The Final Girl Support Group

3.75* rounded up. This is not so much a random number. The book was more enjoyable and enthralling than a 3.5* read, but also, I think, not quite as polished as I'd expect a 4* read to be.

An homage to slasher films with some fairly sensitive social commentary on the side, this book was a fun and engaging ride that keot me guessing till the end. It wasn't so much horror though, probably more like a chick lit-style thriller. Don't get me wrong, there were graphic bits but compared to some of the truly triggering books I've read in recent times, this book was fairly tame in that department.

The Final Girl Support Group is a therapy circle for Final Girls: the one girl left standing at the end of a massacre by a deranged mass murderer and who often is the one who kills him in order to save herself. Lynnette Tarkington is one of the six Final Girls in this group. She has lived the past 16 years of her life in paranoia, afraid that history is going to repeat itself or that old ghosts from her past are going to revisit her. Then, it feels like someone is plucking off each of the six Final Girls one by one, and wants them all dead.

Lynnette is not an endearing narrator, and shows very early on that she's not a reliable one either. I felt sorry for her but I never liked her, and her perspective sure as hell kept me guessing. In that sense, Hendrix wrote her masterfully, casually playing with the reader's trust in a first person narrator, pushing and pulling us by turns to and away from Lynnette. I just wish that more was said about the mental health conditions that Lynnette clearly has. The ending of the book wasn't rushed in its plot but it certainly gave an unsatisfactory conclusion to how Lynnette managed to improve her mental health, like "getting shot at in the head" was all she needed to get at least significantly better.

Of all the other characters, my heart went out the most to Dani and Michelle. We are introduced to Dani's story in the first half of the book, how she became a Final Girl, and of all their stories, hers hit me the hardest for some reason. Similarly, of all the graphic deaths in this book, it was Michelle's quiet, long-drawn death that really punched me in the feels. Having Lynnette and co. just casually leave her body in the park and have some random old man to look after her without realising she was dead, after which he "tried to kiss her" - that was actually the hardest bit for me to read, far more so than all the massacres. I particularly liked the reflection about why pop culture and people in general are obsessed and fascinated with the fast, messy deaths but can't seem to stomach the slow, drawn-out fade.

The plot twists in this one weren't omg mind blowing but it certainly did bring me on a ride and a wild goose chase, so I'll give it that. I enjoyed the action overall, although some parts (thankfully few) felt a little unnecessarily detailed and long. Then again, I'm not one for reading overwrought action sequences so perhaps I'm not the target demographic here.

For a fairly light read, this was pretty enjoyable and fun. I'd recommend it for anyone who enjoys slasher films or who simply just want a good action-y thriller/mystery revolving around a somewhat interesting premise of Final Girls.