After loving the Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix, I was eager to check out his other work. So when I saw the Final Girl Support Group here on NetGallery, I knew I wanted to request it.

Following Grady Hendrix's usual themes of well-known horror tropes, we turn to the concept of the Final Girl; the only survivor of a serial killer who is usually also their downfall. The story revolves around a support group for several Final Girls, all having witnessed horrific events many years previous. When one of their number goes missing, they fear that someone is now praying on them. Praying on the Final Girls

Sadly I didn't enjoy this one as much overall as I did the Southern Book Club.

There are various reasons for this. The focused first-person narrative leads to a very limited view and narrative, cutting off opportunities for more group development. The lack of group scenes also contributed to the feeling of the other women in the group are more background filling than really fleshed out characters. The pacing of the second act and reveal of the perpetrator did

However, there are also elements of this book I did enjoy and saved this book from going into complete disappointment territory for me.

As much as I just complained about the narrow narrative, I don't actually have much of a problem with Lynette herself. She's understandably flawed, traumatised and her behaviour seems out of place and erratic to most outside. The other Final Girls were clearly their own people and all had their own way of dealing with the trauma. It made it feel more realistic and less like the woman were just copy and paste, which is one thing I do think Hendrix does well: create and write female characters who feel like they are people who I could come across in real life

The first half was what got me hooked. Everything from the events to the pacing had kept me going back and definitely gave those suspenseful and slasher vibes and I loved the various excerpts from different interviews, magazines and books which were littered through the book, usually at the end of chapters. It gave a great way to reveal more information about the cases without having to force it into the narrative.

Overall I feel like this was a book that had a solid premise but a not so solid execution.

The Final Girl Support Group is a love letter to 70s and 80s slasher movies, with characters based on popular movies such as Halloween and Friday the 13th. The storyline mainly follows Lynette so unfortunately, we don’t get to know the other final girls beyond her recollection and snippets of articles, interviews and news. Dani, Marilyn, Heather, and Julia are dropped into the book without introductions as if the reader is expected to already know their backgrounds. Trying to figure out their history and specific incident that led them to be the final girl made the story feel disorganised. I found Lynette unconvincing because for someone so paranoid she behaves really recklessly. The story has an element of satire but I never felt it lands properly. I wish the storyline is more subversive instead of being another reiteration of slasher horror.

On the plus side, I enjoyed the gritty action sequences and strikingly gory memories that haunt the final girls. There’s a standout scene with an estranged final girl that’s super chilling and nails the criticism about true crime consumption. I also liked the way the villain’s identity is revealed. The book explores trauma and survival, and takes a sharp look at media representation and how the public views final girls. I wish I loved this book more but there’s enough here to leave a mark.

CW: graphic violence

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Titan Books in exchange for an honest review.

Grady Hendrix is one of those authors I know is always going to give me a good time, and The Final Girl Support Group is no exception. From the first page this book sucked me in and I loved every second of it.

This is the tale of Lynette, a 'final girl' of the horror genre fame. For those not in the know, a final girl is the sole survivor of a horror film, usually found in 80s and 90s slashers. She is usually pure, very resourceful and innocent, and often deeply traumatised by her experiences. In this world, famous horror movies are based on true events and our 6 members of the support group are the survivors. Scream, Friday the 13th, Halloween-they are all here under different names, and now we get to see what happened to the protagonists and who they grew up to be. The plot kicks off when Lynette suspects that someone is intent on murdering them all and goes on the run, determined that this time she will survive again.

There was so much about this book that surprised and delighted me. Firstly, the fact that each final girl comes from a recognisable franchise was completely unexpected and I adored it as a horror fan. I loved trying to guess what franchise each girl came from and putting together all the references and clues. Having said that, this book is so much more than a love letter to the genre. As always, Hendrix's characters are on point here. Lynette is ruthless and not a 'good' person, but you are 100% rooting for her as a reader. I think it does a brilliant job of recreating that familiar relationship between a victim and the public. Sure, you feel sorry for her but can you trust her? Is she telling the truth? Hendrix plays on these feelings to the book's advantage and it really is so clever in its execution.

