Read: 24th July
Published:13th July

OK, so being a massive fan of 80s/90s horror movies, I was so excited to get my hands on a copy of this book through Netgalley. Grady Hendrix comes highly recommended in a lot of horror book clubs I'm in, and this just seemed to be the perfect one to start with! I'll be honest though, despite my media degree and loving horror films, I had no idea what a 'final girl' was until I read this book!! 😂

Throughout the book there are so many interwoven nods to the 80s/90s horror movie world and hidden Easter eggs which are really fun! For example, the characters (the 6 final girls) are each based on a final girl from a real horror movie: Dani is From Halloween; Julia is from Scream; Heather is from Nightmare on Elm Street; Marylin is from Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Adrienne from Friday the 13th.

The names of the 'events' have been changed obviously but for the avid horror fan we can decipher who is who! For example Nightmare on Elm Street becomes Dream King/Deadly Dreams series, Texas Chainsaw Massacre becomes Panhandle Meathook, and Camp Crystal Lake (of Friday 13th fame) becomes Camp Red Lake. These little winks at the reader are fun to divulge in and bring a real nostalgia to the novel. In addition, there are other little nuggets like the main character Marylin Burns is actually the name of the actress who played Sally in the real life Texas Chainsaw Massacre; and the chapter titles are linked to some of the real series film titles.

The plot revolves around the final girls lives AFTER their respective life threatening/mass murder events and takes place at a psychological therapy group where the girls meet each week. Each has their own issues and all are obviously scarred by what they've been through. The premise is a really interesting one and one which I found highly unusual and totally up my street!

Sadly, I did find the plot to be a little lacking and the book just didn't have something I can't put my finger on. I just felt something was missing. The premise is an excellent one so that was a little disappointing as I really felt more could have been done with the opportunity. However, I did enjoy the nostalgia, the trip down horror memory lane and the Easter egg clues for true horror fans nestled in so I've still given it four stars.

Thanks to Netgalley, and the publisher for the ARC. My views are my own honest opinions.

Aargh, everyone loves this book and I just didn't. Which makes me sad to be honest as I am such a fan of the final girls trope. I own one other book by this author (My Best Friends Exorcism) which I really enjoyed and I am keen to read The Southern Bookclubs Guide To Slaying Vampires so I will chalk this one down as a little blip and hope to enjoy the others. I really appreciate you giving me the chance to read it.

Thank you to Netgalley and Titan Books for the arc of The Final Support Group by Grady Hendrix.

5 STARS- SENSATIONAL, GRIPPING THRILLING READ, HAD ME AT MY SEAT AND WANTING MORE I WAS SO HOOKED! TOTALLY RECOMMEND!!

Lynnette who had survived a massacre over two decades ago For more than 10 year she’s been meeting with five other final girls and their therapist in a support group..

I really really wanted to enjoy this as it sounded exactly like my sort of book. The title and cover also had me hooked.

But I found it such a disappointment that I started to zone out whilst reading and ended up getting lost. It just didn’t keep me interested.

How disappointing for my first book of 2022!

Grady Hendrix is always incredibly interesting and The Final Girl Support Group is no different! Possibly not as unique and attention grabbing as his last book but still great!

I didn't hold much hope for this after the gross, mysoginistic mess that was Southern Bookclub and sadly, I was right to check my expectations. This book just doesn't work. I can't quite put my finger on the issue and I'm not entire sure it's only one.

Thank you for approving my request to read this title - it just wasn't for me.

I've seen a lot of hype and praise for The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, but I decided to dip my toe in to Hendrix's writing with The Final Girl Support Group and I wasn't disappointed.

For every one of the horror movies out there with a serial killer on the loose, you have your last girl standing, left bloodied and battered, hanging on for life, perhaps gripping the weapon she somehow had the strength to kill said killer with. The Final Girl.

In The Final Girl Support Group we meet six women who went through that ordeal. Six girls who were were traumatised and teenagers and have become... well six traumatised women, carrying that fear in to their existence today.

It's quite fitting that the writing feels choppy and manic, as suited with a horror film. The main character is unreliable, nervy, hysterical and this is really brought across through the writing style. You feel you are here, trying to catch a breath before the next terror.

I enjoyed the addition of the support group for Final Girls. The way in which they were brought together and cared for one another even if they didn't want to admit it. It brought that level of connection that could perhaps have been lost in the mayhem of the book.

The final twist came from left field. I feel I should have picked up on it sooner, and maybe it was hidden in the depths of the writing. Those small breadcrumbs, but it certainly did catch me out.

Though unlikeable I did find myself routing for the characters, I found the book to be an exciting pace and thought the author really brought the slasher vibe from screen to page well.

I'm now adding his other books to my wishlist and I hope that they don't disappoint.

Thank you to @netgalley for the advanced copy of this book.

