Hendrix's take on the concept of finals girls in the modern day is brutal, interesting, and honest. This was a page turner and a quick read.

This was spooky, terrifying and so timely. I read this when the new Handmaid's Tale season came out and wow, some of the parallel themes really opened my eyes...

Oh man this was such great take on the 80’s slasher horror genre and how to give it a real human element and answering the question of what happens after the movie to the final girl. How does she live a normal life when the most horrific thing that could happen to you happens when you are 16 and how to you move on and don’t turn into a shut-in. We have all these final girls whose cases in the 80’s was then used as inspiration for all the classic franchises that made 80’s horror amazing. I love how Grady took all the major franchises like Friday 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Silent Night, Deadly Night and gave them real victims and showed how messed up they still are by what happened to them and how they have learned to cope with infamy and selling their story to make money. And that some of their killers are still behind bars while some are dead and there is only a small group of final girls left. You really feel for these victims and the text is broken up with news articles, case interviews and excerpts from books written about the cases or the women and how exploitative the genre was with its violence against women. It explores what the women do when one of them is murdered by the nephew of the original killer and realize that someone is after all the final girls. So just really well done and I thoroughly enjoyed this.

Thanks to Berkley and Netgalley for the complimentary copy of this book in e-book form. All opinions in this review are my own.

What happens when the movie credits roll? What happens in the aftermath to that final survivor? To that final girl?

Lynette is a member of an exclusive support group headed by psychologist Dr. Carol. All the members of the support group are final girls, or the girl who is the only survivor in a horrible tragedy that spawns horror film franchises. However, when a final girl ends up dead, it becomes obvious to Lynnette that the remaining final girls are being hunted down. Who is stalking them? Who wants them to pay? Why are they coming after them now? Doesn’t matter, because the final girls never give up. Too bad the killer didn’t know that.

This is the first book of Grady Hendrix’s I have read, but it won’t be the last. Part horror, part thriller, The Final Girls Support Group will send readers on a wild-ride full of twists and turns. I found the concept of “what happens after” to be compelling. What happens after the story ends? What happens to the survivors? I thought it was interesting how the author explored this concept, and it created a great backdrop for the book.

Lynnette was a complex character. Readers will love her at times, and will hate her at others. Every time she made a stupid decision, or did something that made me cringe, I reminded myself of the tragedy she survived. In the end though, I think readers will be happy with Lynnette as a MC, and will appreciate her growth throughout the story.

This book is not for the faint of heart. Yes, it is part thriller but make no mistake, this is a horror book at its core. Moreover, the MCs are final girls for a reason. Some of the events these women have lived through are harsh, and while I don’t think the author goes into unnecessary detail, there is some gory details. Using the CG scale, where 1 is reading a book and having no reaction and 10 is hanging over the toilet like a crippled goose, I would put this book at a solid 7.5.

This book is perfect for any fan of 80s slasher flicks or Riley Sager’s Final Girls. Readers should preparre for a wild ride. 4.25 stars.

I received a free digital ARC from NetGalley and Berkley in exchange for an honest review.

FINAL GIRLS. I first heard this term a few years ago and it always intrigued me. I love Grady Hendrix so I was doubly excited to read this book. I really enjoyed it!

Lynette is a part of a special support group for Final Girls - girls who, mostly in the 80s, not only escaped the deranged lunatic serial killer but fought him off and were the last woman standing... except that the deranged lunatic serial killer also lived. They're all looking over their shoulders for the day he'll come back a second (or third or fourth, for some girls) time. Lynette ... is a different than the others, though. She lives her live looking over her right shoulder, then her left shoulder, then up ahead and AHA! back again, doubling back to make sure she didn't miss anything, swopping into the alleyway to see if anyone passes her twice, etc etc. She leaves her apartment to go to group (Final Girl Support Group, that is) once a month and not much else. Her apartment is high enough to be safe from intruders but low enough for her to jump from a window if need be, and even has a high tech security cage once you enter it, so that no one can sneak up on her.

On the day that sets the story going, one of the girls in group (Adrienne) doesn't show up, and it's news that there's been more killings at the same camp where Adrienne became a Final Girl. We learn about a new Final Girl, Stephanie, who Lynette feels a compulsion to protect. We follow Lynette as she makes more and more crazy decisions, all based on her fear that their killers are hunting for them, that there's a conspiracy against all the Final Girls in play, and that it's her duty to protect everyone.

I enjoyed the story and Lynette, even when she exasperated me and when I wasn't sure if I could trust her or not. She's sure of a conspiracy against her and the other girls, and no one believes her, leading her to make more and more moves that paint her as the crazy PTSD girl. But will those moves turn out to be necessary in the end?!