It is truly incredible to have a book like this with a plot like it does and it be one of the most feminist horror books I have ever read. Rest assured, it is not overt and can be easily ignored if you wish. But to have such a strong cast of female characters, to truly poke and prod at the trope of the 'final girl' and how it is perceived by people, to have almost no sexual content or sexualisation of the female characters in the slasher genre: all this is so impressive to me. I think it has some fantastic things to say in the conversation of gender and horror, and these are woven effortlessly into the story so it never feels preachy or like that is the only point of the book.

There's not much more I can say to praise this book without giving things away but truly, it was everything I hoped for and more. If you're wondering what the difference between Final Girls by Riley Sager and this is, they are similar in basic premise and analysis of the trope but vastly different in content and execution. I enjoyed both thoroughly and reading The Final Girl Support Group, I didn't feel like it was being unoriginal or retreading old ground. This is definitely more of a horror than a thriller and it explores a wider cast of characters and situations.

Overall, if you enjoy horror (and in particular, slashers) please read this book. It breathes fresh life into the genre and I know this is a story I will be rereading a lot for many years to come. If you try one of Hendrix's books (and you absolutely should) this is the one I recommend the most.

Overall Rating: 5/5 stars

One thing you should know about me… I am an absolute sucker for the Final Girl trope.

Imagine if the horror films we loved and feared growing up were real? And that girl who tripped while being chased by the killer but over came them in end were real? Not only that but they meet once a month in a church hall in their very own, Final Girl Support Group.

The premise for this book is so fantastically original that you won’t find another book like it.

Each of the girls have lived through a terrible event, but surviving and the slaying of their nemesis has branded them as final girls. Every terrible event has been inspired by classic slasher films, from Halloween to Scream it’s so fun figuring out which girls story is inspired by which film!

Our narrator Lynette has the aspects of an unreliable narrator, after surviving her trauma she now trusts no one, creates multiple escape plans for every situation and has developed such a strong case of OCD nothing she does is by chance. But Lynette has a secret or two.. but someone knows about those secrets now and they’re using them to come after the group.

Someone is hunting Final Girls and if there is one thing these girls know… their monsters always come back.

Honestly this is such a fabulous read I loved every moment of it! I finished it in a 24 hour period because i couldn’t put it down! I cannot wait to get my hands on a final copy and reread one of my favourite reads this year!

Thank you @netgalley @titanbooks for my review copy.

Final Girls are those left standing (if bloodied) at the end of the horror film, when the monster or the psychopath or whatever it is has chewed through the rest of the group, as the camera lingers on gore and exposed flesh.

But what happens to them afterwards, those brave survivors? In Grady Hendrix's new novel, he brings together a group of "final girls" who, fifteen or twenty years on from the worst experience of their lives, come together once a month to affirm one another, talk through their traumas and offer support.

Or, more often, bicker and complain...

It's an ingeniously imagined world where the trope of countless movies is made real. These women, actual final girls who lived through the nightmare of seeing their friends and family slaughtered, now face survivor guilt. Why did they live? Could they have done more to protect those they loved? Or were they selfish, saving themselves and leaving others to die? It's also a world where those experiences inspired films very like the ones we can go and see, if we wish, and where a thriving online community of fans seem to blend their interest in these fictions with being "fans" of the actual survivors (...or of the killers...) collecting memorabilia, gathering in chatrooms to discuss the finer points of murder and torture. There is intense media pressure on the survivors, and many deranged figures wold step up to have a go at such celebrities, winning kudos and fame.

Maybe it's actually not such a far-fetched world, though. Hendrix's gradual unfolding of this concept fits very well with the grain of our society, of online hate and misogyny, gun fixation, greed (we meet one particularly unhinged dealer in Final Girl merch) and bizarre conspiracy theories. By the time I reached the end of the book I found myself more than convinced of the books's psychological truth. In part this is done through the central character of Lynnette, who survived the annihilation of her family before her eyes and has still to fully emerge from the trauma.