Having read and enjoyed Grady Hendrix before and being a big lover of 80's slasher films, I was pretty confident going in that this one would be a winner for me and I was not disappointed. With Hendrix's trademark blend of humour, genuine peril and honest characters, this is a fantastic homage to the horror films we all know and love. Lots of twists and turns in the plot and an interesting narrative structure all go towards making this a great read.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I am a huge fan of Grady Hendrix’s work. I was excited to read this book. It was very well written, and a unique story. It revolves around a group of ‘final girls’, each month the get together to talk about there traumatic experiences only this support group have been meeting for 16 years, but now someone is targeting them again, the main character isn’t technically a final girls but her paranoia will help save her friends even if they don’t believe her. I loved the concept, couldn’t put it down. I definitely recommend it.

Grady Hendrix is really a master of his genre. I will be purchasing a physical copy of this book, just to say that I have it on my shelf! Fantastic.

Very creative and entertaining story. Characters are a bit cliche, but that is probably intentional given the theme of the book. Will definitely recommend this one.

Six final girls who have survived traumatic massacres come together to form a support group. A place of trust and safety until a crazed killer disturbs their new found peace and plots to take them out one by one. Can the sisterhood of survivors take down the maniac that lurks in the shadows or will death finally catch up with them?

This is a literary version of a classic horror film narrative. It takes the story beyond the final scenes of a horror film where the final girl stands over the body of the slain monster. This explores the trauma that is experienced after horrific events. There’s vulnerability but also strength from their experiences.

I loved the fast pace of the plot, the suspense and the second guessing of who the killer might be. For the horror fans I’d recommend picking up this book. It’s been one of my favourite reads of the year.

DNF at 40%. This book was not it for me, unfortunately. I found a few scenes overly peverse for no reason (i.e. a scene where the MC voyeuristically watches a child mastrubate) as they did not add to the overall plot, other than as a shock factor. I continued past this with the hopes that the pacing would pick up, but still found it dry. The premise was interesting but the way this manifested on the page wasn't enjoyable.

Having read a couple of Grady Hendrix's previous books I was expecting to enjoy this. However, I found it very difficult to get into. The characters didn't grab me and there was nothing original or unique about the story, I felt like it was something that I had read before. I guess there are a lot of Final Girl type novels around and they all overlap in content. Not a great thriller.

Surviving when all around you have been murdered it is hard to get over but it's even worse when there are movies based on it. No-one understands a Final Girl more than another Final Girl so that is why the support group run by Dr Carol helps each member's nightmares and let's them have some sort of a life. When one girl doesn't turn up for meeting Lynette assumes the worst.

2021 is the year I discovered Grady Hendrix. I enjoyed My Best Friends Exorcism and The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires will be in my top 10 books this year.

I know I should not compare author's books however both of the other reads were definite horror whereas I would not say this was not at all. The Final Support Group was totally different there was no gore and no scares. That was in the Final Girls' pasts which we touch on but not enough for my liking. Instead we get a character study of one particular survivor Lynette. She knows something is wrong when one of the seats remains empty at the regular support meeting and then we follow her as she is proved right and things go from bad to worse. The story kept me guessing as to where it was headed and that is what kept me reading and I certainly did not predict the final reveal however when it finished I kind of thought is that it. Instead of fireworks it was a bit of a damp squib. Good news is if you were too scared to read Hendrix before then it is safe to try this one but if you have loved his others books this may fall short.

Grady Hendrix is slowly becoming one of my favorite horror/thriller authors, and also wrote one of my top books of 2020 (The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires), so when I heard he had a new book out this summer it was an instant must-read for me.

In The Final Girl Support Group, we meet Lynnette Tarkington, the sole survivor of a massacre that took place twenty-two years earlier. Lynnette is a Final Girl, one of many young women who share the same traumatic story, each one the sole survivor of a massacre that has now been made into a movie franchise. She lives alone with only a single houseplant for company, a cage fitted around her front door, and an obsessive routine that involves only leaving her home when absolutely necessary, doubling and tripling back on herself to avoid being followed, and keeping multiple escape routes permanently in place.

Several of the Final Girls including Lynette have now come together to work through their trauma at a monthly support group. However, one day Lynnette’s worst fear comes to pass when one of the other girls fails to turn up. The group quickly realizes that she is dead and that one of their personal monsters finally won. Soon, Lynette begins to suspect that all of them are being targeted by a killer intent on taking out all the Final Girls. Now on the run, Lynnette has to try and figure out who to trust as revelations about her own history are made public and survival instincts kick in causing many of her friends to betray one another.

Unfortunately, this was possibly my least favorite Grady Hendrix book so far. While the plot was initially interesting, it never becomes more an average thriller with none of the visceral, squirming at the edge of your seat horror moments that Hendrix has become known for. Instead, this is a fairly standard slasher type book with many of the typical scenes you would expect and the only truly horrific moments coming in the form of flashbacks to the girls’ past massacres which are described in Hendrix’s usual gruesome style. Lynette herself is a very average female protagonist—although in this case, I suspect that was an intentional choice—and none of the supporting characters were especially interesting or well-rounded out. A week or so after reading and I’m struggling to even remember most of their names.

