What a freaking amazing book. Holy hell this kept my attention from page one and really was a great read. The characters were so well written, I almost felt like I was right there with the narrator through the craziness that took over the novel.
This was my first novel by Grady Hendrix (only because I haven’t picked up one of his other novels yet) and I was smacked in the face with such a great read I can’t wait to pick up his other novels.

I highly recommend this novel, it’s worth the read and gives you all the nastalgia of those great 80’s slasher films and their final girls.

This is my first book from Grady Hendrix, but it will not be my last! What a ride!

In The Final Girl Support Group, we follow the paranoid life of Lynnette Tarkington, a final girl who survived a massacre over a decade ago. Lynnette has only a small group of people she trusts, including her support group of fellow final girls and a plant (yes, a plant. I loved this!). What happens when a final girl who has so carefully crafted her life for safety finds herself in the middle of a monster's plans to destroy all final girls? You're going to find out in this book.

I found myself laughing out loud at times with this book. If you enjoy horror films like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Scream, and Friday the 13th--OR if you enjoy making fun of those films--you'll love this book. Take the time to read this entertaining book--it's fast-paced and will not disappoint!

I read this book in one sitting because it was fast-paced and suspenseful. However, if you are squeamish (which I am), there is a part where the author describes one of the murders and it was disturbing. There was one line which kept on replaying in my head as I was lying in bed. It took me some time to fall asleep.

After really enjoying my time with Grady Hendrix’s previous book, The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, I NEEDED to read this one. I am so happy I was given the opportunity, by the publisher to read an review this novel before it’s release next week! The Final Girl Support Group will be available everywhere July 13th! My review is my own and receiving an advance copy for free does not influence my review process.

The novel follows a group of women labelled by the public as “final girls” (survivors of horrific mass murders who managed to kill their attackers). After witnessing so much tragedy they form a support group to have a safe place to talk with those who understand. Now sixteen years later they still meet every month, until their lives start falling apart when the original final girl is murdered and someone seems to want to take them all out.

Now, after reading two of Hendrix’s books I’ve come to expect two different aspects to be done well. Hendrix is a master at coming up with extremely graphic scenes that just really creepy me out and he’s also great at injecting social commentary into his horror without bogging the whole book down. At it’s heart this story conveys how traumatic events, especially by men against women, are being glorified at the expense of women. We see that the evil murderers are branded and commodified while the female survivors are constantly being accosted and vilified on social media. The book opens with a fictional reddit thread where users contemplate how the final girls will die, with one outright saying “I wish they would all disappear”.

Grady Hendrix appears to also be attempting to highlight the feel of an old-school slasher film, complete with copious references to these films. Going into this with some background knowledge or nostalgia will surely make this experience that much better. I’m not the most avid viewer of old-school movies of any type, and while I do enjoy many different types of horror, slashers are not my favourite. This is very much a “my issue” critique (especially because I knew it was going to be as it was before starting), but comparing my experience with The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires to this book, I was expecting the writing and characters to prop-up my unfamiliarity with the subject matter.

The other aspect that I didn’t get was the fantastical elements, other than some slight moments this book stayed very grounded in reality. This again reminds me of how much I really enjoyed my time with his previous book, which just happened to mix my two favourite types of horror, control horror (where the characters lose everything including themselves) and extreme tension ( typically this is a writing thing, but TSBCGTSV did this perfectly several times). This new book is using different types of horror, mostly very gruesome body horror (to be fair TSBCGTSV used this in good amounts too) and isolation horror (where either you are isolated a murderer or you are surrounded by only people that you can never trust). These can be great, and I believe that Hendrix did them justice, but my personal rating was affected by the types of horror used.

One final aspect that I think is important to note is the Hendrix really loves unlikable characters. Both of his works that I have read have featured central characters that either make decisions that make you want to scream or are just really not people you would ever want to know. In this book particularly most of the women in the support group have been affected by their ordeal. The main POV character initially was so paranoid that they didn’t tell anyone their address, and almost never left their house, turning their apartment into a bunker.

Overall, this was a step down from The Southern Book Club, but as that book was magnificent this one was just pretty good. I did enjoy my time with it, but my high expectations were not met. If you enjoy slasher films or really love 80’s horror, this boom will probably be perfect for you. Pretty much all of my critiques are stylistic choices that I personally didn't like, but I know most readers will just be blown away. Do yourself a favour and just pick this up!

