I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix Published by Berkley on July 13 2021
Genres: Adult, Horror
Pages: 352
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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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.
“O NO—I’m being stalked by an unusually slow killer armed with a ridiculously impractical weapon. Eek! It’s a boat hook! A machete! A shish kebab skewer! An AR-15 makes all that bullshit irrelevant. These bitches only think they’re tough until they go up against some serious firepower. All that old fashioned shit is for grandmas and babies. We can bring modern day tactics and weapons to what’s always been an old fashioned knife fight.”
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.
I love your pun of “Grady Hendrix takes a stab” Even though it wasn’t your favorite by the author it still sounds like a great read. I love that it has references to slasher films which I love. I really wanna buy it now!
Stephanie @ Bookfever recently posted…Six in Six – 2021 Edition
LOL that was deliberate!
Hmmm not a fan of slasher films tbh. But I’m glad you liked it! I’ve been meaning to try Grady Hendrix for some time—I’ll have to do that soon. Just… maybe not this one
Any of his other books are worth trying:-)
I greatly enjoyed “Southern Book Club…” so I will certainly give this one a spin: the over-the-top narrative sounds fun as a tongue-in-cheek loving stab to slasher movies, and I’m curious to see how it all plays out.
Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Maddalena@spaceandsorcery recently posted…UNSUB (Unsub #1), by Meg Gardiner
I thought it was very well done, and I’m sure diehard fans of slasher films would enjoy it even more:-)
I was never a fan of slasher films! I get terrified of anything that’s horror! I just can’t watch those types of movies, but I love reading books based on those scenarios instead! Haha! I’m weird like that! But I might give this a book just for the fun of it! Thanks for the great review, Tammy!
Me too! I definitely enjoy reading them more than watching them. Thanks Hasini:-)
Glad I’m not the only one!
Oh, this sounds fun! Movie-wise I like slow burn, spooky films better, but in a book I like slashers as much as the more cerebral horror stories. Good review!
Priscilla Bettis recently posted…One-Sentence Reviews: My 2nd Quarter 2021 Reads
I’m actually not a huge fan of slasher films, but I do have fun when they’re in book form:-)
Hope to get to this one soon! I fell super behind while on vacation (so what else is new, lol) but hopefully I’ll get back on track with the books I gotta read this month. Glad to hear you enjoyed it!
Hey vacation is worth falling behind:-)
Each review I read of one of his books increases my desire to try one. And I had to laugh, my first thought when I started reading this review was I wonder what Tammy’s favorite book of his is, just to see you say which in the very next sentence. So thanks for that! 🙂
You should try one! Either Southern Book Club or We Sold Our Souls, which I also loved. If you want something more on the humorous side, Horrorstor is fantastic.
Being a great big wuss, I have never watched any slasher movies and tend to also avoid horror books, too. But it sounds as if this is a really affectionate parody of those types of films – and I’m glad you largely enjoyed it. I always think that writing those types of books is very difficult to successfully accomplish:)).
I used to watch slasher movies a long time ago, that is I watched them from behind my hands because I was so scared, lol:-)
I’m glad to hear this earned high marks from you even with those two issues. I’m not a fan of slasher movies because I’m a chicken but I just can’t resist his unique stories.
He really comes up with cool ideas, I’m always excited to see what he’ll do next:-)
Great review! I can’t wait to give this a try!
Thanks Lauren!
I’ve only read two by this author, but enjoyed both. And this one was on my radar because I used to be such a fan of slasher movies, still enjoy them occasionally, have you seen the latest installment into the Saw world? But your review makes it definite that I need to read this one. Even the negatives sound like the goods outweigh them. Great review!
Lisa Mandina (Lisa Loves Literature) recently posted…Blog Tour Review: The Introvert’s Guide to Speed Dating (The Introvert’s Guide #2) by Emma Hart
You will probably really enjoy this if you were a slasher movie fan:-)
Thanks for this review, Tammy! I’m not a regular horror reader but everyone’s reviews have me so curious, even about the distasteful scene! Happy to read you have fun with it overall and definitely want to try this author thanks to you.
Thanks Jennifer! I just love his books, but they are pretty horror heavy:-)
Well I never watch the movies and don’t read much in this genre but it was a good change of pace for me.
Anne – Books of My Heart recently posted…The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix
Sometimes it’s nice to change gears, right?
This is next for me, and your review has made me more eager to get to it!
I hope you enjoy! I’ll be looking for your review:-)
It was rather light on actual slasher moments, wasn’t it? I think I went in expecting more of that, but it’s really more of a mystery/thriller until that climax (although the antler flashback . . . damn!). And you’re right, I gave up trying to figure out the ages and timelines early on, but it’s hard to see them as women in their 40s.
As for the cancer scene, I was actually OK with that. It was somewhat absurd, and kind of unnecessary in terms of the overall story, but it was something of a softer moment that exposed some emotional depth.
You do have a point, there was quite a bit of emotion surrounding Michelle’s weird scene. But for some reason it just didn’t hit me right.
I legit read that quote you included with Tatum from Scream’s voice in my head ahaha.
I have yet to actually read any of Hendrix’s books but this and slaying vamps are so high on my list. I’m glad you enjoyed this one, great review!
Kal @ Reader Voracious recently posted…Review: His Hideous Heart edited by Dahlia Adler
I’ve heard people love this or hated it. My pre-order arrived Tuesday and I’ve been a tad hesitant to pick it up. That was until I read your review. We have similar tastes in horror so now I’m excited once again.
I couldn’t agree more, in fact until you mentioned it, I think I was thinking of all of these more as girls – I don’t think I’d added the extra years onto them for some reason. I did have fun with this one though – agree about that particular scene as well, I wasn’t exactly uncomfortable with it – although I know where you’re coming from – so much as puzzled why it was included really.
Lynn 😀
I was so bummed when your other recommendation I dug wasn’t in the library system, but this one is! Woohoo!
I held off on reading your review until I finished the book, and now that I have, I can say I AGREE with just about all of it. A big yes to your thoughts on the MIchelle business — distasteful is a really good word for it. I do think Lynette’s depiction is pretty deliberate — she doesn’t come across as a real adult because she never really grew up after her “crisis”. It was weird and interesting being in her head for sure! This isn’t my favorite of his books, but I’ll also read whatever he writes at this point! Great review.