The final girl support group
book Review
***spoilers…duh***
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The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix is a 2021 horror-thriller novel that follows a regular therapy group for real-life “final girls” who were the sole survivors of famous, slasher-style massacres. The six women (Lynnette, Heather, Marilyn, Julia, Dani and Adrienne) have met every month for 16 years with their psychotherapist, Dr Carol as they talk about their struggles being the last girl standing. Each woman’s backstory mirrors iconic horror franchises like Friday the 13th, Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Texas Chain saw Massacre and Scream.
The story is narrated through Lynnette Tarkington who is an intensely paranoid, hyper-vigilant, and lives as an agoraphobe, convinced that danger is always around the corner. The story begins when the members find out that Adrienne is brutally murdered during another slasher massacre. Soon safter, other survivors face sudden attacks, frame-jobs and escalating violence to the point where it is clear- even to the most dismissive characters- that someone is out to get them. The obsession with the final girls- which had become a forgotten fixation of the late 80’s and 90’s- is rebirth to something more sinister. The killers weren’t doing this because their sole goal in their deranged head was to cause violence; their goal was to become famous.
This book was one of the best books I have read in a long time. I was kept on the edge of my seat- well bed if I am being honest- and struggled to put it down when it was time to go to bed. The pacing was perfection. The little twists and misdirects made you second guess everything just like how the narrator was doing. You can tell as a reader that Hendrix is a slasher fan, or at least did his research, because the nuances and call backs to famous slasher films was excellent. Also, I loved the pages before each new chapter that had news articles or police transcripts that was related to the story as a whole or a certain character. It just added another layer to the overall novel.
I must give this book a 5 out of 5 because I truly enjoyed every second of reading this book.
