Final Destination: Looks Could Kill

Final Destination #5

by Nancy A. Collins, Jeffrey Reddick

"A beautiful young fashion model has her entire world torn apart when she foresees the sinking of a chartered yacht. Although she succeeds in saving herself and several fellow models from the disaster, it is at the cost of her highest prized asset: her physical beauty. Scarred and embittered, she agrees to help the Grim Reaper correct the imbalance in its grand design and win back her looks-by luring her former friends back into Death's clutches. Will her need to reclaim her former beauty prove stronger than her love for her friends? Or is evil-like beauty-more than skin deep?

Genres: Horror

416 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published November 29, 2005

About the author

Nancy A. Collins (born 10 September 1959) is a United States horror fiction writer best known for her series of vampire novels featuring her character Sonja Blue. Collins has also written for comic books, including the Swamp Thing series, Jason Vs. Leatherface, Predator: Hell Come A Walkin and her own one-shot Dhampire: Stillborn.

Collins was born in McGehee, Arkansas, United States. She lived in New Orleans, Louisiana in the 1980s; after time in New York City and Atlanta, Georgia she settled in Wilmington, North Carolina in the late 2000s.

Collins has written twenty novels since 1989, many of which refer to and directly include races of creatures the author calls Pretenders, monsters from myth and legend passing as human to better hunt their prey.

Collins has also written a number of highly acclaimed Southern Gothic short stories and novellas, most of which are set in Seven Devils, Arkansas, a highly fictionalized version of her hometown.

Most recently, she has focused her attention onto the Golgotham urban fantasy series,published by Penguin. Golgotham is the 'supernatural' ghetto of New York City, where creatures from myth and folklore--including witches,shapeshifters,leprechauns and centaurs--live and work in uneasy alliance with mankind.

Reviews

[Geoffrey · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the third Final Destination book that I have read after Final Destination: End of the Line and Final Destination: Dead Reckoning. Content warning for drug abuse, eating disorder, homophobia and gore. A beautiful young fashion model has her entire world torn apart when she foresees the sinking of a chartered yacht. Although she succeeds in saving herself and several fellow models from the disaster, it is at the cost of her highest prized asset: her physical beauty. I liked this initial premise and thought that it had potential. I liked the idea of a protagonist who isn’t your typical ordinary citizen. I liked how all the supermodels were nicknamed after a type of alcohol. I like how this book explores the darker side of the modeling industry. I liked how this book introduces the main cast of characters then immediately gets to the main disaster. I liked the depiction of the yacht disaster, but I didn’t like that there wasn’t any clever foreshadowing moments for the main disaster; the yacht disaster occurs on Pier 13 and on the anniversary of the Flight 180 and Route 23 disasters, and a character feels a cold chill. None of these things are particularly clever and none of the characters would be able to look back on these things as foreshadowing to the disaster. Unfortunately, this book also features an abstract dream sequence, something I wasn’t a fan of in Final Destination: Dead Reckoning. I liked Sherry as a character and protagonist, and I definitely enjoyed the main cast of characters in this book more than I did in Final Destination: Dead Reckoning, and I liked the creative deaths in this book over the ones in that book. While I like when entries in this franchise do new and interesting things with the lore and formula, I wasn’t a fan of the creative decisions made in this novel. I liked the initial concept of Sherry helping Death, but I prefer Death in this franchise to be a supernatural and primordial force, not a being that can take physical form and be communicated with. I didn’t like the idea of a character who physically speaks with Death and makes a deal to be healed and restored by the deaths of others survivors, it was a higher level of supernatural that I didn’t want from this series. I felt like that concept didn’t fit with what makes Final Destination so good as a franchise, and it only gets worse by the end of the novel, where the concept becomes cringy and corny. The last 25% of the book was very disappointing and felt cheap compared to the solid opening premise and the initial storyline, and more importantly, it didn’t feel like a Final Destination story anymore. Even though I wasn’t happy with where this book went, I’m still glad I read it and recommend it for hardcore fans of the Final Destination franchise.

