab at all. Be prepared also for a VERY cool opening sequence. Two young women are being stalked by something nasty in a dark wood, imagine your innermost fears (scarecrows here…), and when death is just about to arrive….
 
END PROGRAM? You wake up….. Welcome to a new type of therapeutic healing that is based on total emersion therapy, which is pretty much the same as living in a computer game. However, waking up from this particular type of therapy means that what you have experienced feels real and remains with you beyond the dream. So whatever experience you had in the therapy also changed you because it is in many ways real. The whole story is set within the Webb Virtual Therapy Institute who have pioneered this new type of technology and are using it to help people with psychological, family and mental problems. Everything from arachnophobia to siblings who have hated each other since they were children. By having shared psychological experiences through the Virtual Therapy the company claim they can overcome all psychological problems.
 
This leads to the main thrust of the plot, science journalist Esther has arrived at the company to interview the lead scientist Dr Jennifer Webb and believes it to be a load of dangerous rubbish, this is partially to do with an issue from her past and previous scientific trails that failed. We soon realise that for Esther to truly write honestly about Virtual Therapy must experience it first hand. Dangerous stuff… As Dr Webb also has her own very dodgy agenda…. Throw in a few other curveballs and you have a very nippy little story which can easily be read in one sitting.
 
I really liked the way the plot manoeuvred between the real and the virtual world, the blurrings of it all, not to mention at various points you’re not entirely sure who is shafting who.   The flip back to the teenage versions of the characters were also great, equally so an ending that will definitely make you smile. Through much of it the author successfully projects the virtual reality world as a type of computer game, the problem being someone is in charge of the computer code and it’s definitely not you. A very good read.
 
The Final Girls is being released by Subterranean Press towards the end of April and is well worth the £3.99 price tag for the kindle version. I really would avoid the £32 price being quoted on Amazon for the hardback though!
 
Tony Jones
 

What if you could fix the worst parts of yourself by confronting your worst fears? 

Dr. Jennifer Webb has invented proprietary virtual reality technology that purports to heal psychological wounds by running clients through scenarios straight out of horror movies and nightmares. In a carefully controlled environment, with a medical cocktail running through their veins, sisters might develop a bond they’ve been missing their whole lives—while running from the bogeyman through a simulated forest. But…can real change come so easily?

Esther Hoffman doubts it. Esther has spent her entire journalism career debunking pseudoscience, after phony regression therapy ruined her father’s life. She’s determined to unearth the truth about Dr. Webb’s budding company. Dr. Webb’s willing to let her, of course, for reasons of her own. What better advertisement could she get than that of a convinced skeptic? But Esther’s not the only one curious about how this technology works. Enter real-world threats just as frightening as those created in the lab. Dr. Webb and Esther are at odds, but they may also be each other’s only hope of survival. 

With her new novella Final Girls, bestselling, award-winning author Mira Grant has conjured a heart-stopping, gut-wrenching story filled with as many twists as it is versions of reality. Grant offers a chilling exploration of how surviving horrors might define us all.

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