"After a while, you start to realize that your life isn't the thing that happens between the monsters, your life is the monsters."

-----------------------------

Grady Hendrix is one of my favorite authors, his creepy creations are just everything for me. The Southern Book Club's Guide for Slaying Vampires was in my top ten last year, so when I got the opportunity to read his new one, I jumped on it!
The Final Girl Support Group is fricking non-stop action from the drop, it's an homage to one of those 80s / early 90's slasher films where you barely have a chance to catch you breath before the next threat is around the corner. Lynette is our main focus and she belongs to a support group for girls who survived vicious attacks, not once but twice -"final girls." We see the various paths that trauma has taken these women, some have gotten famous and rich by selling their stories and some are just mentally on the run every second of every day.

We slowly learn the horrors and massacres that these women survived, so you get a bunch of vignettes in amongst the current day story where they are all under threat again. Someone is systematically targeting them again and only Lynette sees what's happening until it's too late. She's desperately trying to save herself and ultimately all of them from certain death, but her credibility with these women is shot after years of therapy together. They know each other's weak spots and so when they find themselves under attack they don't want to believe it or any of Lynette's theories as to who it might be targeting them.

The break neck pace was intense. There were twists and turns I didn't expect, several of which made me spitting mad (in a good way of course). Losing yourself in these pages will leave you with a sweaty sheen of panic, paranoia and desperation on your upper lip. If you liked Horrorstor, this will be right up your alley. 

Thanks to Berkley for a copy of this novel. All opinions above are my own.

“You’re right,” I say. “None of us have to be defined by the worst thing that ever happened to her. Unfortunately, those things have a bad habit of coming back and trying to kill us again. After a while, you start to realize that your life isn’t the thing that happens between the monsters, your life is the monsters.”

Grady Hendrix did it again with The Final Girl Support Group. What a fun and terrifying ride. Hendrix brings back all your classic horror movie faves repackaged with different names, and we get see how our finals girls are coping after the credits have rolled. I found the concept refreshing, and I enjoyed all the girls.

The horror element was definitely there. There were parts that had me on the edge of my seat in suspense. Creepy Chrissy’s character lived up to her name and had me throughly spooked.

Overall, I really loved this book. Was everything super believable? No. But I had a good time. Read it!

“We’re alive because we were the smart ones. We’re the ones who didn’t go in that basement. We didn’t open that door.”

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix is good old fashion campy horror at it’s finest and I am all for it! As a long time fan of horror I was immediately drawn to the title and blurb for this one but I’ll admit I was also a bit hesitant to it living up to what I wanted it to be in my own mind and boy was I glad my worry went right out the window when getting started.

If you’ve ever watched those slasher flicks and thrown your popcorn screaming for the characters not to go into that room or to run faster then this one is for you. The protagonist, Lynette Tarkington, is a final girl. You know, the one that survived while all her friends and/or family were slain in spectacular fashion.

Lynette, along with a handful of other final girls have been meeting with a therapist in their support group for years when one of them fails to show up to the latest meeting. Soon it becomes apparent that someone is out to get the last of the final girls and Lynette is prepared to survive once again no matter what it takes.

The Final Girl Support Group was just plain fun to this long time horror fan. This one was fast paced and action packed and I loved the protagonist and her million different plans for survival. All of the characters in here really came to life and I felt as if I could see the movie version playing out in my mind while I read. Grady Hendrix did a great job with this one and is now an author I’ll have to keep an eye on and read more of in the future.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Final Girls Support Group

“After a traumatic experience, the human system of self-preservation seems to go onto permanent alert, as if the danger might return at any moment.” ― Judith Lewis Herman
This book took me a little to get invested in and I wasn’t sure it was going to be for me. Once I got about 20% in I was so there for it! It is unlike any thriller I have ever read.

Synopsis:

The Final Girls Support Group is for the female survivors of horrific killers. All of the girls are modeled on popular slasher movies. They come together with their therapist, Dr Carol to overcome their trauma and survivor guilt. Lynette, the main character, is hyper-vigilant about her own safety; to the point where she does not live a normal life. Heather tries to give back to other victims by opening a camp for other survivors. Unfortunately, this does not go as planned.

The book takes you on a wild ride with many plot twists. The book was fast paced and once I got past the first four or so chapters it really took off.

The book has another layer than just being traumatized by serial killers. It also sheds light on the many ways women are victimized in their daily lives, through sexual assault, domestic abuse, and harrassment in the work place.

I highly recommend adding this book to your TBR!