[Geo · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the third Final Destination book that I have read after Final Destination: End of the Line and Final Destination: Dead Reckoning. Content warning for drug abuse, eating disorder, homophobia and gore. A beautiful young fashion model has her entire world torn apart when she foresees the sinking of a chartered yacht. Although she succeeds in saving herself and several fellow models from the disaster, it is at the cost of her highest prized asset: her physical beauty. I liked this initial premise and thought that it had potential. I liked the idea of a protagonist who isn’t your typical ordinary citizen. I liked how all the supermodels were nicknamed after a type of alcohol. I like how this book explores the darker side of the modeling industry. I liked how this book introduces the main cast of characters then immediately gets to the main disaster. I liked the depiction of the yacht disaster, but I didn’t like that there wasn’t any clever foreshadowing moments for the main disaster; the yacht disaster occurs on Pier 13 and on the anniversary of the Flight 180 and Route 23 disasters, and a character feels a cold chill. None of these things are particularly clever and none of the characters would be able to look back on these things as foreshadowing to the disaster. Unfortunately, this book also features an abstract dream sequence, something I wasn’t a fan of in Final Destination: Dead Reckoning. I liked Sherry as a character and protagonist, and I definitely enjoyed the main cast of characters in this book more than I did in Final Destination: Dead Reckoning, and I liked the creative deaths in this book over the ones in that book. While I like when entries in this franchise do new and interesting things with the lore and formula, I wasn’t a fan of the creative decisions made in this novel. I liked the initial concept of Sherry helping Death, but I prefer Death in this franchise to be a supernatural and primordial force, not a being that can take physical form and be communicated with. I didn’t like the idea of a character who physically speaks with Death and makes a deal to be healed and restored by the deaths of others survivors, it was a higher level of supernatural that I didn’t want from this series. I felt like that concept didn’t fit with what makes Final Destination so good as a franchise, and it only gets worse by the end of the novel, where the concept becomes cringy and corny. The last 25% of the book was very disappointing and felt cheap compared to the solid opening premise and the initial storyline, and more importantly, it didn’t feel like a Final Destination story anymore. Even though I wasn’t happy with where this book went, I’m still glad I read it and recommend it for hardcore fans of the Final Destination franchise.

[Susan · Rating 1 out of 5]

TRIGGER WARNINGS: This book contains mentions of abuse (physical, sexual and drug), graphic deaths, body image issues (bulimia, surgery abuse), and trauma.

Judging a book by its cover: There is really... Nothing to this cover. It's not distinctive or impressive, in my opinion, and the mask doesn't even match the one described in the book. The silhouette and indistinct background really don't help to set this book apart, or give any hint as to what it might be about. I don't approve.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I'm going to admit that I didn't even know the Final Destination films were a thing until they started advertising Final Destination 5 on buses. Lex had to explain the basic premise (a disaster occurs, a group of people escape - and then they're killed off in gruesome disgusting ways until there are none left.). I'll be honest: this is not my scene. The only thing involving slashers (of the murderous rather than fanfic-writing type) that I've really enjoyed in the past is Hack/Slash, which has The Last Girl from a slasher attack going off to hunt down other slashers. That is a review for another day - now, I have a tie-in novel to review.

If you, like me, work on the theory that all tie-in novels are probably quite bad to begin with, then this is something of a pleasant surprise - well, in that it's not actively bad and the prose is actually decent. There's a fair few typos, and as the characters in this book are all in the fashion world every time a character turns up is prefaced with a list of colours and labels. I ended up skimming over these paragraphs by the end, because a) my brand recognition is limited/non-existent and b) whenever someone tries to describe fashionable clothing in a book, it throws me out of the story trying to work out whether or not those colours go together. Apart from that... Prose-wise there is nothing really distinguishable about it.

If you're wondering whether I'm lumping the deaths in with that - the various methods of death are... Inventive, I suppose, and I found the Rube-Goldberg Device nature of some of them to be interesting, but again, the writing didn't make any of them stand out to me. In most cases, I admit I was just going "Wow, they did not deserve to die like that. No, I don't care how pissed off at them you are - I don't think any of them have done anything to warrant that." I assume that what the author was going for was "disgusting" and in most cases they managed to reach it. Pointlessly, ridiculously, and often predictably, but they reached it.