One thing I did thoroughly enjoy about The Final Girl Support Group was how it weaved famous slasher movie franchises into its own fictional world. Each of the Final Girls in Lynette’s support group experienced a massacre (and a follow-up movie franchise) loosely based on real slasher movie franchises including Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Figuring out who was who in this world was a whole lot of fun, even having not seen some of the films the girls’ stories were based on. I also appreciated some unexpected LGBTQ representation, although it did teeter dangerously close to the Bury Your Gays trope.

All in all, this was a solid three-star book for me that didn’t blow me away but was still an engaging read that kept me up past my bedtime (even if it did fail to scare me while doing so). Hendrix’s fans may find this one a letdown, but I could also see it drawing in some new fans who prefer their horror a little less horrifying.

I received a copy of this book from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Lynnette Tarkington never leaves her apartment unless she has to. She has multiple escape routes mapped from her home, money and equipment stashed in different locations and when she goes anywhere, she bus and train hops to create a maze of directions. This is because Lynnette is a Final Girl, and she knows that no matter where she goes, she will never be safe again.

When Lyn begins to suspect someone is targeting a group of Final Girls she attends support group with, she fears it's someone close to them. Things become more erratic ad dangerous as people refuse to believe her, and she tries to get everyone to safety before potentially facing another crazed murderer.

This is the perfect book for anyone who is a fan of slasher girl (or boy) movies, and there were some scenes that are thrilling and gory enough, yet entertaining enough, to just be sucked right into the scene but at a safe distance ;) I love the premise of this - not just Final Girls but Final Girls twice over, those who have had their sequels and also a cast of older characters in their 30s and 40s - girls who were teenagers and young women in the 80s, now stuck in a sense of dread and fear in 2021 because it feels like someone will always be after them. I liked how all of the girls were a little bit different, yet their fears remained the same but also by the end we really get the sense of a really strong sisterhood between the group.

I definitely preferred the latter half of the book as I honestly found the start a bit chaotic, and I wasn't sure what was going on, who we were suppose to be believing and following and for all of her preparation, Lynette didn't actually do that well in the end, did she? Once we got on the road with Stephanie, I liked the story better - it became more suspenseful, things felt like higher stakes and I was really eager to see what would happen so for the last few chapters I couldn't put the book down.

There is obviously a lot of violence described in this book - most of it is past violence and the things done to the girls to make them Final Girls which feels more gruesome and horrific to the last (to the point that some of it is unbelievable). I think you have to take this story with a pinch of salt as well, and throw it in with the overall genre of slasher media - it's a scary, fun time but not one that would absolutely blow our socks off.

I wanted to love this book as it was one of my anticipated books of this year however I had to dnf it.

I just could not get into this book and I could not get on with the mc.

I'm absolutely gutted.

Thankyou so much to Netgalley and Grady Hendrix for allowing me to read the arc.
I really loved the whole concept of the book. The novel revolves around that idea that final girls are real, like Laurie from Halloween and Sidney Prescott from Scream.
In slasher horror movie style, the novel is gory, tense and dramatic.
I'm so glad I waited til Spooktober to read it, as with the dark evenings it really fitted in well and helped emphasis the dramatic atmosphere that Hendrix created.

It definitely has Friday the 13th and Scream vibes which I love, as I'm a massive horror film fan.

At some points in the book I thought the story was heading one way and then Hendrix surprised me and went in another direction. So many surprising points and I wasn't expecting the ending which was good and really kept me hooked all the way through. I was really excited toward the end for it all to wrap together that I stayed up til 2am finishing it.

"If diamonds are a girls best friend, then reliable handguns with alot of stopping power are a final girls."

I don't really know how to describe The Final Girl Support Group without using a lot of expletives....it was twisty, messed up and wickedly clever in many of it's elements. It takes the slasher genre and adds an interesting new dynamic to it, and it certainly made me stop and think about the fact that so many of those movies are about violence to women, and yet we just...enjoy that?!

I'll be honest, I picked this one up, read the first 15% and really thought it wasn't for me. The style of writing was a little odd and disjointed, I think to illustrate how Lynnette's mind is completely in a state of paranoia and anxiety. However, once I'd gotten over that little hump and committed to the read, I really loved the read.

The story was twisty, you're never sure who to believe, even Lynnette herself is untrustworthy. It sits in that little niche, somewhere between thriller and horror, making me feel sick at times, but still turning the pages rapidly because I needed to know who (if anyone) was after this small group of survivors.

The characters really lead the story, although some of the moments made my stomach twist in on itself. Just as you're lured into the character elements, something else would happen to make you uneasy! This book definitely gave me nightmares, despite it not being the kind of horror that normally would!! I'd say the only let down for me was the final reveal, I'd pretty much worked out the final twist and the whodunit elements from very early on, but hoped I was wrong.

Nonetheless, a wickedly good read, that is perfect for anyone who enjoys Halloween movies!