I liked reading all the different ways that Lynette thinks about her safety on a day to day basis. "One is none, and two is one." I feel bad saying this, but I was craving a little more gore and horror from the backstories of the girls. Maybe I'd be the horrible fangirl the book tells us about if these girls were real life, but I wanted more, damnit! We had a Scream-a-like, a Halloween-a-like, a Friday the 13th-a-like, and I'm forgetting the others because I needed more.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book. I think it was a great premise and well-written. I do want to say that at first I thought the premise was exactly like Riley Sager's Final Girls, but Hendrix does something much more interesting by having all of the final girls be friends with each other, moreso group therapy confidantes than friends, but still it made this book all the more interesting.

I liked Lynette at first, but with each detail we learn about her past it made her slightly less likeable.

I understand this is meant to be a mystery/thriller, but many times the author buried the lead in giving us the final girls' back stories or detailing their trauma they went through. Many times the author would just mention a killer's name as if the audience was supposed to know who it was. Other times the back stories for the women were given through newspaper clippings, scripts from interviews, or paragraphs from criticism of slasher movies. I also felt there were two or three more final girls than necessary. and it was a bit difficult to keep track of everyone.

Despite the above, I truly could not put this down. This kept me guessing until the very end. It was a slow build, and then once the middle hit, it was a race for me to finish. The killer/killers were truly surprising, although I wish there was a bit more motive on their ends, but I guess deranged individuals that decide to go on a mass killing spree are less rational beings than others.

Thank you netgalley for giving me an e-galley in exchange for my honest review. This was dark and funny like Grady Hendrix books are. I love the horror movie tropes, and guessing which final girl goes with which classic slasher movie. But this book and this author is so smart, the layers that are added, with just the short newspaper and magazine clippings elevate it to another level, taking it to a treatise on feminist culture, without losing the horror. I will read everything Grady Hendrix writes.

A final girl. The last girl standing after a brutal, horrific slaughter. The girl who takes out the killer. So what happens when a group of "final girls" meet together years after the separate traumatizing events that brought them together? And what do they do when they discover there's a new type of killer-one that hunts final girls.

Well, that was one wild ride! I honestly didn't anticipate all the twists and turns this book took. Some of the dark humor rubbed me the wrong way and there was a handful of moments that just felt so over the top (the run-in at the "crazy" cabin in the woods). But overall this was highly readable considering the fact that I finished it in 3 days! A fun, twisty, darkly humorous thriller that shocks and appalls!

I haven't read the Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires but I saw it around bookish spaces last year. Everyone seemed to enjoy it so I took a chance and requested the author's latest book. I thought a change of pace with a "Final Girl" book would be good since I love "Good for her!" stories. However, I didn't expect the characters to be old? I honestly thought they'd be, at most, in their mid-30s. I just couldn't relate to the older people vibe. When reading, I realized the characters are more Laurie Strode in Halloween 2018 than the original one. This is a case of "not for me," so others might like it.

I requested this ARC because I enjoyed Grady Hendrix's Horrorstor and was in the mood for something in this genre. I was blown away! I cannot say enough about the tone of the book being spot on and how much I appreciated the age of the characters. So often in "final girl" novels the character(s) are beautiful traumatized women in their early 20's, but here they are mature middle aged women! I loved the deep character building Hendrix provided for each character, not just Lynnette, and especailly appreciated the diversity of the cast. The extra layer that each "final girl" was also the survivor of a sequel gave the novel even of dark dry humor. Spree killing is not funny, but it can be ironic. Crazy Chrissy and public's focus on murderabilia grounded the book and gave it a social focus, why is the public so fixated on muder? Why do they glorify the murderers? Why do they monitize the victims and the survivors? The plot twists were great and Lynnette's paranoia ad second guessing lead the reading down sevearl wrong paths, but eventually ended in a satisifying truth. I highly recommend this book to fans of horror, domestic drama, psycholocial thrillers and true crime (even though it isn't true).

This was a fun, exciting ride of a novel that humanizes the eponymous final girls beautifully. Grady Hendrix takes one of horror's most beloved tropes -- the final girl -- and challenges readers to view them a real. broken, flawed women while weaving an intricate plot full of action and slaughter.

as a slasher film enthusiast this was really fun, i liked that each character had a final girl story that was basically a classic slasher girl film but just a bit more realistic. i think the only thing was that the story felt a little long around the 60%-70% mark and a lot of that chunk could be taken out because it felt really long and i just feel like a lot of it wasn’t needed. this book was super fun tho like i said, i have to go back and read his book from last year and i definitely can’t wait to see what he does this year

Grady Hendrix never disappoints! Somehow, he always finds a way to keep me guessing. The Final Girl Support Group, like the rest of Hendrix’s oeuvre, is a fun, thrilling page-turner where no one is safe. As a horror film fan, I especially liked the loving nods to some of the genre’s biggest films and monsters. If you’ve ever wondered how final girls get on with their lives after the camera stops rolling, you’ll love this book!