Part of my reaction is probably from the format of the book, where the characters' backstories are revealed not long before they're killed. (Am I the only one to notice that when a female character has massive issues, it's always because of something their mother did or did not do? I'm not sure whether or not this is just because of the setting - I don't want to excuse it either way - but I still find it strange and somewhat off-putting.) Most of the characters: actually kinda sympathetic! I know this is a shameless manipulation ploy, but it is effective. Honestly, out of all of the characters, I find Death to be the most petty and vindictive character in this book - if you prefer you Deaths as cute goth rockers or humourous skeletons or just an impersonal being, this is not the interpretation for you. This is a cruel death who arranges for people to suffer, who actively hates life and is trying to destroy it all. I... Didn't really like this version of Death, because he was such an asshole. Plus, I have a hard time with the premise (Sherry deciding that peoples' lives aren't as important as her own looks), which I think is partly me having a horrible case of privelege, and partly me not wanting to get into that kinda headspace. I can appreciate that her back is against a wall in almost every respect (no skills, just drove off her friends, no money coming in.) and that she's been offered magic to fix all of her problems - but I still think that the fact that apparently no one over the course of her therapy or time in hospital discussed options or plans or... Anything at all about her future with her? Cabby didn't get in touch with her after her outburst to discuss things? Also: she got hit by shrapnel that only got her arm and face, no where else on her body? I have trouble with it. And I'm not keen on the ending - I know it could be considered poetic justice, but it's just... There is enough death in this book, okay? I do not need the slasher to come back for one last scare.

Also, is it just me or does this book have a massive plot-hole in it? (Skip this spoiler) On page 96, Death says that "It is imperative that those who escaped their deaths be reclaimed by me in the exact order in which they were originally slated to die..." (emphasis mine). The thing that gets me about this is that Cabernet is shown to die before Gunter. I know that in theory, there was probably something on the way down that could have killed Gunter before Cabernet died - but we're not shown that. We're shown Cabernet dying before he does in the premonition, and then later Gunter getting killed while Cabernet is still alive. I suppose that my real problem with this (apart from that I liked Gunter and wanted him to live with his family) is that I can't imagine why Death would take any significance from a photo, as Gunter surmises he's doing, when he knows the order they were supposed to die in. Did anyone else have a problem with this?

My final opinion is that while this book was okay as a one-off read, I'm not sure that I'd read it again. I marked it as a 2 star book on GoodReads (Although I have had a serious debate with myself about whether or not I should knock points off for using the phrase "Fo shizzle my nizzle."), but honestly it's closer to a 1.5. If you like slasher films, or even the actual film series this is a tie-in novel for, you might enjoy it more.

(I apologise for the scattered nature of this review - it is being written straight onto the computer while I'm feeling somewhat sleep deprived, rather than drafted a couple of times beforehand.)

[Mikepottz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sherry will have a vision of a speedboat crashing into a cruise ship and everybody on board, her friends and herself die. She will save her friends however her beautiful model looks will be horrendously disfigured, burnt face, a small boy will call her Freddy Krueger when she finally ventures out of hospital. She will be visited by DEATH, a man in a gray suit who is not pleased she has stuffed up the master plan and thrown everything off kilter. DEATH will explain everybody has a preplanned time place and means of death which sadly Sherry has stopped. Since her looks are everything, she will make a pact with DEATH to help kill all her friends she saved and will restored her perfect beauty. Death by chemicals and chewing off your own tongue, scalp being ripped back like rolling carpet and head twisted 180 degrees, liposuction cannula left inside the abdomen with the vacuum pump running and watching your own body fat, blood etc overflowing the catch basin are some of the crazy deaths. But it will catch up with Sherry in the end.

[Ollie Hazeldine · Rating 2 out of 5]

*2 and a half

So this was probably my least favourite of the FD novels I've read (third movie novelization, End of the Line, and Destination Zero). It had the standard fare - cheating death resulting in the cast of characters dying off in odd ways.

I've never been into the fashion world, and every time the author would describe the outfits worn by the characters, it just went right over my head. I wouldn't even begin to be able to picture what any of it looked like. That, mixed with the unremarkable characters, made me feel unconnected to the book.

I did really like the relationship between Sherry and Cabernet, despite disliking Sherry as a character. Gunter, as well, in a way, was refreshing because he wasn't the typical airheaded model the rest of the cast was.

I could go on and on about the little things of this book, but yeah. Very mid. I shouldn't really be expecting high tier quality out of an old Final Destination book. It was still the concept I know and love, just done.....not as well as the movies and other novels.