This book is between 3-3.5 stars. I really enjoy Grady Hendrix's writing style. But I think it's his writing style and my love for The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires that carried me through this novel. I understand this book is a homage to final girls, but I guess I was hoping for more originality in the final girls with some fun nods to the horror movies we know and love. This book is okay. It's really just okay.

"Because no matter how hard we try, we can't stop life. No matter how much we fight, no matter how many we kill, things keep changing, and growing, and living, and people get lost, and fall away, and come back, and get born and move on, and no matter what it's all so much, it's all so hard, the way life just keeps going and going."

After having read Horrorstör a while ago, I was ready to dive into some new story by Grady Hendrix, and I need to say that this book did not disappoint!

Bear in mind though that this is a homage to the slasher movie genre, so if that's not your cup of tea I'd suggest you steer clear of this one.

In this book, we pretty much follow the journey of the "final girl support group" as the title says, and boy do these girls have been through hell and back. I found the first part of the book to be the slowest, but then it picked up a good pace. I would divide this book into three parts because they each have certain story arcs and my favorites were the middle and the ending. Especially the final message at the end of the story was really touching and I loved it.

In the best style of the author, this book features in between chapters, some extra content like, newspaper articles, journal entries, movie reviews, pieces of paper, this sort of stuff that all comment about the genre of final girls/slasher movies, and also about the final girls featured in the book.

One of my favorite things about this book, and an aspect that I think the author discussed really well, is that these girls are always and forever haunted and changed by those tragic events they survived. And despite that being over, it never really is, because there is always a die-hard fan trying to stalk them, and now someone is trying to kill them. You can really feel these girls' exhaustion, and it really gave both the characters and the book a lot of depth.

For a book that is centered on a type of very commercial/entertainment movie of horror, I genuinely think the author made this book the best it could be. Since it's centered on that, there is a certain expectation that will not be overruled. This is not gonna be the best thriller, or the most emotional book, because it is not set to be that. But for me, in what this story proposed itself to be, it really delivered.

Also, of course, this would be a tremendously good movie. I really wish that happens.

If you're a fan of slasher movies you'll adore this book. And if you're looking for a fast-paced, entertaining, and sort of guilty pleasure read, then this is the book for you.

I liked the cover and was intrigued by the description. I wanted to really like this novel, but it just didn't cut it for me. The plot revolving around slasher films such as Jason, Scream, Halloween is a great idea, but the execution fell short of thrilling.

The characters were somewhat boring and weren't fleshed out enough to get a feel for their personalities, except that they were all victims of violence. I really struggled to get through with this novel and ended up quitting at the 26% mark. Unfortunate, but I am probably one of the minority of opinions on The Final Girl Support Group.
A disappointed one star for me.

I received a digital ARC of this novel from Berkley Publishing through NetGalley. The review herein is completely my own and contains my honest thoughts and opinions.

Lynette is part of a special group of women, but it's not a club you'd want to join. The Final Girls Support Group has been meeting for years after all its members have survived the nigh-unstoppable, knife- and machete- and whatever-else-wielding monsters of legend. But public interest has dwindled, movie franchises have moved on, and the rest of the group is considering the same. After all, why keep living in the past? Lynette doesn't support this decision, and when other Final Girls start dying, it's up to her to figure out who's hunting them and keep the rest of the group safe. Of course, Lynette has secrets of her own, and they might be her downfall.

A good old-fashioned slasher with plenty of references to classics of the film genre. A quick read with enough emotional hook to keep the reader invested and, like every good slasher story, plenty of moments where you'll yell "Don't go in there!" to the page.

I'm not a fan of horror movies/the "slasher" genre, but nevertheless I still couldn't put this book down. I found some parts to be unrealistic, but the pacing moved along very quickly and it was easy to get wrapped up in the "final girls" and their stories. I wish there was more scenes with Fine, the "final plant!"

Thanks, Netgalley, for this arc!

I could not stop reading this. I think the most compelling thing about this is that the monsters are just people. There is no fantasy element to this. Usually with horror, the big bad wolf (or whatever) actually turns into an actual wolf and eats everyone, but this isn't like that. I was sort of expecting monsters. This author did write a book where a fake Ikea... I actually have no idea what happened in that book, but it wasn't good. So this was a pleasant surprise for me. If you like mystery / suspense / action, I would recommend this for sure. If you're expecting traditional horror, maybe pick something else.

Remember that time when someone suggested that the movie version was so much better than the book? Yeah, me neither, but here we are and I will say it: The movie version of this book would 100% be better.