We see how careful Lynnette is, how it takes her three hours of watchful travel, doubling back and feinting, to get from "group" back to her fortified home. Extreme caution, perhaps, but reflecting the reality of a woman seeking to protect herself from street harassment and abuse.

Once she reaches that home, the only living thing besides herself that Lynnette will see is her pepper plant, Fine, with whom she has conversations. That's not from fear, that's because Lynnette just can't take responsibility for another human being, after what happened. Her survival, and fragile mental wellbeing in a setting where victim-blaming is only a mouse click away, depend on her isolating herself physically and mentally. But she's doing fine, just fine - until the day when all her fears and hidden memories explode again and she's forced to flee, her backup plans, which seemed wild and extravagant, suddenly vital. Then Lynnette has to face a hostile world, a world of relentless killers, hostile police (they always knew something was wrong about her story...) Even her friends, her sisters, in group turn against her as does her therapist, Dr Carol.

If in one sense this is an imitation of the form that Hendrix is holding up to scrutiny, more deeply it's an exposé of sexist tropes in popular fiction and in society more widely, Lynnette eventually rejecting the isolation she's seen as inescapable and opting instead for solidarity and trust, even against her ingrained instincts. It's a hectic, hopeless seeming chase of a book, decorated with extracts from critical works, police reports, blogs, chats, newspaper stories and other media analysing, challenging or celebrating the mythology of the Final Girl and of Lynnette in particular. Atmospheric and many-layered, these both contribute to the sense of reality of this world and also give hints about what is really happening, and how the story might turn out.

Overall, this is a pacy and entertaining book, thriller-like at times but with a real sense of heart even in a cruel and bleak setting. It has its touches of humour, and, ironically, doesn't let its villains be mere monsters - that would, after all, be letting them off too easily.

I've admired and enjoyed Grady Hendrix's earlier books, and The Final Girl Support Group is up there with the best of them. I'd firmly recommend.

3.5 rounded up to 4

This novel delves into what happens to the Final Girls after the trauma they go through. I liked how it shows another perspective of the damage that the killer, or ‘monster’ as often referred to in the book, leaves behind even after they are dead.

This is definitely one for anyone who loves slasher movies. There’s loads of references to horror films and scenarios dotted throughout. Even the chapter titles are reministance of horror film titles and their subsequent sequels.

I did think there were a few too many characters, which meant I got a little lost in the middle of the book. However, the last third really picked up the pace. The twists and turns it took were great. There were also some interesting points about how women are portrayed in killings and in the horror genre.

Thank you Netgalley and Titan books for my ARC copy.

Hendrix is a master. He knows his horror, he knows his tropes and he knows the genre so well he can deconstruct and reconstruc whatever he pleases. What a wonderful book. I can see it already as a Netflix adaptation!

This book is for you if you like slasher films with lots of action.

This book was not for me. Not because I don't like slasher films, but because I just couldn't connect to the MC. Furthermore, the book soon felt like a Thelma&Louise kind of road trip to me, and that's definitely not my jam.

If you loved the slasher horror films from the 90’s, you are going to love this book!

Lynette is a final girl - the girl who is left standing at the end of the horror film. She along with five other final girls and a therapist make up the final girl support group. A support group that understands what each girl has been through and helps them to put their lives back together, one piece at a time. Until the day when one of the girls misses the group meeting and Lynette realises that her worst fears are being realised - someone seems to know about their secret group and is coming after its members one by one.

There are so many twists and turns throughout the book I was kept guessing until the very end! There were a few plot twists that I did not see coming and I loved how different each character was.

I’m giving ten gazillion stars and getting out of here!

There are some incredible books written by extraordinary minds make you feel everything at the same time and once you finish them you feel speechless because no words will be enough to reflect your emotions! This book is great example of these extremely fantastic reads and Mr. Hendrix proved one more time to us he is a true literature prodigy!

I’m die hard fan of Southern Book Club’s guide to the slaying vampires. It was my favorite thriller book of the last year. He knows how to construct the complex bonding of genuine female friendship and develop rich memorable, survivor, kickass women characters we adore!

