Grady Hendrix is obviously the go-to horror guy of the past few years, but in sort of a "I know the genre" way. He's as likely to write about the genre as write a book in it. This book really drives that home. It's clever, it's referential, but it never lets go of that cinematic feel. For some, that will make it a better experience; for others, it will feel like a fleshed-out screenplay begging to be picked up. The girls are legitimately difficult to keep track of through a big chunk of the book, and he's not as light-handed with his narrator as he could be (to say more would be spoiling), but beyond that, it's a solid thriller, with plenty of twists and turns and possibilities for whodunnit.

I loved the premise of this book. In all slasher films there is always the one girl that either gets away of kills the person that killed all her friends. This is usually the "good girl" that is above reproach during the film. But after the film what happens to these "Final girls"? I love the nod to all of the slasher films throughout the book. I would have like for the characters experiences in the past to have been presented earlier in the book. For me at times the book gets somewhat muddied up and confusing at times. I'm not sure that I liked the interwoven "blog posts" throughout the book and would have like to seen better character development. I didn't always understand the motivation behind these women and therefore I didn't really get invested in them. Having said all that, I would still recommend you read this book. Could they make a slasher movie from the book about the girls that survived the slasher movies? Absolutely.

This book kept me on the edge of my seat! When I thought I knew what was going on Hendrix surprises you and takes you in a new direction. I love Hendrix's writing style. The "final girl" is an interesting part of lore and this book does a great job of exploring what happens to them after they survive and what they will do to survive. I really enjoyed this book.

While slasher films and the final girl trope are at the center of this story, this book is more of a thriller than a horror novel, which isn't a bad thing. Through the group of women who were made famous through their survival we see all the different ways to cope with the trauma-some of which allow for living a real life, and in the case of Lynette, means only ever surviving a daily grind of panic and fear.
The novel is really fast-paced, so much so that occasionally it's hard to tell if the events are plausible or if they feel extra bananas because we're seeing them through Lynette's eyes, and her not entirely trustworthy point of view.
Sometimes all the various horrors addressed in the story start to feel a little bit like being spun around in a bingo ball cage, leaving it a little hard to remember who endured what and what that meant in pop culture. And once you add a dash of social commentary about the fascination with killers and the women who survive them, it's sometimes hard to know if there will be any real kind of resolution for these characters. But the ending is ultimately satisfying even if it feels like it's inevitable that the cycle of violence and public interest in it will endure.

I always enjoy Hendrix's twists on horror and pop culture. I will do a full review after the publication date.

Imagine all of the final girls of the classic slasher films all attend the same support group. These individuals experienced great loss and tremendous trauma, which exhibit themselves in very particular actions and routines in each character's adult life.

Grady Hendrix has crafted our perspective final girl, Lynette, who is considered an outsider even by group members, in that she did not have a final stand against the monster in her story...yet.
She has certainly experienced final girl levels of trauma and violence, and follows a particular set of routines and rules to keep herself safe.

When their therapist says the end of group is coming, Lynette has a strong and negative reaction, especially as she realizes there is someone new targeting the final girls. She takes to the road and seeks to keep her only friends safe from this new threat.

Twists and turns abound. Grady Hendrix has a talent in creating multi-level narratives, and we only get about half way through the story when he completely flips the script. This really provides a summer blockbuster or cinematic experience in the reading, perfect for someone seeking a page-turning and exciting thriller kicked up a notch.

I received this as an early review copy from NetGalley and Berkley. All opinions are my own.

Where do I begin? Oh. My. Goodness! Lynette is the main character. She’s a pitiful, paranoid, loner whose best friend is a houseplant. She talks to the plant and in her mind, the plant talks back. Lynette thinks she’s taken every precaution to keep her whereabouts safe. But, she hasn’t. Someone is after her and will stop at nothing to take her down. Lynette escapes and is on the run from her tormentors and the police is hot on her tail. She realizes that not only her life is in danger but all the final girls in her group. She has to warn everyone, but they all think she’s crazy. Lynette says she knows who is behind the attempts on their lives. Is she right? Could it be the person she thinks it is? This book is non-stop action. I had to put the book down a few times because I started getting anxious with how the book was heading. I had to take a break because The Final Girl Support Group just had me inside Lynettes head, on the run with her to find the truth. You won’t see the ending coming in a million years. I haven’t enjoyed a book like this in quite awhile. I’d give it 10 stars if possible. Buy this book! You won’t be sorry.

For me this book brought up images of Buffy the Vampire Slayer although there are no vampires in this book. No, this book only has human monsters and those who survived them. The premise is that there is a support group for "final girls". So we get to know them and see how they have coped with life in the aftermath of their horrific experiences. All are very different women with different coping mechanisms. Now it seems the group may break up - but wait - someone is starting to kill the members. Who is the monster and will more than one Final Girl survive this time??