Let's start by taking about the plot as laid out to us in the premise. It is completely original and made me think "Why has no one done this before? It's genius!" and it really was! I was emailed by a publicist from Penguin Random House asking if I would read and review this soon-to-be-released horror novel and I said yes!



I highly enjoyed the characters and how they gave nod to slasher movies of the past. Author, Grady Hendrix, takes the names of the the cinematic scream queens and uses them as main characters in this novel. I was confused at first, and had to look up a couple names/movies to make sure I was remembering correctly, but it's very clever how it was all done.



The chapter titles were also a fun nod to the slasher film theme. Chapter titles such as "The New Blood", "Season of the Final Girls" and "Resurrection" were clever and made me smile. I really like how the slasher theme was carried out through the entire novel.



Without giving anything away I will say that this was a fun read and it was what I expected. This book is being marketed as horror, but I am not sure that's an accurate genre listing. It has nostalgia, thriller, slasher, suspense and horror all mixed together. At times it was completely predictable, eye-rolling, and over the top, but that's the way slasher movies are, so it fit with that theme perfectly.



Overall I give this book 3 stars. The execution of the plot was done as best as it could be, but like I said from the start, this would have been a much better movie. The characters' names were a blur by the end and some scenes seemed to go on forever in gory, gruesome detail. There were a couple twists that kept me on my toes and wanting more and the ending was expected, but entertaining.



Thanks to Netgalley, Berkley Publishing Group, Penguin Random House and author Grady Hendrix for allowing me a digital copy to read and give my honest review.



"Final Girl Support Group" is set to be released here in the U.S. on July 13, 2021 so preorder now!



Happy Reading!

The nitty-gritty: Grady Hendrix takes a stab at the slasher movie trope and gives readers a high stakes, fast paced thriller with lots of clever movie references and some very resourceful final girls.

One thing I’ll say about Grady Hendrix, he never writes the same story twice. I’m frankly in awe of his imagination, as well as his ability to write high concept stories, but in this case, it was a little too high concept for my taste. This was not my favorite Hendrix book—right now that spot goes to The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires—but I still enjoyed it a hell of a lot. A couple of negatives prevented it from getting a higher rating, and I’ll go into those below, but overall The Final Girl Support Group was a real page turner, and Hendrix did some very clever things with the slasher movie trope and fame culture.

The story is narrated by Lynnette Tarkington, one of six “final girls,” grown women who became famous as teenagers after narrowly escaping mass murder events. All six women—Lynnette, Marilyn, Adrienne, Dani, Julia and Heather—have been attending monthly therapy sessions for the past sixteen years, led by psychologist Dr. Carol Elliott, and although over the years they’ve tried their best to support each other, Lynette senses that their little group is starting to fray at the edges. Her fears are confirmed when Dani announces her “termination” at their latest meeting, stating that she needs to move on. And when Adrienne never shows up, they soon they find out why: her monster has returned for the sequel, and now Adrienne is dead.

Lynnette is convinced that the murderer is targeting final girls and that they will be next. Even worse, some old letters that Lynnette wrote as a teen have turned up, letters that suggest she could be responsible for the murders of her parents and siblings. With no one to turn to but her fellow final girls, Lynnette finds herself on the run, trying to stay one step ahead of the police and the murderer.

The Final Girl Support Group is a big, bold, over-the-top, campy love letter to the slasher films of the seventies and eighties. Readers who are familiar with movies like Halloween, Friday the 13th, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and many more will have a lot of fun spotting all the references that Hendrix tucks into his story like Easter eggs. For example, Adrienne’s crisis (the girls' name for the murder sprees they survived) took place at Camp Red Lake, a thinly veiled reference to Camp Crystal Lake from the original Friday the 13th movie. The story is loaded with cool references like this, and even though it’s been years since I’ve seen any of these movies, I loved the weird sense of nostalgia the story evoked. 

What makes this story so unique is that Hendrix takes the idea of Hollywood fame and twists it into a tale where the final girls of the story came first, and then after they survived, they became so famous that they were able to make a fortune off of their experiences by selling the movie and franchise rights to their stories. Thus a whole slew of slasher films were produced based on their lives, many with multiple sequels. I loved this idea and I thought it was really well done. Sure, I did wonder why Lynnette was holed up in a crappy apartment in Burbank instead of living it up like Marilyn, who seems to be the most successful of the bunch. But with this story, it’s best not to worry too much about little details like this, and just go with the flow.