I still plan to give some of his previous works a read, and I have his mixed media story Horrorstör coming in the near future. What’s your favourite type of horror? Leave a comment and chat with me below! Happy Reading!

In horror or slasher films, “final girl” is the term for the last girl left standing. She is usually a lone survivor and has confronted the killer and won, avenging the deaths of her friends and/or family…

Lynnette is a survivor! She is a fighter, determined to never let the devastation that has taken so much from her happen ever again! She and a handful of other women are all part of a support group for final girls. While she refuses to be a victim Eagan, she doesn’t leave much room in her life for error. She has a carefully constructed life, takes every single precaution and plans absolutely every move in order to ensure her own safety.

When all her careful planning proves moot and she and the other women become targets for a deranged killer, she will stop at absolutely nothing to make sure she and the others are safe.

This book was a addicting! This was fast paced and thrilling! In true slasher movie fashion, I yelled at this book like I would the tv screen! There were so many times that I wanted to scream at Lynn, but not for being that stupid girl you always yell at in the movie. In actuality, Lynn was a bad ass! But through a large portion of this book, I was disappointed in how locked up tight her life was. What she went through was hell, but I didn’t want to see her basically living in a shell in fear that she would allow someone into her life that could dismantle it.

This book was written in a way that you can clearly see every scene as if it is a movie. The writing kept me desperate to see what was going to happen on the next page. And, also in true to trope fashion, this book will leave you guessing until the very end! SO WELL DONE!

Grady Hendrix wrote my favorite book of 2020 and has now become one of my favorite horror authors. Here is the thing with this book, I think you need to be of a certain age or a true horror lover to really enjoy it to the fullest. Seeing as I am both, I liked the story. The only complaint I have is the jumping back and forth between different things. At times, it seemed like a distraction. None of the characters were particularly likable either, but they are "final girls" and have had a lot of trauma to process...A LOT of trauma!!! (I would for sure be a mean and super paranoid girl if I had experienced what they had. No judgment here!) As usual, this book is very clever, and I appreciate and applaud Hendrix for that. Lastly, I will say, this book is totally worth it for the ending! Read it, and you'll see.

Lynette Tarkington is a Final Girl. A little more than twenty years ago she was the sole survivor of a horrible massacre that saw her witnessing the deaths of her family and boyfriend. But she's not the only one.

For years Lynette and five other Final Girls have been meeting on a monthly basis along with their therapist. Each of them have survived their own horror story and all the unwanted fame and attention that came afterwards. The meetings, held secretly, are a way to connect with others who truly understand the trauma that each of them have endured and that will ultimately influence the rest of their lives.

Then one day, one of their members doesn't show up for meeting and Lynette knows that word of their meetings has gotten out and someone has decided to make their own sequel starring all the Final Girls.

But what someone fails to understand is that these women individually faced down their worst nightmares and survived. As Lynette tries to piece together who is hunting down the remaining Final Girls, she realizes that working together they could be unstoppable.

I can not express how much I loved this book. Grady Hendrix hit the spot just right in the way he mixed the tongue-in-cheek homage to the horror genre - like what <i>Scream</i> did with the movies - but giving it that dose of reality, really brining to the forefront the idea of this genre being depicted as very male-dominated with a lot of violence toward women. And what exactly it means when the villains are more revered than the actual survivors.

Grady Hendrix pulls back the curtain in a sense, taking readers beyond the final moment, past the fact that these women (many girls at the time) surviving and seeing how they've been permanently affected, seeing how they move forward with their lives after such traumatic events all while being scrutinized by those who would idolize their personal villains and how it's so easy for the women to almost lose themselves in the mythology created around their horror stories as it's capitalized upon by the media in various movies and their sequels.

It's a book that's packed full of so much and is so pulse-pounding and driven. Told from Lynette's point of view, you really root for her - all the survivors really, but mainly Lynette - to not give up when faced, yet again, with someone who believes her life if forfeit. Someone who thinks they get to dictate her own story.

