What I Liked
The author's description of Lynette's routine when she had to leave her house is something I enjoyed reading the heck out of. It felt so real and so warranted because of what she had been through that I cheered her on!

There was no glossing over the violence in this book. Sure, the horror doesn't translate as viscerally on-page as it does on screen. Even so, it made for a thrilling read. Lynette's run-in with her monster reminded me a lot of one of the cases that Hannibal and Graham come across in the series--brilliant, bloody, and beautiful.

What I Didn't Like
The same things that bother me when I'm watching a slasher flick bothered me while reading this book too. For instance, Lynette surviving a sledgehammer to the head and being run over by a car. I mean, really? A long-winded final confrontation--another thing that is characteristic of the movies and one that I'm not a fan of.

The protagonist tells us the main reason she hates final girl movies is that the characters in them are reduced to lumps of meats--both literally and figuratively. And yet, isn't that what she and her friends do to Dani's gf when they leave her body in a park?

Conclusion
A very entertaining book that's written to keep readers from putting it down before they're done with it. I speak from experience since I went to work all smudgy-eyed after having stayed up until 4 in the am!

This book was so compelling and such a fun read. I loved the take on common slasher film tropes and found the characters to be delightfully flawed, while still rooting for them. Can't wait to purchase a copy for my library when the new fiscal year opens!

"They turn into women. And they live."

Oh how I loved this book. For anyone who knows me knows that I'm a huge horror fan. Huge. So a book about final girls? Sign me up!

A group of final girls meets up every month in group therapy. They talk about how they feel now and how they are coping with life in general after being a final girl. All seems okay until a final girl is killed off. And a killer seems to want them all dead. Well damn.

I didn't 100% trust the main character but I couldn't stop reading to find out what happened. It was a fun book if you love a good horror movie final girl.

As a huge horror movie fan, the title of this book immediately caught my attention. The concept of a final girl support group and getting to follow these final girls after the horrific ordeals they went through and just seeing how they deal with it all was very intriguing to me. I loved the concept of this book! And overall, I really enjoyed it!

One of my favorite things about the book were all the horror movie references. We have a group of final girls and their stories are based on some of the biggest horror franchises, so that was a lot of fun for me. We’ve got one girl whose story follows Friday the 13th, another’s is A Nightmare on Elm Street, and we also got Scream, Halloween, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and I believe our main character’s story (Lynette’s) was inspired by Silent Night, Deadly Night. But don’t quote me on that. I know of the series, but that last one is literally the only series I have not seen out of all of these. I will have to change that this upcoming holiday season, though!

Learning about what each girl went through was very intriguing, but also so sad and just frustrating. The Scream storyline was particularly infuriating because the final girl's boyfriend wanted to turn her into his very own final girl. It was disgusting. Lynette’s story was also quite horrifying. The things she endured and how she watched her family get horrifically murdered... It was awful! I was very engaged during these retellings, though. Like I said, this aspect of the book was one of my favorite things and I just really enjoyed seeing how the author took the concept of these horror movies and made them his own. It was great!

This world was just very interesting because we have all these terrible things that have happened to these girls, but of course, Hollywood being Hollywood, movies were made out of these tragedies. So not only do we have REAL final girls, but we also have the movies that were based on real-life events. There was one movie that was brought up quite a bit, Gnomecoming, and I still don’t know what real movie this fake movie is based on! 😂

Not only that, but we also have memorabilia from the real life events (aka murderabilia) that are quite coveted by a certain type of person 😬 One thing I found interesting was that not only was there murderabilia for things related to our final girls, but also to tragedies related to OUR real world! For example, H.H. Holmes was mentioned. The mix of fiction and nonfiction was very cool!

The mystery itself was interesting, but a little bit predictable. But like I said, I really enjoyed this book overall! The backstories were interesting, the gore was disgusting and awesome, and even the chapter titles themselves were a lot of fun! I definitely recommend this book, especially if you’re a horror movie fan like myself!

The Final Girl Support group is an imperfect page turner that a lot of people will enjoy. I liked the relentless momentum of plotting. But the authors over use of the term 'final girl' got old by the end.

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix is about the ladies who survived 80's major cases. They are all messed up with good reason. Now someone is hunting them. Can they survive another killer?

