‘The Final Girl Support Group’ by Grady Hendrix | #20BooksofSummer

Author : Grady Hendrix
Title : The Final Girl Support Group
Pages : 400
Publisher : Titan Books
Publication date : July 13, 2021

| ABOUT THE BOOK |

In horror movies, the final girl is the one who’s left standing when the credits roll. The one who fought back, defeated the killer, and avenged her friends. The one who emerges bloodied but victorious. But after the sirens fade and the audience moves on, what happens to her?

Lynnette Tarkington survived a massacre twenty-two years ago, and it has defined every day of her life since. And she’s not alone. 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, putting their lives back together, piece by piece. That is until one of the women misses a meeting and Lynnette’s worst fears are realized—someone knows about the group and is determined to take their lives apart again, piece by piece.

But the thing about these final girls is that they have each other now, and no matter how bad the odds, how dark the night, how sharp the knife, they will never, ever give up.

| MY THOUGHTS |

When your BBF (Best Book Friend aka Creepy Twin) starts acting all crazy like a teenage fangirl at a One Direction concert (no offence to teenagers or One Direction fans), it’s pretty hard not to get sucked into their enthusiasm. Even though you’re quite used to their level of crazy.

This is how I suddenly ended up with ‘The Final Girl Support Group‘ on my TBR. I had never even heard of Grady Hendrix. My thorough investigation (read : glance at the book descriptions on Goodreads) would never have been enough to convince me to read this. But crazy girl’s review most definitely did and so here we are.

I am a complete scaredy-cat and you will never catch me watching a horror movie. But I do have experience with the final girl concept due to the fabulous days of the good old slasher movies. Note the sarcasm there. Honestly, that type of film drove me mad. They were ever so predictable, the stupidity was off the charts (why yes, I always enter a dark room, preferably half naked, and don’t bother to turn on the lights) and nobody “dead” ever stayed totally and completely dead.

There are elements of that genre in this book and so, honestly, I went into this utterly convinced I wouldn’t like it and kind of out to prove a “I told you you have bad taste” point. Surprisingly, it was exactly those things that actually made me enjoy it as much as I did. There was quite a bit of chuckling and rolling my eyes, just like when I watched the films. But if you’re the kind of person to hide behind the sofa or watch scary movies through your fingers, don’t worry because this book isn’t horror at all. It is however a darn fine thriller.

Back to my bias. Why yes, I did have a set of opinions all lined up before I even started reading this, thank you. Did I expect ‘The Final Girl Support Group‘ to be completely and utterly predictable? Yes, yes I absolutely did. However, it really wasn’t. Just like the final girls, I didn’t trust anyone. And yet, by the end, I was left with this “should have known better” feeling. But I didn’t and I let Grady Hendrix lure me into his trap like a … well, a slasher movie type girl who wasn’t left standing at the end.

I genuinely enjoyed this one and considering my reading mood this year, that is saying a lot. There was just something about The Final Girl Support Group that pulled me in from the beginning. The pace is spot on, there are plenty of twists and turns, the characters are mostly unlikeable but well written and there are even some, I thought, quite inappropriate chuckles by yours truly. Like crazy girl said, a parody and an homage but most of all, a fabulous read. I will most definitely be checking out more books by Grady Hendrix.

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20 Books of Summer : 9/20