The group itself is kind of at odds with one another with some members able to more easily adjust to moving forward with their lives than others. Some begin to question the need for the group meetings anymore. Lynette whose personal life consists of always looking over her shoulder, always taking a circuitous route home, always watching people's shoes is not ready to give up group. In her quest to figure out who is behind the attacks, Lynette acts as a kind of bridge between the other women. Seeing them all come together, seeing the often unspoken support they offer to one another having each been in the same space before, it's the best part of the story.

I do have a confession. While I've seen Grady Hendrix's name all over the place from previous published works, I've never actually read any of his books...until now. But based on what I've read here I'm going to have to fix that sooner rather than later. Honestly, this one easily makes my best of list for this year.

I was extremely excited to get a copy of this book! It was one of my highly anticipated reads! I had high hopes because I’ve always loved slasher movies and the 90s movies were the best so this idea really intrigued me. Unfortunately, this book fell short me. While a great idea, i didn’t love the execution. I found the main character to be unlikeable, maybe the intention but it was hard to root for her. I just thought she was frustrating and paranoid. I get all this may have been the intention to set the plot up but it just made it hard to get into. It all seemed confusing and i didn’t understand why or what was happening for about the first half. It was a bit unrealistic. I will say the second half got better. But by then i had lost interest. The last half redeemed itself some. But overall, i just didn’t love the book.


It did have a bit nostalgia with the classic horror films references.

Who doesn't know what a 'Final Girl' is? As a big fan of horror movies like Halloween, Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street, I have been anticipating this book and Grady Hendrix's take on the Final Girl trope. For those who don't know, the 'final girl' is the last one left that has to face the killer.

This book did not disappoint. It was indeed a wild ride. I was easily able to read this over the course of 2 days because it was that engaging. It had all the elements I expected from a horror/thriller novel. There were so many twists that I did not see the ending coming. This is not for the faint of heart. If you don't enjoy gory details you may want to skip.

The only thing I disliked in this book was I felt like there were too many characters and they weren't completely flushed out. It made me get confused trying to remember who was who over the course of the book.

Overall, solid read for any Hendrix or horror fan.

Thanks to the author, Berkley Publishing Group, and Netgalley for the #gifted #arc of the book.

Back in the nineties, Lynnette and the other girls in her support group all barely survived repeated brutal attacks by masked psychopaths. Having their lives turned into slasher films didn't really help their wellbeing, hence the support group. They each chose different coping mechanisms: drugs, altruism, or Lynn's hyper-paranoia. Her lifestyle finally seems justified when someone starts coming for all the final girls at once. Someone who knows exactly who they are, where they live, and exactly how to hurt them the most. A loving homage to the slasher genre, but it doesn't go full-on horror until the gory final act.

Lynette Tarkington and five other final girls gather under the care of a therapist to work through their tragedies and slowly piece their lives back together. These final girls are women who survived vicious murderous rampages and had movie series created based on their stories, and they share a bond of living through a nightmare. When one of the final girls doesn't attend a meeting, Lynette realizes they are being hunted...again.

Grady Hendrix is such an engaging, clever author and I am always excited to open the cover on one of his books. If you're looking for a great page-turner this summer, The Final Girls Support Group is the perfect read for the beach or plane. It's more thriller than horror, so if you're more sensitive to scary but love a good thrill, give this one a go.

The Final Girl Support Group follows Lynnette, a real life, straight from a horror movie “final girl” - that one girl left screaming at the end of horror movies, physically, mentally, and emotionally scarred after watching her friends and/or family destroyed by the sadistic and psychotic killer. Final girl is an elite title that no one wants, and oftentimes the only people Lynne has to talk to are the fellow final girls in her support group and their therapist. But after Adrienne’s would-be killer comes back to finish the job, it seems to Lynne that she’s the only one seeing all the signs. The final girls are all in trouble and their horrors are far from over, but even Lynne can’t see the enemy coming or know who she can trust. As Lynne sets out to save herself, she realizes the game is much bigger than any one of the final girls could have ever imagined and they’re about to be tested in ways they never expected.