So happy to have received an e-arc in exchange for an honest review. I had very very very high hopes for this one, esp after reading The Southern Bookclubs Guide earlier this year and adoring it. This book just didn’t hit the same unfortunately. Absolutely amazing premise but it dragged so much in parts and I felt like the execution of the big twist could have been better. Don’t get me wrong I still enjoyed it but it just didn’t deliver like I thought it was going to.

The opening of this novel sees Lynette attend group therapy before returning home. The way Hendrix has written this simple task sets the atmosphere for the book immediately;

In present tense first person Lynette describes to the reader every hypothetical danger, every perceived threat or possible motivation of strangers. Whilst this is a hefty dose of Lynette's paranoia, some of these ideas and reactions are ingrained in the minds of all females travelling alone today, making this fiction feel all the more real. I sat reading this in my sunny garden and started to feel anxious myself- and all over a simple journey home. This is what makes Hendrix so bloody great.

The chapters in The Final Girl Support Group (TFGSG from here on, that's a long old title!) are punctuated with various media. Letters, police interviews, movie transcripts and news articles that cover the immediate aftermath for the various women in the support group.

*As a netgalley kindle ARC these were virtually impossible to read as the page images formatted to about 2x3" but I trust Titan will resolve this for the official ebook release.*

I always prefer relevant background detail to be delivered in this way, it enhances the story without forcing unnecessary dialogue from the characters or creating an info dump. TFGSG is set long after each woman's traumatic experience so these media snippets were the perfect way to showcase their histories.

Lynette, the main character, massively irritated me with her attitude and behaviour for most of the book. This was of no detriment to the story, and her actions were understandable given her past- if anything her self absorption and lack of empathy to others made perfect sense but I did not like her at all to begin with.
Actually, I'm not sure I liked any of the characters in TFGSG with the exception of the least prominent two, Dani and Michelle. They were all horribly selfish and entitled, which made this novel all the more fun to read!

TFGSG goes to some very dark places, packed with action, violence and gore, the readers unwind the mystery of who is hunting down the Final Girls. Hendrix wraps up The Final Girl Support Group with a cathartic ending that I very much enjoyed.

So far from Grady Hendrix I've read and loved Horrorstor, My Best Friends Exorcism and now The Final Girl Support Group. With both We Sold Our Souls and The Southern Book Club in my collection waiting to be read, I doubt there's anything Hendrix could write that I wouldn't recommend from the rooftops! I look forward forward completing the canon.

The Final Girl - the one who didn't open the door, the one who is left standing, the one who defeats the killer, but then what? How does the final girl move on with her life and try to live after watching so many of her friends and family die? Introducing... the Final Girl Support Group. For Lynnette and five other final girls, this support group is their saving grace, the only way for them to stay sane and have the opportunity to share their fears and paranoia with the only other people who understand what it is like to survive a real life horror movie.

After sixteen years of safety in the support group, it seems like someone is intent on picking off the final girls one by one. Lynnette goes into survival mode, she has spent years preparing for every possible scenario - but will she live to tell the story?

As a lifelong horror film fan, this book was a joy to read! Jam-packed with references to the films I loved watching over and over as I grew up. Each one of the 'final girls' pays homage to a character in a classic horror film and I loved the additional touch of the chapter headings being a play on horror film and horror sequel titles.

On the surface, this is a fun take on the slasher films of the 70's, 80's and 90's with plenty of tongue-in-cheek references to satisfy anyone who loves the horror genre. However, as you make your way through the story it becomes clear that the book also touches on violence against women and how they deal with that trauma. Each of the characters finding different ways to cope with the events of their past.

I can't remember the last time a book made me smile so much while I was reading, a fantastic and nostalgic tribute to classic horror.

I've always loved the way Grady Hendrix takes a humorous, campy premise and mixes it with actual horror, so of course, I was excited to pick up The Final Girl Support Group. This book is a love letter to slasher movies and especially the women, those final girls who manage to escape. This wasn't the perfect book, and I especially found the social commentary a bit clunky at times, but it was a lot of fun to read, so I'd recommend it to people who love a good slasher horror.

