It is no secret that I love Grady Hendrix. His books are the perfect blend of horror, terror, and humor with a healthy dose of Gen X nostalgia. And The Final Girl Support Group is no different.
You can buy it here
From the Amazon description –
THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A Good Morning America Buzz Pick
“The horror master…puts his unique spin on slasher movie tropes.”-USA Today
A can’t-miss summer read, selected by The New York Times, Oprah Daily, Time, USA Today, The Philadelphia Inquirer, CNN, LitHub, BookRiot, Bustle, Popsugar and the New York Public Library
In horror movies, the final girls are the ones left standing when the credits roll. They made it through the worst night of their lives…but what happens after?
Like his bestselling novel The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, Grady Hendrix’s latest is a fast-paced, frightening, and wickedly humorous thriller. From chain saws to summer camp slayers, The Final Girl Support Group pays tribute to and slyly subverts our most popular horror films—movies like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Scream.
Lynnette Tarkington is a real-life final girl who survived a massacre. 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, working to put their lives back together. Then one woman misses a meeting, and their worst fears are realized—someone knows about the group and is determined to rip their lives apart again, piece by piece.
But the thing about final girls is that no matter how bad the odds, how dark the night, how sharp the knife, they will never, ever give up.
About the author – New York Times bestselling author Grady Hendrix makes up lies and sells them to people. His novels include HORRORSTÖR about a haunted IKEA, MY BEST FRIEND’S EXORCISM, which is basically “Beaches” meets “The Exorcist”, WE SOLD OUR SOULS, a heavy metal horror epic, THE SOUTHERN BOOK CLUB’S GUIDE TO SLAYING VAMPIRES, and THE FINAL GIRL SUPPORT GROUP, coming on July 13, 2021. He’s also the author of PAPERBACKS FROM HELL, an award-winning history of the horror paperback boom of the Seventies and Eighties. He wrote the screenplay for, MOHAWK, a horror flick about the War of 1812, and SATANIC PANIC about a pizza delivery woman fighting rich Satanists. You can discover more ridiculous facts about him at http://www.gradyhendrix.com.
To learn more about the author and their other books, click here https://amzn.to/3CksElZ
This book did take a bit for more to get into. But once we got to the halfway point, I couldn’t put it down. Wait. No. Strike that. That’s a lie. I did put it down. Because it got so intense I had to take a moment and collect myself. Then, back on the roller coaster I was.
I can’t really say I related to any of the characters. I mean, I didn’t watch everyone I love be slaughtered by a school janitor that was burned, a crazed camp counselor, a guy dressed as a ghost, Santa Claus, or a gnome. (Yeah, gnome. Whaaaaaaat?) But I do have my own traumatic events with a crazy ex, so I understand some of the coping mechanisms that Lynette used. Just because I understand them, though, doesn’t mean I enjoyed reading a very detailed list of practically every step and thought process Lynn goes through just to get home from the support group meeting. Not going to lie, that part was at the beginning and a little tedious to read. Like, girl, I get it. You’re super paranoid. But damn, just get on the bus and make sure you look out for weirdos.
But Lynette’s paranoia does show, that just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you. So, I guess it works for her.
The ending had me guessing at every page. Who’s the bad guy? Are there more than one? Is there a conspiracy? How are all these Final Girls being found and killed? And who will be the final Final girl?
I will admit to possibly missing Lynette’s age at the beginning of the book. It took me a while to realize the girls were at their youngest twenty years old. Most were Gen X aged ladies. I guess I had colored in the details before the lines were drawn. The events for each woman happened when they were teenagers. And they’re still in therapy decades later. I have to wonder if the therapy is working, but hey, that’s my thought.
I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone who likes the slasher films of the 80’s and 90’s. I don’t know how Grady did it, but there are popcorn scares in this book. Like, my guy, save some talent for the rest of us writers, could ya?
Overall, the plot, the writing, the characters, the whole book gets five broomsticks out of five from me. I went to bed talking about this book to my husband who was subjected to a twenty minute rave session about how good this book was. I barged into my oldest kid’s room to tell her she needs to read it. She declines. This book was so good, I had to grab a cozy mystery book to fall asleep.
If you’re familiar with Grady and his books, this should be added to your TBR and bookshelf already. If you’ve never read anything by him, start here. You will be hooked. If you read the book, please let me know what you think of it.
That’s all I’ve got for today train wreck, all aboard.
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