[King Ventura · Rating 3 out of 5]

definitely something. i liked the concept of it but it felt something was missing. maybe because even though it did tell the backstory of the characters, they still felt not real. i couldn't care enough if some of them died. i should be happy or cornced by the fact that the bad people are getting what they deserve but i couldn't feel anything. even with the main character i still couldn't relate with her. i also knew how it was gonna end from a mile away. maybe with great writing this could've been better...

[Bailey Wakeling · Rating 4 out of 5]

looks could kill is the penultimate book in this series. in this one sherry saves her model friends from the sinking of a boat. I liked how the disaster was done but I feel it would have been better if something supernatural played a part. the deaths themselves and the characters were nicely done and the descriptions were wrote well. overall I enjoyed this edition and its good plot point that I wont spoil

[Diego Schultz · Rating 4 out of 5]

gostei mais do que eu imaginava, é uma proposta um pouco diferente dos filmes, mas mesmo assim é divertido. Os personagens sao bem construídos, o que eu achei um ponto positivo pois nao imaginava que seria.

[Kayla Greer · Rating 3 out of 5]

sherry was low-key a girl boss

[Kaitlyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting concept

[Esteban Maldonado · Rating 3 out of 5]

It felt like a really good fan fiction story. It was too different from the movies for me to consider it canon.

[readersparadisereviews · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one sucked. No characters worth a damn. And now death is not this unseen entity. He's a puppet master. That's not death.

[Chai LeFaiver · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable read. The exposition with each character made sense and helped with how each one died. Had to stop for a moment after reading Shiraz's death. Extra points for the graphic factor.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought I had finished the Final Destination series of spin off books, but I discovered this in my bookcase, while looking for another book (which I still haven’t found.) This was my last book of 2017, and what a gory read it was.

It’s the usual premise of all the other books/films and has a few references to the first two films. There’s also a twist in the tale, with something that was hinted at in one of the other spin offs, and also featured in a deleted scene from the first film/novelisation. (But didn’t turn out exactly how I was expecting.)

At first, I hated the majority of the characters in this and couldn’t get them straight in my head. Plus, none of them really had a back story, until the lead up to their deaths - and most of them had issues with parents/overbearing mothers/drugs/sexual abuse. I did think the back stories could have been done a little better and may have got the characters fixed in my head more, rather than find out about them/feel sorry for them/hate them even more right before their demise.

The deaths in this are certainly eye opening and a few times, I had to put the book down in order to process what had just happened. They’re very well described and graphic, to the point where it was playing in my head like a film.

I have a different cover to this edition (although same ISBN), which is linked more to the occurrences of the book.

I would recommend these books if you’re a fan of the original films. This book falls somewhere in the middle of the rest of the spin offs, none of them have been shockingly stand out for me. They are very much out of print now, and at last check, this is going for £70+ on Amazon. I will definitely be keeping my copies, as there’s probably no resale value to them and I will definitely revisit these books at some point in the future.

There’s no real reading order to this series, as they are stand alone books, so I wouldn’t worry about reading them one after the other, or in any particular order.

[Yusuf · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5/5

This had a lot of potential but I still enjoyed it. Sherry is unlike any of the other protagonists and her dynamic with the survivors is sort of tense. As a fan of the films, Bludworth is my favorite character, but I think this books portrayal of him is the worst thing I could say about it. Death, in general, is a force of nature, not a being who can be riled up. It doesn’t come after the survivors to settle a vendetta— it’s to put reorder what was messed up. In this novel, death— who I’m assuming is Bludworth, because although his name is never actually spoken, he’s described like he could be Tony Todd— is constantly agitated to the point of verbally insulting Sherry and the others. There’s quite a few things wrong with this book but that was the worst offense.

This is gorier than any of the films and the characters are snarkier and some of them are more loathsome. There are too many lengthy info-dumps on characters backstories that provide the info needed to connect with the people but are ultimately meaningless that could have been added in another way. This never really felt like a story— rather, a series of events strung together, except toward the end, but that didn’t make the story suffer.

It’s not a masterpiece but I’m glad I read it.

[Inusgrrl · Rating 4 out of 5]

was really good! you get so caught up in the character and even learn a thing or two about real friendships

[Earl Joseph · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting premise, but the deaths felt less creative.