In horror movies, the survivor is nearly always a woman, a final girl, you could say. No one talks about what these final girls do after those tragic events. Lynette Tarkingson survived a massacre twenty-two years ago and, as part of her trauma treatment, has been meeting with five other girls who survived their own unthinkable events. The hope is that they can support each other to put their lives back together, with varying degrees of success. However, everything goes wrong when one of them is murdered. Now the final girls are being hunted.

This book was such a fun read. I sped through it; the fast pace and constant twists made me never want to put it down. If you like Grady Hendrix's other works, or generally enjoy horror that's slightly more quirky, I'd recommend this one. I loved that the characters in the book correlate to final girls from horror movies; it's such a fun easter egg. If you love the slasher genre of horror, you should give this a go.

I also, unfortunately, have very mixed feelings about this book. It wasn't that I didn't enjoy it, because I did, but a lot of the aspects didn't work as well for me as I'd hoped.

The blurb and title of this book lead you to believe that the final girls are going to work and fight together, but the majority of the book is spent with only Lynette. This isn't necessarily a fault of the book itself, but I was surprised that it had been marketed in that way if it wasn't going to deliver. I wanted more interaction between the final girls, especially more backstory and character development for people other than Lynette.

Grady Hendrix often tries to tie in social commentary in his books to varying degrees of success. With The Final Girl Support Group, the feminist messaging felt a little bit hollow at times. There are so many interesting things that could be said about misogyny within the slasher genre, and generally about women in horror. I appreciate that he tried to incorporate these themes, especially considering the majority of the cast were women. I also appreciate that there's a lot of reference to the violence and manipulation women face at the hands of men who hold power over them.

At the same time, it was a little bit too clear cut. Every man is an evil manipulator, and every woman is a victim. I'm not trying to do a #NotAllMen moment here; my real focus is that no matter what these women do, what decisions they make, what horrible acts they commit, it's all brushed away because there were men behind the scenes. I think you can have an analysis of misogyny without completely erasing the autonomy of women. It's difficult to explain because the feminist aspects weren't handled badly, and I respect what Hendrix was doing, but it didn't quite work.

The social themes also didn't quite work because of how other marginalised groups were represented. The only black character is killed immediately; she doesn't get any page time at all. There's a discussion in the book about how she had movies about her story, and she didn't want to hire a black woman to play her because she knew that wouldn't elicit sympathy. Again, I can see where Grady Hendrix was trying to go here, but it falls hollow in a book that also didn't let the black character exist. Another part that sat badly with me was that the Bury Your Gays trope exists in this. One of the final girls is a lesbian, and her wife dies horribly. It's one of the most drawn-out and disturbing scenes in the book, noticeably in comparison to the other deaths. How can a book that's trying to have a social commentary on misogyny fall into this incredibly well known homophobic trope? It didn't seem to have a point to it, so it didn't feel purposeful either. These are small moments in the larger story, but they add together to make the social commentary feel off.

I don't mean for this to be a rant review because I honestly had a good time with this book, and I would recommend it to people who like of genre. Horror is rife with misogyny, and I'm glad Grady Hendrix is trying to discuss that, even if he doesn't always get it right. I'm going to continue to read his work because I love the ideas he comes up with; they're always so much fun. At the same time, I think sensitivity readers need to be hired if he wants to make his social commentary more poignant; the potential is there.

I absolutely loved this book! The movie references were amazing! It gave me vibes of Scream 4. So meta! I’ll. definitely be reading more from this author!

The Final Girl Support Group feels like a love letter to slasher horror films, a book that's written by a fan of the genre for fans of the genre, and one that packs in a host of nods to famous cinematic killers.

The story follows Lynette Tarkington, a woman who lived through two brutal massacres in her youth. She's part of a very special group of people, a group known as Final Girls. These are young women who've gone up against brutal and sadistic killers and lived to tell the tale. Although Lynette sometimes questions if she can really be a Final Girl herself.

Once a month Lynette leaves her specially adapted apartment, which has become a secure prison designed to keep any would-be killers away, to attend a support group meeting with a handful of other survivors. These women, like Lynette, faced off against brutal killers and lived, and killed the killers who were targeting them. Together they've managed to find others who understand the trauma that they've been through; though it doesn't necessarily make them all friends.

