Read and Reviewed: Final Cut by Olivia Worley

Monday, 27 October 2025

Final Cut by Olivia Worley

✦ BLURB ✦

When recent high school graduate Hazel Lejeune gets the lead role in a slasher film, it feels like a dream come true. This is her chance to break into the industry, build her reel, and prove to her mom that this "gap year" can turn into a career. So what if it's set in the nothing town of Pine Springs, Louisiana-the same place her father, the Pine Springs Slasher, was convicted of a series of murders fifteen years ago? But when Haze arrives on set, she gets much more than she bargained for. The shoot is plagued with suspicious "accidents." Mentions of her dad dot the entire script. And then, a gruesome murder shocks everyone to the core. Now, it's clear there's a real killer on set-one who's determined to finish the film at all costs. But is this merely a copycat, or is the wrong Slasher behind bars? As the body count rises and reality blurs with fiction, Haze must unmask the killer before she becomes a real-life final girl...or before the killer flips the script and makes her the next victim.

✶ PRE-READING ✶

Give me a slasher and I'm there. The family connection between Haze and the killer is intriguing, and I've read and enjoyed other novels by Olivia, so I knew the style I was looking at - slick, quick and very clever.

✶ POST-READING ✶

As I thought... This is a fantastic horror novel. I could feel the humid swamp and the damp, dusty motel. I was never sure who the villain was - Olivia successfully makes multiple people likely suspects, and just as clearly leaves them innocent afterwards.

It surprised me by... Even for a slasher, this was violent. Of course, it's always worse in writing, but as this killer likes to slash their victim's throats...There was also a surprise for me in the treatment of Haze's father, once it started to seem that he might be innocent, but I don't want to spoil anything!

✦ RECOMMENDATIONS ✦

Book: Survive the Night by Riley Sager – similarly tense, claustrophobic horror with twists and high stakes, perfect for fans of slasher suspense.

TV/Movie: Scream (1996) – classic meta-slasher, teens on edge, reality vs fiction, copycat killers, very on-theme with Final Cut.

✦ MUSIC PAIRING ✦

Because sometimes, the heart of a story plays out like a song.

🎵 Featured Song: Disturbia – Rihanna. Dark, unsettling, with that sneaky, suspenseful energy of creeping danger on set.

🎶 Vibe Album: Hounds of Love – Kate Bush. Atmospheric, eerie, and cinematic - matches the swampy, tense setting and psychological tension.

🎧 Artist Recommendation: Fever Ray. Haunting vocals, tension, and foreboding ambience—perfect for a Louisiana swamp slasher.

✧ VIBE CHECK ✧

A colour palette: Dried-blood red, swampy grey and sky blue.

A soundtrack: Screeching strings, rustling swamp grass and the occasional splash of a creature swimming away.

A season: Autumn - not crisp and clear but muggy, humid and dark far too early.

A mood: Scared but determined.

A scent: Swamp after rain.

★ TAROT CARD PULLED ★

The Moon (Nightfall Tarot) – Shadows, deception, and fear dominate this story. Haze has to navigate illusions, hidden truths, and uncertainty—classic Moon energy. Perfect for a slasher where the line between fiction and reality is dangerously blurred.

Final Cut publishes on the 28th October, 2025. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.

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Read and Reviewed