The Final Girl Support Group

A few years ago, if you had asked me what my favorite kinds of horror films and stories were, slashers would probably not even be on the list. I doubt I would have even though of it. But slashers are having a moment right now - one that sociologically was pretty predictable, if you're paying attention - and this past summer when I watched Netflix's Fear Street movies, I found myself reminded of how the paperback slasher-thrillers produced by the likes of R.L. Stine and Christopher Pike were what I used to live for when I was a preteen. Before I ever saw my first horror movie.So now, I'm all in. Between Fear Street and Hell Fest and the new Halloween movies, I'm here for it. And when I saw this book listed, I don't think I even read the synopsis. The title is the concept - and this concept, with this author, is gold.The Final Girl Support Group exists in an alternate universe, one where the surviving victims of mass homicides get first dibs on the rights to their story (this is a surprisingly topical idea actually, as the present interest in true crime has raised the question of who gets to profit from who's story, and the fine line between raising awareness and exploitation). As such, this is the world where the mythos of the final girl came first, before the movies. In Grady Hendrix's world, there are alternate versions of the final girls we know of - Laurie from Halloween, Sid from Scream, Sally from Texas Chainsaw Massacre, even Nancy from A Nightmare on Elm Street (how the supernatural elements of that story are incorporated into a world of knife-wielding spree killers is brilliant!). It would come off as cheap if Hendrix wasn't so damn good. Then there's Lynette Tarkington, the final girl who isn't really a final girl - she didn't kill her monster, she merely survived him. Lynette's life revolves around keeping herself safe - there is not an escape route she hasn't thought of, security measure she hasn't taken, a mode of violence that she isn't aware of. And yet, when someone comes for her and the other final girls she's been in therapy with for years, she's caught off guard. Every precaution she's taken suddenly crumbles to dust, and Lynette begins to realize that in order to save anyone - let alone herself - she has to do more than just survive. The Final Girl Support Group is swift. Like [b:My Best Friend's Exorcism 41015038 My Best Friend's Exorcism Grady Hendrix https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1533059241l/41015038.SY75.jpg 46065002], it is brilliantly paced. Hendrix is freaking surgical with the way he creates his thrills and beats. But even so, I read this book a lot more slowly then I expected. Because while it feels like being in a slasher movie - it's action-packed and thrilling and funny - it is first and foremost about trauma. Most importantly, what happens after trauma. Hendrix had a mission with this book - it was to imagine who these women really were, who they became after the worst day of their life. Which ones used what they were given to make something greater, or those that are barely hanging on. Which ones have scars and disabilities, which ones have partners and book deals. Lynette may be a paranoid shut-in, but she makes a living writing romance novels. Hendrix was intent on giving each of these women texture, and not just the gritty kind that is given to Laurie Strode and Sarah Connor.That's actually something that this book intentionally tries to subvert - the way the bad ass loner trope has infiltrated female representation in media. It wasn't healthy in men, and certainly isn't any healthier in women. Lynette is so intent on protecting herself, that she isolates herself from everyone and everything - and she's not better off for it. And she's not a bad ass. She's scared, she's clumsy, she's a terrible judge of character. Her trauma didn't turn her into a superhero - it turned her into a wrecking ball barreling through life, lucky if she doesn't destroy everything around her in the process. Lynette is a frustrating and terrifying protagonist to follow, and as the story rounded the corner of its final climax, I felt like I was trying to pump the breaks on a car skidding out of control. This book has its tongue-in-cheek moments, the way all of Hendrix's work does, but overall its pretty damn dark and unflinching. Hendrix's humor is less about cheeky irreverence and more about acknowledging the absurdity of our realities. And this book in particular is very unapologetic about what it wants to say. I daresay some may even find it preachy in how overtly it wants to examine our impulse to watch bad things happening to women, not to mention our need for revenge disguised as justice. That's why Hendrix is so overt about the movies he's referencing - he wants you to be thinking about the victims of Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger and Jason Vorhees when you read this. He wants you to be thinking about what you felt when you watched those movies, and how you feel when you see those characters in this different light. And if even with all that, this book is incredibly entertaining. But it is not always an easy read.

