Published by Penguin on January 18, 2022
Genres: FICTION / Horror, FICTION / Thrillers / Psychological, FICTION / Thrillers / Suspense
Pages: 352
Format: eBook
Source: Library
THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
VOTED GOODREADS CHOICE AWARD BEST HORROR NOVEL OF 2021
A Good Morning America Buzz Pick
"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
In horror movies, the final girls are the ones left standing when the credits roll. They made it through the worst night of their lives...but what happens after?
Like his bestselling novel The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, Grady Hendrix's latest is a fast-paced, frightening, and wickedly humorous thriller. From chain saws to summer camp slayers, The Final Girl Support Group pays tribute to and slyly subverts our most popular horror films--movies like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Scream.
Lynnette Tarkington is a real-life final girl who survived a massacre. For more than a decade, she's been meeting with five other final girls and their therapist in a support group for those who survived the unthinkable, working to put their lives back together. Then one woman misses a meeting, and their worst fears are realized--someone knows about the group and is determined to rip their lives apart again, piece by piece.
But the thing about final girls is that no matter how bad the odds, how dark the night, how sharp the knife, they will never, ever give up.
The Final Girl Support Group was a wild ride from start to finish! An ode to slasher flicks of yore, Hendrix pulls inspiration from old horror films/franchises that many will recognize. I don’t read much horror and it’s been ages since I’ve watched a slasher flick.
My favorite part of this read was the inclusion of court documents, interview transcripts, and other supplementary material. Nestled between each chapter, Hendrix provides bits and pieces of evidence that shed light on the Final Girl cases. It gives readers more than just a shock of gore and violence. Moreover, it provides a glimpse at what comes after a horrific event and that, unfortunately, isn’t simply fiction.
Truly, this is a conversation on trauma. Each Final Girl grapples with the horrors inflicted upon them in their own ways; Dedicating themselves to helping other survivors, diving into drugs/alcohol, withdrawing from society, plunging into high society, or operating with extreme hypervigilance. It gives each woman a unique character that I wish Hendrix explored more. As it stands, we don’t learn much about the group beyond the surface.
The only thing that connects these women are their status as “Final Girls” and their support group. For this diverse group of women, this tenuous connection is barely enough. Once the founding member is murdered everything goes off the rails. From that point on, it is a sprint for the finish, making the story feel hectic and messy.
Action is packed tightly into this story, spilling over onto every page. Even during the tame conversation, there is a nearly unbearable tension simmering beneath every scene. Lynnette, an unreliable narrator, goes through her days with a level of hypervigilance that gave me second-hand anxiety attacks. I’m sure that had an impact on the enjoyability. I didn’t care for Lynnette. Most of her decisions baffled me. Beyond her, I couldn’t say I liked any of the characters which made rooting for them difficult as the twists and turns came barreling in. The character I had the best feel for, Adrienne, didn’t even make it on the page.
Overall, The Final Girl Support Group was an engaging, dark, and challenging read that is equal parts intriguing and stomach-turning. Read it if you are looking for a book with: an unreliable narrator, action, more action, plenty of violence, creepy murderabilia museums, and a world out to get you. Hendrix has you covered!
**Definitely read the content/trigger warnings if you are sensitive to some topics because this one is a doozy
About Grady Hendrix
Grady Hendrix is the author of the novels Horrorstör, about a haunted IKEA, and My Best Friend's Exorcism, which is like Beaches meets The Exorcist, only it's set in the Eighties. He's also the author of We Sold Our Souls, The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, and the upcoming (July 13!) Final Girl Support Group!
He's also the jerk behind the Stoker award-winning Paperbacks from Hell, a history of the 70's and 80's horror paperback boom, which contains more information about Nazi leprechauns, killer babies, and evil cats than you probably need.
And he's the screenwriter behind Mohawk, which is probably the only horror movie about the War of 1812 and Satanic Panic.
You can listen to free, amazing, and did I mention free podcasts of his fiction on Pseudopod. He also does a podcast called Super Scary Haunted Homeschool.
If you're not already sick of him, you can learn all his secrets at his website.