When their latest meeting is broken up by the news that one of their own has been murdered Lynette believes that this can only mean they're all in danger. Whilst the others don't believe her claims at first, when other members of the group come under attack Lynette knows that it's only a matter of time before this killer gets her, and sets out to find out who's brave enough to try and take on the ultimate group of survivors before she's the only one left.

For those that are familiar with the tropes of the slasher sub-genre there's a lot to get out of this book. Even within the first few chapters, before anything has really happened, the reader gets treated to characters that are inspired by some of the best leading ladies of horror; and their survival stories bear a striking similarity to some pretty well known films too.

At first I wasn't quite sure what kind of book this was going to be, as when the characters are talking about their slashers and their franchises I started to think that this was some kind of world where film characters live on beyond the end of their films, and that these were those fictional characters. This wasn't helped when Lynette was talking about their franchises being 'rebooted' as if I was supposed to know what she was referring to. After a while, however, it became clear that this was supposed to be a world where these were the women that inspired the slasher films.

The idea that some of the cheesiest, bloodiest horror films around could have been inspired by real events was definitely a more interesting approach. The concept of something as strange as Friday the 13th being based on a real person's life was one that was definitely worth following; and for the most part the book did this well. There were parts where I wished they'd have explored this more, such as the killer that inspired A Nightmare on Elm Street.

For the most part the book isn't about slasher killers, but is instead a tense thriller were we see this one woman fighting to survive in a world where people don't believe her, and where attack could come at any time. Lynette is clearly a capable and competent woman, and over the course of the book we see her bringing plans into place that show that she's been ready for something like this to happen for years. However, because we get inside her head we also see that a lot of this is very much just a surface level thing, and that underneath it all she's a woman dealing with severe trauma and mental health issues.

For me Lynette was a very unusual protagonist, because for a lot of the book I wasn't sure if I liked her or not. She seemed selfish, and even rude at times. She's certain that she's right, and that her way is the only way that's going to work. Yet despite it all she was always worried about her friends, about the other final girls; and is willing to walk into danger in order to help them. She's a flawed and complex hero in a genre that normally has quite one dimensional leads.

The Final Girl Support Group is a book where the author clearly loved the source material that inspired it, and it's a book that horror fans are sure to enjoy. It takes a look at the tropes of the slasher genre and tries to put a real world spin on it, and pretty much does so perfectly. I'd have loved to have spent longer in this universe, learning more about these final girls, as well as the people who stalked them, and how the world sees survivors like this. Sadly, Grady Hendrix couldn't spend longer on this project, as I think it'd have to be a vast tome to fully satisfy me; but then I guess if I'm wanting to read more it shows that the book has really gotten its claws (or knife gloves) into me. Definitely one to pick up.

Grady Hendrix wrote one of my favourite books of 2020 The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, which gave us a spin on the vampire genre. This time he turns his wicked imagination to the slasher horror movie genre with deliciously thrilling results. The Final Girl Support Group is about (clue in the title) the Final Girls, these are the girls who have been through hell and back, screamed up a storm, seen their friends murdered one by one and are the only ones left standing when the credits roll. But what happened next?
The book is a thrill ride from start to finish, there is action, there is horror, it’s relentless and its extremely fun. But it’s not all nonstop action, amidst this thrill fest the book has some real depth and some interesting things to say about victims and the culture of celebrity.

If you love the films Scream, Friday the 13th, Halloween, and the countless other slasher movies then you can tell Hendrix has a genuine love of this genre and he pays homage to them, you will instantly recognise the tropes littered in the narrative and the films they reference. TSBCGTSV had portrayals of strong real women and it’s refreshing to see this portrayal carried into this book. You wouldn’t mess with these girls.
Absolute thrill ride of a book four out of five stars.