At first I had trouble getting into this book. The writing did not pull me in right away but when I got going this was a good book. You could feel the struggle of the characters to adjust to society. Even the "functioning" members had viable struggles. Even not liking any of the characters, you root for them. Specifically Lynnette, the main character, has some really good growth. This was an enjoyable read showing how trauma affects everybody differently. The twists were things I saw coming but they were well done.

Four stars for an enjoyable read. Thank you to NetGalley, Berkley Publishing Group and Grady Hendrix for the free copy. This was an honest review.

22 years ago Lynette survived two terrible massacres which left her a final girl to a crazed killer. Her and a group of other woman who themselves are also final girls meet with their therapist monthly. On one of there monthly meeting's one of the members doesn't show up, and fears are confirmed when it turns out she was killed. The group should stick together during these difficult times, but the majority decide they want to split up. Dissolve the support group and go there separate ways. Lynette heads home defeated, terrified what her life brings next. But then death comes knocking at her door again and she is sent on a mission to save her support group from a new terror, a person hunting final girls.

This was an interesting story and good read. It was extremely long and had more twists and turns than exactly necessary. The surprise twist and then the second surprise twists were actually well done because I didn't figure them out until a few sentences before when it was all spelled out.

Holy God. I haven't done a book review since October 2020. What the actual hell. Well, life has definitely gotten in the way - two granddaughters under two have been life changing in the best of ways.
But I haven't stopped reading! I'm actually reading more than ever. I've also started reading some thriller and horror this year, and I'm enjoying scaring myself.
The Final Girls Support Group by Grady Hendrix

What They Say - 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 is a real-life final girl who 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 actual 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.
What I Say.... Okay, this one was good. At first, I found Lynnette to be an unreliable narrator, and thought that was going to be the story, me wondering what was real and what wasn't. Lynnette is beyond cautious and beyond paranoid, but with good reason. She had a close encounter with a serial killer twenty two years ago, and now feels the world is crawling with monsters just waiting for you to let your guard down.

Lynnette's one weekly outing is a Final Girls support group is run by a psychologist who wrote a book about the girls, and continues to work with them for free. But these are not emotionally healthy girls, no matter how much therapy they've had. They don't even like each other all that much, and they are all in different phases of healing, as well as different walks of life. Suddenly, one of them stops showing up at group, and Lynnette is instantly convinced she's been found by her serial killer. Not everyone agrees, and the group starts to splinter even faster.

But when it turns out that she was murdered, the group starts to tailspin even faster. No spoilers here, but you are reading about some seriously emotionally unhealthy people, some of whom don't even want to be tied to each other anymore.

I honestly wasn't rooting for any of the characters - Lynnette was just too broken to even be likable. She talked to a cactus like it was her best friend and lived in a cage, but then she went into the woods to an absolute freak show of two human beings purposefully.

The closure was great - it all wrapped up really well and I was actually surprised at the killer. Sometimes you can tell where it's going and finishing the book becomes a chore, but I would say the last chapters were the best in the whole book. I give it 4 stars.

Current Goodreads Rating 3.82


photo signature_zpsc91ef999.png

This was an excellent concept but it missed the mark. The characters didn’t feel well developed and the movie final girls tie in got lost in all the mayhem of the plot.

Thank you to Netgalley & the publisher for providing an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for a review.
I look forward to every new Grady Hendrix book! This one was another that was a thrill ride from beginning to end! Not quite as good as 2020's exceptional The southern book club's guide to slaying vampires....but certainly another exciting book from Grady!

Great story!!! I loved all the twists and turns, it was continuously keeping you guessing. Character development was great, especially for the range of characters presented in the story. I loved how the story related the crimes to slasher films I thought that was very interesting and unique.

I am such a fan of Grady Hendrix and this book was an excellent addition to their body of work! I am not usually fan of horror fiction, but The Final Girl Support Group has made me want to read more and scare myself silly with some horror films!

2.5 Stars!

The story centers around Lynette and five other women who are all “final girls” which is basically the last girl who survives a horror movie, or in this case, real life horror. For the past 16 years this group of girls meets every month for therapy, all dealing with their own struggles. When one of them misses a meeting, Lynette realizes that someone is coming after them- each girl is now a target.