Grady Hendrix doesn't ever seem to disappoint. I've read some of their other titles and love the slow burn, creepy realism of the the supernatural that they bring to otherwise mundane life. That is not the case in "The Final Girl Support Group". You get a few chapters to introduce you to the paralyzing fear, paranoia and unhealthy coping mechanisms of these broken women who have survived real horror before you are racing at breakneck speed to outrun your worst nightmare. I loved this ride from start to finish and found myself able to empathize with every single character, a surprise to even my jaded, horror reading self! If you love creepy, unrelenting dread as you root for the "final girl", definitely pick this one up and enjoy the thrill ride!

This one is for every fan of slasher franchises and final girls.

Once again, Grady Hendrix delivers a perfect blend of humor, horror, and heart. This time, he's also serving up a bit of horror pop culture critique (that's also a valentine to the genre). This one's become one of my favorite Hendrix novels, and I'm pretty sure it's going to be one of my favorites of the year.

3.5 stars rounded up. Read this one in 24 hours! Definitely a page turner. My only critique of the book is that it gets a bit confusing at times. It was hard to tell what each woman’s story was, and which movies were made about their lives. The characters sort of were hard to tell apart from each other. I also wish they wouldn’t have had each chapter start with an interview or news article. The print on my Kindle was so teeny that I had to take photos of the article with my phone and zoom in on them. I wish each woman’s story had been told as a section starter so we got to know them better. I didn’t love being confused at multiple points in the book when a new “final girl” was talked about. Especially Chrissy and Stephanie. Those two felt thrown in and I had to go back and remember who they were.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my advanced copy. All views are my own. :)

Lynette meets with a group of women who like herself were the last surving victims of a mass murder spree. She is paranoid and lives in an apartment that is like a panic room, only venturing out for her support group. It seems someone is targeting the final girls in her suppport group, as one goes missing and then Lynette's apartment is the target of bullets. Soon Lynette is on the run from the police and her attacker. She has to warn the other final girls but they don't want to listen to her. There are lots of red herrings along the way but the ending was a surprise. Throughout the book there are interviews, emails and other supporting documents that detail the the crimes the women survived. The only part that bothered me was after Lynette left jail, she presented herself as a therapist. How would she be believed after sitting in a jail for days? She would be a mess and not professional at all! Other than that I really enjoyed this horror story of the final girls.

This book was a wild ride from the first page to the last, and I was enthralled the whole time.

If you grew up in the 80s and 90s like me, or are a connoisseur of classic slasher films, there will be a lot to recognize and love in this book. The author, who is very familiar with horror tropes, uses these tropes as the backstories for the final girls. The final girls have all survived the unthinkable, and in the course of this book they have to confront the demons of their pasts and come together to survive once and for all. What you end up with is a supremely feminist plot that turns horror tropes on their head.

I have read several books by this author, because the plots sound amazing and like they’d be right up my alley. Unfortunately, several of those books (notably The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires) just didn’t deliver for me (why the obsession with mentioning public hair OVER AND OVER?). Fortunately, this was not the case with The Final Girl Support Group. This book was everything I hoped it would be, smartly funny and entertaining the whole way through. The author’s affection for the genre shone through, and it’s clear he had a ball writing this book. Fans of horror and suspense will eat this up, just like I did.

Thanks to NetGalley for giving me an ARC of this book!

I originally gave it 3.5 stars but after sitting on it, I decided to give it 4. I'm a huge fan of Hendrix's work and after [book:The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires|44074800] I had super high hopes for this one. It didn't click with me the way Southern Book Club did though, but that might be because even though I'm a massive fan of horror, slashers aren't exactly my favorite subgenre. I did enjoy the nods to slasher films, especially having the final girls be from popular franchises like Halloween, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Scream, but some might find it derivative and too on the nose. But I did really enjoy how it looked into how these franchises affected the final girls. There were also excerpts from interviews and books between each chapter, which unfortunately were very hard to read on the Kindle in the ARC because the print was so small, and they were pictures so it took more finagling than just increasing the font to read them.

Lynette, the main character, was very layered and frustrating. It was hard to root for her with some of the choices that she made, but as you found out more about her story, it was easier to sympathize with her situation and understandable how she came to be the way she was. The other final girls ranged from pretty cool but not in the book much, to super easy to hate and in the book a lot. This didn't make for a super pleasant reading experience, but I get it. In the end, the book was definitely a love letter to the slasher genre and hit all the beats of a good slasher, so I can appreciate it. I just don't think this particular work of his was totally for me.

Grady Hendrix at his best! All kids of 80's horror. Loved the story and the twist at the end was perfect.