“Ever wonder what happens to those final girls? After the cops eliminate them as suspects, after the press releases their brace-faced, pizza-cheeked, bad-hair-day class photos that inevitably get included on the cover of the true crime book?”
– Grady Hendrix, The Final Girl Support Group

🔪I received an e-ARC of this story from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a fair review. The Final Girl Support Group (2021) will release on 13th July!🔪

Grady Hendrix has carved out something of a niche over the years with his loving homages and deconstructions of genre tropes, and his latest offering, titled The Final Girl Support Group, is no different. As he did for religious horror and exorcisms in My Best Friend’s Exorcism (2016) and vampires in The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires (2020), in this outing Hendrix skewers the slasher sub-genre.

The core concept of the story is pretty intriguing, and an original one – so-called “final girls”, women who survived very real horror movie-esque encounters with very human “Monsters”, meet up in Alcoholics Anonymous-style support groups as a way of confronting and processing their experiences. These sessions are led by a doctor named Carol Elliot, and we follow Lynnette Tarkington, a woman who survived an encounter with a murderous Santa Claus one Christmas Eve, and his brother a while after. Each of the final girls have endured their own similar horror movie scenarios, and developed their own methods of coping – one starts a camp for fellow survivors, one turns to drugs and alcohol, and Lynette herself retreats into a half-life of intricate routines and self-isolation.

Personally, I did sometimes feel like the references were a little too on-the-nose for my liking – the backstories of each of the final girls are less “inspired by” popular slasher franchises than they are straight lifted from the source material, and I think I would have liked it better if Hendrix had devised his own slasher setups. From The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween through to Friday the 13th and Scream, these inspirations are transplanted more or less unchanged, with the exception of heroine and killer names.

Ironically, I think the one I wanted most to know more about was the story behind the Gnomecoming killings. I also thought that Heather’s monster and franchise, called The Dream King and Deadly Dreams respectively (both clearly a reference to the A Nightmare on Elm Street series and its killer, Freddy Krueger – again, a bit on-the-nose), introduced some interesting and seemingly supernatural elements, but sadly this was quite a small part of the overall narrative.

I’d read from a few other reviewers that they felt this story may have worked better as a movie than as a book and, at least to a certain degree, I’m inclined to agree – it does have a very filmic aspect to it. The plot is, for the most part, a whodunit thriller rather than a conventional horror or slasher story. When the news hits the support group that one of their number has been brutally murdered, protagonist Lynnette finds herself drawn into an elaborate scheme that appears to be intent on eliminating all of the remaining final girls one-by-one. The bulk of the narrative follows Lynnette as she attempts to put the pieces together whilst fighting to survive and fleeing the law, and so the actual support groups don’t play as much of a role as I’d been expecting.

That isn’t to say I disliked the story though, I felt it moved along at a brisk pace and was highly compelling – I was eager to find out where the plot was headed and who exactly was pulling the strings, if indeed anyone was. That was another element I thoroughly enjoyed: throughout the story, it’s made clear that our hero Lynette has been drastically affected by her own experiences and as such, often comes across as an unreliable narrator. There is a lingering feeling throughout the narrative that maybe there is no great conspiracy, and that the notion of such a scheme is just a result of Lynette’s extreme trauma.

I felt there were plenty of believable red herrings sprinkled throughout which kept things unpredictable, and a constant sense of danger made for a tense read. There is also a strong undercurrent of social commentary as Grady examines the philosophy behind the destruction of the (typically male) monster and the creation represented by the (typically pure, virginal and female) survivor. He explores how such horrific events affect the survivors, how those traumas manifest themselves in later life, and how one never truly gets over something so senseless and brutal. Although the slasher sub-genre takes this to the nth degree, the unavoidable fallout on survivors of violent events is all too real, and the author presents this well.

It’s evident Hendrix truly loves the genre, flaws, warts and all. Beyond the more obvious references of the slasher backstories, there are tons of throwbacks through character names, chapter headings and certain scenes too, and the author’s passion for horror shines through. I think it’s well worth reading for that alone, Grady Hendrix knows his stuff – though you’d already know that if you are at all familiar with his Paperbacks From Hell (2017) non-fiction work – and this really rubs off on his own horror fiction.