For fans of horror and thrillers, there’s a whole lot to love about The Final Girl Support Group. Right from the start, most of the other characters - the other final girls and Dr. Carol - make Lynne out to be an unreliable narrator. With Lynne established as unreliable, the story is full of suspense; right along with Lynne, I ended up suspecting a handful of people before the true villain was revealed. The question of who was behind the new attacks on the final girls was the primary plot motivator, but Lynne was a wonderfully flawed and paranoid character and she added so much to this story. I love a good horror story where I have to second guess every conclusion the narrator comes to, and there is plenty of that in The Final Girl Support Group. Lynne, as well as the other final girls, are all fantastically three dimensional characters. Lynne’s primary characteristic is paranoia; she’s always looking over her shoulder and questions everything - even her own instincts. Lynne also has a lethal dose of imposter syndrome spiking through her veins, convincing her she isn’t as good as or as worthy as the other final girls. I might not be a final girl, might never have been in a situation anything close to what these final girls were, but that sense of imposter syndrome, of doubting your own instincts, is very relatable. Relatable responses combined with nail-biting suspense made The Final Girl Support Group a fast-paced page-turner thriller fans won’t want to miss.

“If diamonds are a girl’s best friend, then reliable handguns with a lot of stopping power are a final girl’s”

“𝘐𝘧 𝘥𝘪𝘢𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢 𝘨𝘪𝘳𝘭’𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘨𝘶𝘯𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘱𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘨𝘪𝘳𝘭’𝘴”

Running joke is I’ll never make it to a Final Girl because I rarely figure out who the bad guy/killer is – my luck I’d be hiding in the closet with them thinking they’re a good guy 🙈 This is a book centered around final girls that are molded from some well-known slasher films but changed just a tad.

The final girls have been meeting in secret, quietly supporting each other with the help of their therapist Dr. Carol, for years. Nobody knows the true horror of what they’ve been through unless they’ve been through something similar themselves. The main narrator, Lynette is a final girl, she is paranoid and hyper-vigilant – sometimes to the amusement or disgust of her peers, who think she’s way over the top. Lynette has stopped living her life and her only interaction is with the group and her plant, Fine; Lynette is fairly unpleasant but she eventually grew on me. The other characters are equally unique and flawed but I really loved Heather, a victim of The Dream King - ala Freddy Krueger - for all her snark and complete lack of humility.

When one of the members announces she’s leaving the group, all hell breaks loose and people start to die – horribly. Lynette is the only one who seems to be able to see the pattern in what’s going on but can’t seem to get anyone to take her seriously. Her personal mantra “𝘖𝘯𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘯𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘸𝘰 𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘯𝘦” leaves her well-prepared in the event of an attack from fans of the murderers but she’s not prepared for someone whose attacks are always one step ahead of her …

I completely and utterly enjoyed this! The pacing, the characters, the plot and the twists! Was it a little campy? Yep! Was it a hella gory? Yep! Was it a little over the top at times? Absolutely! But I couldn’t get enough! My thanks to @BerkleyPub and @NetGalley for the gifted DRC!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for gifting me a copy of the latest novel by Grady Hendrix - 3.5 stars rounded up for a gory but intriguing novel.

Final girls are those survivors of deadly massacres and a group of them meet with a therapist to learn to cope. But when one of their group goes missing, it appears that someone knows about the group and is threatening their lives once again. Lynette has made her life as safe as possible, living in a reinforced cage and allowing no one in her life. When horror literally comes smashing into her life again, she is determined to not let anyone else die.

Be warned, there is a lot of gore in this book but enough dark humor (those chapter titles!) to make it more palatable. It is ripe with tension as you will struggle to see who is chasing whom and whether good will triumph over evil. Lots of life lessons buried in here too - we can't isolate ourselves from danger, we are always better together, and strong girls rule. I typically cover my eyes over any gore but this was so over the top as to make it easier to read. Fans of the horror/slasher movies have just found their book.

After you become a Final Girl, things change. Lynette is rigid, structured in her daily routines. She lives in an apartment, alone, with her plant Fine. She has no friends, aside from the girls in the Final Girl Support group led by Dr. Carol. Only the girls aren't getting along and it seems like everyone is giving up on each other.
After one of the group members is murdered and Lynette is attacked in her own home, she is on the run trying to figure out who could be targeting the final girls. Soon, each of the other girls has things happen to them as well and Lynette knows things are close to home. She is struggling with who could have gotten close enough to know things about her she keeps hidden from everyone. All the girls are at odds and no one believes Lynette that someone is after them, they all think she is just crazy. In the end, they all need to band together and trust each other if they want to make it out alive.
After the beginning of this book, I got sucked in and didn't want to stop. I wanted to know if there was actually someone after these women or if Lynette was, in fact, crazy. It could have gone either way. I figured out the twists before they happened and I was let down with that aspect, but I also really enjoyed this read because it kept me on the edge of my seat most of the time. I wish that the ending wasn't so abrupt and that more about what driving factors for the killers motives were fleshed out, but all in all this was a great suspense that left me with some messed up dreams after I fell asleep.
Thank you to Grady Hendrix, Netgalley and Berkley for an early copy.