I liked the cult classic horror references like (Halloween, Friday the 13th, Scream, etc.) but really didn’t connect with any of the characters, I kept expecting a big twist with Lynette but never got one. I liked the flashback scenes more than present time. The scene with Michelle in the park was strange and didn’t quite fit into the story. Good concept but I expected more... this is one of those books that would work better as a movie or mini-series in my opinion.

Thank you NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for sending me a copy!

First line: final girl (n.) – the last and sole survivor of a horror movie

Summary: Lynnette is a final girl. She has spent years keeping herself safe from the monsters that are out in the world. Part of her recovery and routine is the Final Girl Support Group. Once a month she has been meeting with a therapist and other final girls to try to deal with the trauma that has defined their lives. But one day things change and it seems the monsters are back and coming for all the final girls. Lynnette goes on the run. She is determined to survive but also keep her final girl sisters alive too. With each passing moment she sees that they are in more danger than ever before.

My Thoughts: I tried reading a Grady Hendrix book years ago and was just not impressed. I did not finish it even though it seemed to have everything I liked. So when my friend told was telling me about his most recent book I decided to give him another try. I am very glad I did. It was a wild ride. It reminded me of Riley Sager, another author who brings eighties horror movie tropes to his readers in thrilling stories that will keep you reading deep into the night.

Even though I really liked this book, I really did not like the main character. She was so depressing, whiney and crazy. I was constantly rolling my eyes at her thoughts and actions. It is like when you watch a horror movie and the dumb teenager goes into the dark basement rather than the running car. However, this is supposed to be like those campy horror movies making it perfect for the story. One of the best parts were the little additions like police reports, newspaper articles and interviews after each chapter that shows us the pasts of these women or people’s views on them.

There were lots of crazy twists and turns. Characters that seem reliable aren’t and vice versa. I was always expecting a “monster” to jump out at any moment like in the movies. And even when they are “dead” the bad guy comes back for one last scare. But the ending was wonderful. I did not see it coming. It was a great way to wrap up the novel.

I guess I will have to go back and try to read other Grady Hendrix novels now.

FYI: Perfect for fans of the movies Scream and Halloween.

I was really let down by this book. I have been a fan of Gray Hendrix for awhile. I thought this book had the perfect set up to be great. But it wasn't . Didn't really care for any of the characters. It was fairly predictable. I will probably still continue to read this author, but there's something that I don't quite connect with. And I read a lot of thrillers and horror.

Being a fan of horror movies, I had such high hopes for this one and it did not disappoint. I really liked the writing style and all the characters, which at times was a little confusing keeping them straight, but it really didn't take away from the enjoyment of the book for me. This would make a great movie.

3.5 Stars - Would def recommend to the right person!

Grady Hendrix is establishing himself as one of my must-read authors for his imaginative and cinematic horror/thriller novels. This one is a non-stop roller coaster that reads like a slasher movie feels (Hendrix really nailed it!).

Loved the not-so-subtle nods to the slasher genre of movies from the 70s, 80s, and 90s. TFGSG is similarly over the top and unbelievable in the best ways. It's a fun read with lots of twists and turns and plenty of gore (trigger warning!). It's not my favorite of Hendrix's, but it's still worth the read for fans of the genre!

A group of final girls who have survived mass murder before are being targeted one by one by a mystery murderer, someone with too much information about the personal lives of the girls. Lynnette, a paranoid member of the final girl's support club, goes out of her way to stay safe and find out who is killing or attempting to kill her only friends one by one. As she eliminates each suspect and comes closer to the truth, she and the other final girl's situations become perilous.
I love the originality of the storylines that Grady Hendricks develops. This book had me wrapped around its finger from the start. From the unique beginning to the last page, Hendricks keeps you guessing.

I was provided with an advanced reading copy of this novel via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This novel was an interesting, thrilling story about "final girls," a concept I had not heard of prior to this book.

I've enjoyed every Grady Hendrix book I've read thus far, and this one didn't disappoint. Playing on the trope of slasher films and the final girl, Hendrix brought his usual humor and storytelling to this book. While I think being familiar with the classic slasher films is helpful, I also feel like this book can also be read by someone who enjoys a good, over the top, thriller. While there are some gory murders, I never felt like any of the descriptions were over the top.