VERDICT: Though The Final Girl Support Group is never quite on par with his earlier works, this is still a very good read. The plot is engaging, and although some elements were a little underdeveloped in my opinion, it was a thrilling ride from the first page to the last. It’s easy to see why Hendrix has become a popular mainstay in the genre, and even among readers that don’t usually delve into horror – his writing is accessible, endlessly entertaining, and written with a real fire and understanding of the genre.

It’s a strong ⭐⭐⭐⭐/⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ from this reviewer. I also want to say a humongous thank you to both the author Grady Hendrix, publisher Titan Books, and to NetGalley, for providing the ARC and giving me the chance to read and review it early.

My thanks to Titan Books for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘The Final Girl Support Group’ by Grady Hendrix in return for an honest review.

From publishers: ‘In horror movies, the final girl is the one who’s left standing when the credits roll. The one who fought back, defeated the killer, and avenged her friends. The one who emerges bloodied but victorious. But after the sirens fade and the audience moves on, what happens to her?’

The novel’s narrator is Lynnette Tarkington, who 22-years ago survived a massacre. This tragedy has defined every day of her life since. She lives off the grid in a heavily fortified apartment. For over a decade she and five other ‘final girls’ have been meeting with a therapist in a support group. When one of the women misses a meeting, Lynnette begins to fear that someone knows about the group and is determined to take their lives apart again.

This is a work of meta fiction that focuses on the teen horror/slasher sub genre. The premise is that real life murders were the inspiration for slasher film franchises. Allusions to popular horror films are seeded throughout the narrative.

This was a lot of fun, full of action, though quite gory in places. It abounds in slasher movie tropes and references. While I was aware of many of these, I am sure that I missed some.

I have heard many good things about Grady Hendrix’s writing and have been intending to read his novels for some time. I found this a very smart and darkly comedic novel. I certainly plan to read more of Hendrix’s novels in the near future.

Your love of a movie genre can often depend on your age. The current crop of kids is growing up in a Golden Age of Superhero films, but when I was an impressionable teenager, it was all about the horror films. Halloween, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street and so many others. I bought them all on VHS and watched the countless sequels. I even have a place in my heart for the knowing 90s flicks such as Scream. Grady Hendrix feels like they were a fan too as The Final Girl Support Group asks the reader to believe that the events that created these films were real.

The Final Girl is the title given to the one victim in a slasher film who survives. In the world of Hendrix, these women are real and have matured, but they have not moved on. They are haunted by the events of their past, defined by one night when they were sixteen. Some grow bitter, others become paranoid. They meet every month to discuss their issues, until one time a member is missing. One of the Final Girls has been murdered and it appears that a killer is out for the rest of the group.

As a fan of horror franchises, Final Girls offers so much enjoyment. It is a strange parallel universe where the similar versions of our films exist, but rather than being fiction, they are loosely based on real events. Tropes from vintage horror are all to see. The protagonist is Lynnette, a woman who survived her family being massacred by playing dead. Others in the group survived attacks on their Summer Camp or even believe that the killer struck in their dreams.

In a postmodern world it is interesting to discover what happens to these women once the killing stopped and the films are no longer box office. Lynnette has spent the last decade or so bunkering down in her flat, always with her back to the wall. Other in the group have become addicts, super rich or recluses. In many ways they have deviated from their ‘virgin’ trope and become the goth, the geek, the lover. Have they gone from being the survivor to being a victim?

All these excellent permutations are bubbling along in the background and a horror film fan will notice them. However, there is still the thriller that sits on top. Lynnette story is one of action and thrills as she must decide whether to run from, or at, her demons. It has the feel of a classic horror film, with violent set pieces, red herrings, and surprise kills. This is not an easy style to put on paper, but Hendrix does it perfectly.

Final Girls is one of the best horror thrillers I have read in years, and it reminds me of the tight Dean Koontz early novels that kept an unforgiving pace full of thrills. It also made my synapses constantly snap with the subtle references to horror franchises and tropes that dominated the genre through the late 70s to early 00s. I believe that any reader will enjoy this book as it is a cracking read, but horror films fans will simply adore it as combines the new with the old in 393 perfect pages.