as someone who doesn't like the true crime industry and how it abuses the victims of horrific incidents, this was a nice change

the commentary on how women are objects meant to be killed by men kind of fell flat, but the overall idea of fanaticism surrounding mass murderers and psychopaths creating more mass murderers and psychopaths was hit well on the head

also, i really enjoyed getting to look at the aftermath of these slaughters through the lens of the survivors. not that i enjoyed seeing how their lives panned out, but that the story stayed focused on the victims, and never on the murderers (as true crime so often does these days)

got annoyed with the MC at the beginning tho. slow to start but it picks up!

In thinking of the title of this book, The Final Girl Support Group, where a support group is by its nature a safe and comforting idea, instead, think about what it means to have been a final girl. The horror of it all. 

Although the horror films of the 70s and 80s would have us believe that the last girls survive their ordeals unscarred, we know too often from life that survivors are bent if not broken.  The Final Girl Support Group invites us to see what these heroines might endure as they struggle to unbend themselves decades after their trauma. 

Those who are horror fans or grew up in the 70s and 80s are familiar with the final girl trope. The idea of a final girl has evolved as horror movies and audiences evolved. To understand and appreciate The Final Girl Support Group it helps to have a passing understanding of the final girl trope. The final girl was usually depicted as an innocent, virginal girl who stayed away from vices such as drinking and drugs. And is thus rewarded for her “good deads” with living through the horror. The narrative structure of the movie or book followed her vantage point, and we as an audience are engaged in her struggles and have a vested interest in her fight to survive. We want her to win, either by escape or rescue. 

“We get subjected to sequels. That's what makes our guys different, that's what makes them monsters - they keep coming back.”

 As the trope aged, the idea of what a final girl changed as well. Instead of being saved, they often save themselves. Either by being cunning and running. We began to expect more from our final girls. And, as an audience, we revisit the final girl multiple times. Over and over, they are thrust into chaos. Nancy Thompson of Nightmare on Elm Street suffered through three versions of battle with Freddy, starting at age 15 and ending at age 21. Had she survived the last movie, what would her mind be after facing the dream king three times? 

I would think that Hendrix created The Final Girl Support Group as a way to exercise the idea that the girl is a person and surviving is only the first part of her struggle. Watching these bloodfests at a midnight show is all about the spectacle of gore. But, with a spectacle comes a certain amount of distancing from the characters as people. They are basically the objective focus  of the protagonist's determination.

“Sometimes you need the money more than you need to live with yourself”

The story starts with a group of middle-aged women sniping at each other. They are not friends, but people with shared experiences. They have known each other a long time and have seen each other through the enduring PTSD that comes from the horrors they have endured. In some ways, they are closer than family. What I immediately liked about the story was the idea that these women, no longer final girls, have reacted to their traumas differently. Although I am no expert in psychology, the reactions these women have to horrors like this have a certain authenticness. 

For example, one is a drug addict, one is consumed with wealth and power, one is a shut-in driven by the protection of herself and trust of no one, and one channeled their pain into an organization to help others. These reactions seem like plausable reactions that one could have to PTSD like this. The story is from the vantage point of one of the final girls, Lynnette Tarkington, who survived the grizzly murders of her family around Christmas. She was impaled on an antler and set to watch the destruction of all she loved. Now she exists like a ghost, consumed with the idea that something horrible could happen because it already had, twice. 

Seemingly out of nowhere, the final girl support group is targeted. Someone wants them to suffer, to be humiliated, and die as they should have originally. Lynette, who is not wholly stable and lives a life of quiet desperation, begins to understand that they are being chosen one by one to die.  But trying to get people to believe her is something else entirely. There are conspiracies inside conspiracies and so much violence. Lynette is a survivor, although she doesn't believe it. But will she survive all of this and save the people around her? That is the big “ask” of the story. Is Lynette strong enough? 