This book is an 80s slasher movie just in book form. It really reminds me of the latest Halloween movies where an older Jamie Lee Curtis has to get everyone together to kill the bad guy. The atmosphere was great and quirky. The plot very fast paced. My biggest quibble that was a decently big quibble was the end "twist". With it being a slasher style, I was okay without having a huge twist and just being in suspense. For me, the twist just didn't make much sense. Not just that I didn't see it coming, but that there didn't seem to be enough clues sprinkled throughout for it to be plausible.

All in all, I really enjoyed this one, and I highly recommend it.

I received a gifted galley of THE FINAL GIRL SUPPORT GROUP by Grady Hendrix for an honest review. Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review!

THE FINAL GIRL SUPPORT GROUP follows Lynette who as a young woman survived the massacre of her boyfriend and her entire family, giving her admittance to the ranks of final girl. She lives in a state of constant paranoia, rarely ever leaving the house except to plan escape routes and back up plans to her back up plans because massacres always have a sequel. One of the rare exceptions is her regular visits to the support group made up of final girls just like her.

As the story continues, we begin to get to know each of the members of the support group and their background stories, whether it be a summer camp massacre or a deadly attack in the halls of a school. There are those who think the final girl trend is over and those who still capitalize on the fame generated from those stories. When one of their group doesn’t show up one day, it seems Lynette’s constant belief that there is more brutality to come is true. Someone knows about their group and is looking to make headlines again.

This was a highly anticipated read for me this year and I am happy to say that it lived up to my hopes for it! Grady Hendrix has a great ability to mix horror and gore with snarky humor and I love it. From plants with names to horror movie tropes, this book has a bit of everything and it kept me hooked to find out what was going on!

I really enjoyed the interaction between the women in the group. They are all very different from each other and they are people who you would never picture as friends if they didn’t have this shared trauma between them. They bicker and disagree, but at the same time they stand up for each other.

This was only my second read by the author, but I’m definitely going to be picking up the backlist! If you like a bit of gore mixed with your humor and mystery and action, THE FINAL GIRL SUPPORT GROUP deserves a spot on your TBR!

it's not my new favorite Hendrix book but i still really enjoyed it! a good deconstruction of the Final Girl trope. i've never disliked a book yet, glad he's keeping that streak!

the first half felt a little slow but the 2nd half really sped up and had some great action sequences. i am perplexed on how (view spoiler) regardless, it was great. i also enjoyed matching which horror movies were the inspiration for each Final Girl.

very excited for the proposed tv series. when all of his adaptations finally come out, it will be an embarrassment of riches.

So this book was not exactly what I expected. For some reason I was expecting a more stoic, serious feeling thriller but instead it definitely leaned more towards cheesy and over the top. But not necessarily in a bad way. I feel like if you’re a fan of the classic slasher films like Scream, then you’re going to like this.

We follow Lynette who became a “final girl” when she was a teenager. For the last 16 years she’s attended a support group with other final girls. As the group starts to dissolve the pasts of the members begin to come back to haunt them.

We take off from there and it’s edge of your seat tension from then on. I will say it was very entertaining and despite the often gruesome action, it was kind of fun. (For lack of a better word.) However I feel like it sometimes crossed the line of a little bit cheesy, and headed straight to over the top and wildly unbelievable. I also felt like Lynnette read a lot younger than she was supposed to be. I had a super hard time picturing her as her actual age because she felt so much younger. Overall though it was enjoyable and definitely something I’d recommend to others. 3.5/5

This was another great horror by Grad Hendrix! Although the premise sounded similar to Riley Sager's Final Girls, Hendrix takes it to a different level, bringing it closer to the slasher films that inspired it. The connection of the characters with the final girls from classic horror movies will entertain fans.