In fact, it’s a given that readers will need to suspend their disbelief in order to enjoy this story. I mean, isn’t that the nature of a slasher film anyway? Not everything makes sense, and even when I started to question certain characters’ actions, it was easy enough to let it go and enjoy the ride. There is an absurdist quality to this story, especially the fact that teen survivors of mass murder events can become so ridiculously famous and profit off their trauma. Hendrix pokes fun at the slasher film industry in general, as well as the public’s ability to take horrific events and turn them into entertainment. 

The story is surprisingly light on actual slasher moments, although there are some pretty hairy flashback scenes where we learn what happened to the six final girls and how they survived. Hendrix drops little hints about each girl’s backstory, and eventually the reader gets the entire, gruesome story about each one. And it wouldn’t be a slasher story without a final, bloody showdown, and Hendrix does a great job of ramping up the tension and giving his readers an explosive ending. I was surprised, though, that a lot of the story involves Lynnette trying to figure out the mystery of the killer’s identity, and he throws in lots of misdirection and twists to keep you guessing. In that respect, the book reads more like a thriller than anything else. 

As for negatives, my biggest issue with this book was that I couldn’t picture these characters as grown women. Supposedly, their “crises” took place in the 80s and 90s, which means they’d be in their late thirties to late forties in the present day (the story takes place in 2010). Other than a few mentions of gray hair, they never felt their age, and in fact most of them spoke and acted just like teenagers. Lynnette in particular struck me as very young, especially her naiveté about the situation she finds herself in and the ridiculous choices she makes over the course of the story. I seriously wanted to throttle her a couple of times, although don’t worry, she gets enough throttling on her own.

Still, I have to admit that Lynnette really grew on me. She’s the only one in the group who didn’t end up killing her monster (what the women call their killers), and the other girls continually remind her that she isn’t really a final girl because of that. There’s a running plot line about her potted plant, the only living thing she feels comfortable owning, and I liked the way the author brings that side story full circle at the end. For the most part, the six women don’t really like each other. They’ve come together over their shared trauma, but you can tell they would never be friends otherwise. But the tension among them is one of the things that gives this story so much energy, and I enjoyed their complicated relationships.

There was one very distasteful scene that almost ruined the book for me, and because of spoilers I’m not going to share the details with you. But it revolves around Dani’s wife Michelle, who is dying of cancer and is mere days away from death. Lynnette, Marilyn and Julia make a spur of the moment decision about Michelle’s situation (Dani is in prison at this point), and not only was it ridiculously over the top, but it just didn’t sit well with me at all. Granted, this is a story that revels in its “over-the-top-ness,” but for some reason, I felt Hendrix went too far with this one.

But these complaints aside, I had so much freaking fun with this book! We even get a nice, feel-good ending, which made me smile. This is the perfect summer horror read, especially for fans of slasher films. So far Grady Hendrix has yet to disappoint me, and I can’t wait to see what he comes up with next.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.

If you're a fan of slasher movies, this one is for you. & if you're not, but love a thriller, you'll still enjoy it! I'm not a slasher film fan (jump scares are the worst), so I know I missed a TON of slasher references, but after reading some other reviews I have more of an appreciation for the cleverness of this book. I loved the dark vibes & complicated relationships in The Final Girl Support Group. I did get a bit confused with the storylines of each final girl, but it didn't take away from the story. The mixed media snippets at the end of chapters was a fun touch. I loved getting a look more into the story without more written in details.

I was so excited for this book... my husband is a huge slasher fan and we know someone who is making a movie with this same concept. The premise is great but the writing was too all over the place for me to follow. Things were happening rapid fire but it didn't make sense. I did not finish this book.

Lynnette is a final girl. She went through a horrific tragedy and she was the sole survivor of an event that took her whole family. There are other girls who are final girls and they have been meeting to support one another, but as the book begins, something happens and the girls are being hunted.

This was such an interesting spin on a mystery/thriller with the victims in this book being victims of crimes in the past and me, the reader, wanting to know what happened in the past while also following what is happening in the present day. With great, "chase scenes," as women are running from someone (can't spoil!) I was on the edge of my seat for most of the book and thank goodness I had a Saturday to start and finish this book in a few sittings, but in one day.

I loved the final culprit and while I won't share much here, I loved how it all unfolded and the final twists and turns until the end. This was my first Grady Hendrix and while I am not sure I will read all of her backlist, but I may have to try one.