The Final Girl Support Group is a mover of a story once you get past Hendrix setting the scene in the very beginning. As a lover of slasher movies from the 80s, I never thought about the characters as actual people until reading this book. They were just nameless gore and splashes of crimson across the page and screen. But now, Hendrix has me thinking more in-depth about these characters. It has added a new depth of experience to the slasher movies I watched and books I read as a kid. And in some ways, I respect the distance that those cheesy slasher movies achieved. You can enjoy the movie with jump scares, Karo Corn Syrup dyed blood red, and a rubber knife and know that that kind of thing only happens in the movies. When you drop the partition between life and art, the experience of those movies has an entirely different feel to them. 

I believe that anyone who is a fan of horror novels and is familiar with the trope will love it.  But more so, I think that if you are a fan of the horror genre in general including movies, this story will resonate with you because it straddles a very uncomfortable blood-splattered line bisecting the two mediums. A line that I had not seen explored before. Check it out. 

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.

This was better than I thought it would be based on the silly title, but the cutesy tone was not for me.

I also don't understand the moralizing. If slasher movies were based on real life events, they would be gross movies. But slasher movies are very fictional. This book is not horror, but it certainly is meant to appeal to fans of horror. It's weird to me that a story would try to appeal to a fan group then preach to them about the wrongness of what they like while also fundamentally misrepresenting what they like.

Horror certainly has its issues, especially when it comes to the treatment of women. But one of those issues is not that Pamela Voorhees' pride and joy, her unstoppable killing machine of a son, who visits New York and outer space, and fights a telekinetic Carrie-knock off, is based on a real person.

Mr. Hendrix, why? May I just ask why this piece of smug piece of shit had to be written? Repeating the same, half-baked, idiotic opinion is not making you profound, it's just ridiculous.
Let me elaborate, my friends.

A bunch of women are in a therapy group, old women, mind you, because at one point in their youth they were all the single survivors of massacres where they killed the perpetrator is self-defence.
One of them gets murdered, though. They automatically think they will be next.

I have liked the author's previous books, but this... Dude.
There is this repeating sentiment in this book, the idea that somehow women are just constantly killed for the lulz. That we are just victims. Always. And that senseless death is specific to women and that it just happens because we are women.
May I remind you how these women ended up there? Their respective groups got murdered. Like camp counsellors. Who aren't even all women. But somehow it's a problem of VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN. It gives me intense “women are the REAL victims of war” energies and those can go fuck themselves.
I'm not saying all this because it was written by a man. Some reviews did that and I find it kind of telling they all went to “IT WAS SAID BY AN UGLY WHITE MAN”, like they wouldn't eat up this ridiculous idea if it was said by some “empowered” New York journo daughter of the elite.

It's just stupid. We can go the other direction; when men die brutally... nobody even cares. It's just background noise and unimportant. Is that any better? Well, maybe that idea isn't popular with the people the author was trying to court here, but hey.

It's a flat and annoying piece.

I loved this book! I really enjoyed the concept of the final girls having a dysfunctional support group and how each of their experiences shaped their lives. All the characters are sort of crappy people, which doesn't detract from the story at all. The twists and turns throughout the book were great. I'd love to read a Dream King sequel/prequel. This my first book by this author and it won't be the last!

4.5 stars. After reading some very meh reviews, I went into this one with low expectations. But Grady Hendrix has yet to disappoint me. His books are always fun and manage to (sometimes subtly, sometimes overtly) turn the genre on its head. I like a book (and author) that doesn't take itself too seriously. Looking forward to ‘How to Sell a Haunted House' in 2023 - gimme!!!

Hmmm. This was not a support group. This was a tear-down group. The main woman had zero support from her so-called friends of many years. It's like Hendrix doesn't like a cohesive group of women for an entire book lol (based on this and Southern Guide). That really jared me. Also main character is just annoying.

