Staff Writer: Leah
The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix
Published Date: July 13, 2021
Number of pages: 352
Format (physical book/e-book/audiobook): physical book
Genre: Horror, Thriller, Mystery
Tags: slasher films, crime, serial killers, violence
Cardigan rating: 3.5 out of 5
Thoughts:
New Year, New Genre has led me to explore what I have been missing in the horror/ crime thriller book genre. For someone who loves crime shows and mysteries, for some reason thriller books have never been something I gravitate towards. I chose to ease into the horror genre with something that is a little less gore and more psychological thriller and I ended up really enjoying the dynamic.
The Final Girl Support Group follows a group of women who all survived real-life massacres, serial killers, and horror-movie-esque murderers and follows the aftermath of being the sole survivor of such tragedies. While I have seen some classic slasher films, I’m sure a true horror fan would get many more references in this book than I caught but each final girl in this story is based on a classic fictional final girl and that is reflected in their stories. We meet these 6 women years after their traumatic events where they have been meeting together each month for decades in a support group for the only people that could understand what they have lived through. This story really picked up for me as we discover that the final girls are no longer safe, not that they ever believed they truly were, and are once again being hunted by a merciless killer. The part that I enjoyed most and kept me reading was the main POV was one of the final girls, Lynette Tarkington, who is an incredibly unreliable narrator and also highly paranoid about everything and everyone leaving readers wondering if what we know about the other characters or the events unfolding is even the truth or simply the “truth” as Lynette sees it.
This book was full of surprising twists and unexpected villains but a key theme Hendrix highlights is the violence that many women face; although, in this book it was at the hands of cliched masked killers, it is indicative of larger, real-life implications. I think I may have discovered a love for a new genre and although I wouldn’t consider this book outright “horror” I do think it is nostalgic of 80’s and 90’s horror films which were always equal parts absurd as they were scary. To anyone a little skeptical of picking up something out of their reading comfort zone, I suggest trying it you may discover a whole new genre to dive into.