The FinalGirl Support Group
A Book Review of The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix
Thank you to Netgalley, Grady Hendrix, and Berkley Books for this arc in exchange for my honest review.
I am not a horror girl, but I am an 80's kid, so my horror genre knowledge is a bit above nonexistent. I have survived many sleepovers that involved IT, Pet Semetary, Halloween, Friday the 13th, and of course Freddy Kreuger.. so much Freddy. Having that knowledge helped me catch many references and follow where this story was taking me.
I was very excited to be chosen for an early review of Grady Hendrix's most recent release. I wasn't familiar with how the 'final girl' trope was about to take 2021 by storm, so initially, I thought – HOW UNIQUE! I read after that Hendrix and Sager were working on their individual takes simultaneously was just a huge coincidence. Maybe some Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic at play?
I found The Final Girls Support Guide exciting! I was hooked from the start. As a self-proclaimed wimp, I was not scared. I didn't find his gore off putting.
Lynnette's story of how she became a Final Girl was the most gore that stood out after I have sat with the story for a while, and even that I read with intrigue and compassion.
I also did not see that ending coming!
Some other feedback that I will have to agree with is that A LOT of characters were introduced in a short time frame, making it hard to follow who was who and why they mattered. The Final Girl group could've been scaled down by a handful of characters, and it would've still worked and been easier to follow.
THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
"The horror master…puts his unique spin on slasher movie tropes."-USA Today
A can't-miss summer read, selected by The New York Times, Oprah Daily, Time, USA Today, The Philadelphia Inquirer, CNN, LitHub, BookRiot, Bustle, Popsugar and the New York Public Library
Synopsis:
In horror movies, the final girl is the one who's left standing when the credits roll. The one who fought back defeated the killer and avenged her friends. The one who emerges bloodied but victorious. But after the sirens fade, and the audience moves on, what happens to her?
Lynnette Tarkington is a real-life final girl who survived a massacre twenty-two years ago, and it has defined every day of her life since. And she's not alone. For more than a decade, she's been meeting with five other actual final girls and their therapist in a support group for those who survived the unthinkable, putting their lives back together, piece by piece. That is until one of the women misses a meeting, and Lynnette's worst fears are realized--someone knows about the group and is determined to take their lives apart again, piece by piece.
But the thing about these final girls is that they have each other now, and no matter how bad the odds, how dark the night, how sharp the knife, they will never, ever give up.