2 stars for the final girl trope and the witty chapter names. This book was an utter snooze fest, who needs the Dream King when you can just read this book? What awful characters, predictable ending, and just one of the worst pacing in thrillers. The beginning wasn't anything to rave about but wow that middle section was a nightmare to get through. Skip this one at all costs.

⭐️⭐️⭐️
3 Stars= It was an enjoyable read

TRIGGER WARNING(S): VIOLENCE, MURDER, GROOMING, SERIAL KILLING

Everything about this book seemed so promising: the cover, the synopsis, and the idea. There were so many things in this book that should have made it a five-star read for me:

Final Girls ✅
Slasher Movie References ✅
Reference to My Favorite Slasher Movie Scream ✅✅
Bloody Vibes ✅
Serial Killers ✅

But even with all of those pieces in the story, it still fell flat. I know a lot of people felt like the final girls background stories being based off of popular 80s and 90s slasher films seemed lazy and uncreative on Hendrix's part, but I actually enjoyed that and thought it was pretty fun and clever. That still wasn't enough to save this story for me.

For the title of the book literally being The Final Girl Support Group. We got an extremely little look into the actual support group.

I often got confused about whether I should be laughing or serious during the “humorous” parts of the book. The jokes and twisted humor just weren't it. It was like Hendrix was trying to be quirky, but the vibe was all off and confusing. Was this supposed to be a satire, parody, serious novel, or all three? The whole thing just gave off “trying too hard” feels.

The main character, Lynnette, was very unlikable and bordered on being unbearable. Unfortunately, the whole story is told from her point of view. I can understand how going through something as extreme as watching your whole family get killed will mess you up mentally and no doubt leave you with post-traumatic stress disorder, but Lynne was over the top with it. And I have generalized anxiety disorder, so for me to say someone is too paranoid might be saying a lot. I mean, she literally had a cage in her apartment separating her front door from her living room.

I could have lived without going through her constant thought process about why she did the things that she did. Her bus routine for getting around town and things like that She constantly threw herself a pity party and tried to make all the other Final Girls seem more mentally unstable than herself. I mean, what was up with her plant “Fine” and that weird friendship? For somebody who tried to live so cautiously, Lynnette made a lot of flat-out stupid decisions. I also didn't like how she always tried to blame the things that happened to her on others. Nothing was ever her fault. A prime example is when the other final girls and Dr. Elliott found out about the book Lynne wrote, were pissed off (rightfully so), and confronted her about it. She always said, "Nobody was supposed to read that" or "I wasn't actually going to publish it." But she still wrote the book and that was still how she felt about her peers. Just because it was never supposed to be published doesn't make it okay.

I would have enjoyed learning more about the other characters' back stories instead of getting tidbits about them sprinkled in here and there, and I would have loved to have this story told from multiple points of view.

Three things were so unbelievable I almost had to laugh:
Marilyn, Heather, and Lynnette breaking Michelle out of hospice. That would NEVER be allowed. They weren't related to her in any way, and the staff didn't even know who the three women were. There is no way in hell it would be that easy for them to leave the hospice facility with her and just drive off.Lynnette gaining access to Stephanie's house by using an EXPIRED fake driver's license on her father. I would think he would be so relaxed about people entering his home after his daughter just escaped the clutches of a serial killer and the whole kidnapping scenario. That was just wild and so far-fetched, it was idiotic.Lynnette magically being cured of her panic attacks after getting attacked by Stephanie and Skye. Especially after she lived in fear of her own shadow and the whole human population since she was sixteen years old. I wish it were that easy. If it were that simple to get rid of them, I wouldn't be taking the medications I do.

I wish this book lived up to its hype, but it just didn't. At one point, I was hoping the killer would stake Lynnette out so she wouldn't even be in the equation as a final girl anymore.

I know a lot of people who enjoyed this book, including my husband, whom I love dearly, and I love that for them. If you enjoyed it, I am truly glad you did. I just wish I could too.