As a fan of classic horror movies, this book had an interesting premise, featuring the “final girls” of horrific massacres. The girl at the end of horror movies who survives. While I couldn’t place all of the movie inspirations, some were obvious:
Friday the 13th - Adrienne
Scream - Julia
Texas Chainsaw Massacre - Marianne
Halloween - Dani
There were 3 other girls (Lynette, Heather and Chrissy), but I couldn’t identify their stories.

The story kicks into high gear when one of the final girls meets her match, and the narrator, Lynette, goes off the deep end thinking someone is out to kill her. I seriously questioned her sanity for a good part of the book. But with time, it appeared she was correct, someone or more than one person was out to eliminate each of the final girls.

This story is fast paced and chaotic at times (mostly due to being inside Lynette’s head), but overall, it was entertaining. Although I didn’t connect with Lynette and agreed with the other girls, that she made some questionable/selfish decisions, ultimately, she proves to be a true hero when all is said and done. If you are a fan of the horror genre (in books or movies), this is a read worth checking out.

I grew up watching horror movies like 𝘍𝘳𝘪𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 13𝘵𝘩, 𝘕𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘯 𝘌𝘭𝘮 𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘵, and 𝘏𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 at slumber parties, so I was very excited to read this novel that both serves as a homage and critique of the slasher genre.

After Jason, Freddy, and Michael have unleashed their blood lust, killing in the most gruesome manners, they are thwarted by the final girl, the single friend left standing. In reality, the macabre killers enjoy fame, but here, Hendrix asks what happens to the final girls, left with grief, trauma, and often physical damage.

A group of six women, all final girls, have been meeting nearly twenty years in a support group led by Dr. Carol Elliott. These sessions provide structure to Lynnette Tarkington’s life, a life defined (and limited) by her efforts to stay safe.

All her efforts collapse when one of the women misses a session. Lynnette realizes the support group has been compromised, that an outsider knows more than they should about the final girls. As she entreats her friends to join forces, they dismiss her concerns as paranoia. But as danger encroaches, their tenacity and loyalty are needed more now than ever.

Inventive, surprising, and a celebration of girl power, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘎𝘪𝘳𝘭 𝘚𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵 𝘎𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘱 has the suspense and scares of any horror movie. More important, it is a stirring and at times humorous depiction of misogyny, a tale of trauma and healing, and a portrait of hope.

Between chapters are “mixed media”: excerpts from reviews, interviews, and even a copy of the back of a VHS box which enhanced the book!

Thanks to @BerkleyPub for the arc!

One sentence review: A wild and fun, although it seems strange to call a book based around murder fun, satirical look at the final girls in horror movies and their lives after the fact.

I'll be honest in admitting that I am someone who actively avoids horror movies but was intrigued by the premise of this book. How do you get over being the only survivor of a mass murderer? Why by joining a support group of course! And at its heart that is what this book is, a group of women who meet regularly to get therapy and provide support to each other. There is a lot of humor as well as a fair amount of description about murders. Not really scary but there is definitely an ick factor involved.

My thoughts:

- I loved the satirical elements of the novel. The fact that everyone knows a final girl always has to have a sequel just cracked me up. And there are a lot more but I'll leave that discovery up to the reader.
- I loved the overall concept of the book being about women supporting each other. It isn't always pretty, and they don't always get along, but ultimately they are there for each other.
- As someone who doesn't watch a lot of horror movies I do wish I had researched some movie plots going in. Definitely Halloween, Scream, as well as some others I never did identify (hence the need for research). I found I identified better with the characters if I had some centering around their movie. Otherwise it all kind of runs together.

I think this book would be great for people who love horror films but especially satirical ones like Scream. For those that don't like horror but are intrigued by the concept of the book, I think it is well worth the read. The gore of the book is largely centered in one scene that is pretty easy to skim.

I had some problems with this book.
The story had good pacing and I liked the plot. Got some serious slasher movie vibes, which I really liked a lot,
My problem started with the characters. I really get being mentally not being healthy and had some traumas in my life myself. But Lynette was all over the place. Beside being overdramtaised, she was selfish and a real unlikable person. Most of the time reading I hoped the killer might get to her and we get a different point of view. But than again, none of the characters were likeable.
So, as much the story was intriguing and well written, I really hated the main character - which ruined the book for me a bit.
I’m pretty sure, if you like Lynette, you gonna love this book- because the story is nice and the writing too.

Lynette is one of a group of "final girls ", girls who survived mass murders of the type seen in 80's slasher movies. Now someone is coming after her and her support group of other "final girls" and it's a cat and mouse game of who to trust and who will survive yet another massacre. I loved this fast, twisty, darkly funny book that also serves as something of a cautionary tale for our love of social media fame.