I was drawn into this book by the idea of final girls, and although I haven’t watched too many slasher films, I can definitely appreciate the idea of a final girl and what they represent. I was so excited for this book because while I haven’t finished any books by Grady Hendrix (I’ve started The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, but have yet to finish it), this one just sounded SO interesting that I needed to read it ASAP!

Lynnette is a final girl, someone who survived a massacre by killing the monster. Although Lynnette didn’t actually kill her attacker, she still attends a support group with a few other final girls to help them all deal with their trauma. Lynnette is a very paranoid character, always checking for anyone suspicious, covering her tracks, and just being generally cautious. It turns out she’s right to feel paranoid, because she uncovers a plot to kill all the final girls in the group. Or is she wrong? I loved that you couldn’t quite tell if she was an unreliable narrator, and it kept you guessing until the end!

I loved how this was essentially a slasher movie but in book form. It was ridiculous and over the top, and very gory. There were definitely some parts that seemed a little too unrealistic, but I think that was the point.

I read through this so quickly, and I had a really fun time while reading. I never saw the final twist coming, and every time I thought I had it all figured out we would get another twist. There were times were I felt like I was missing some background on the characters because they do relate back to actual slasher film characters and it’s been a LONG time since I’ve seen any slasher movies, and even then not a lot of them.

If you’re someone who loves slasher films, you will probably love this book. If you love humor, horror, and ridiculousness all in one book, I think you’ll enjoy it like I did! I definitely want to read more of this authors books now!

This is a nod to horror movies, final girls, and the super fans of serial killers. It dives DEEP into the mind of those who survive brutal acts, the minds of those who hurt them, and the gory details of mass murders. It isn't for the faint of heart but it was a really fast and gripping read.

This book takes you and a ride and it doesn't let you go. There are twists, there are turns, and there are deeply twisted people. It bordered unreadably gory for me, but in the end; I finished it.

I'm not a huge fan of horror, but I like anything that plays around with tropes, and I kept hearing about this book, so I thought I’d see what it had to offer. In the world of The Final Girl Support Group, a group of real-world “final girls,” each the lone survivor of an 80s slasher-flick-style massacre that was turned into an actual film franchise, meet up together for support group meetings, because who else could understand what they went through? Until suddenly one of their group is murdered. The main character, the hypervigilant and paranoid Lynette, has spent the decades since her original incident preparing for her nightmare to return. And it seems obvious to Lynette that the Final Girls are being targeted.

Lynette’s POV is an interesting, but deeply unstable one. In addition to her hypervigilance, paranoid outlook, and deep distrust of men, she seems to filter everything that happens through the lens of “what happens in horror movies is what happens in real life,” which given the premise of the book and her backstory makes a certain amount of sense. She treats the idea of another “sequel” as a foregone conclusion, and has spent the intervening years doing everything she can to prepare to survive it. She describes the events happening to her and her group as some sort of “crossover.” Which, in a real-world context, seems crazy. But when everything you’d expect to see in a horror movie is the actual backstory, and current events also turn against her, I started to see the setting of the book not so much as a realistic world as a combination real-world and horror-movie pastiche, which makes what seems at first like a delusion a lot more understandable. Also, as the book goes on, you realize that Lynette is an unreliable narrator not just because of her paranoia and skewed worldview - she has secrets to hide, too. The result is that you’re constantly questioning what’s really going on, which sometimes annoys me in fiction but really worked for me in this particular book.

I did see some of the biggest twists coming, but this book still kept me guessing throughout. I don’t know that I’ll necessarily read more horror novels than I used to, but I enjoyed this one.

TW: violence, gore (this should go without saying considering it’s a horror novel but you never know.) Also, if you’re one of those people who can’t deal with an unlikeable narrator, maybe skip this one.

I am a big, way-back fan of Grady Hendrix, and continue to be after this read! I generally do not enjoy horror, but Hendrix's blend of nostalgia, humor and winks to the genre make these fun reads for me. "Final Girl" is more complex, both in plot and themes, than his other novels. Not only does "Final Girl" highlight the cultures we've built around celebrity, tragedy, and fandom, it also speak to our obsession with true crime. What does that obsession mean for our collective character and what does it mean for the survivors of those crimes? The personal/impersonal nature of violence is explored here, too, as are the connections it forges and the connections it severs. Basically, while this is packaged as a slasher story, and is a fantastic homage to the films, it brings a lot more to the table than scares and gore.

Thanks to #Netgalley for an advance copy of this title.

This one's still playing in the back of my mind. It's like watching a crazy homage to the slasher genre given to you by a completely different perspective. It was kind of a blast.

The title tells you what you're getting into. If you're picturing a group of girls (in the 80s/90s-now women) that have survived massacres, you're right! And that's just where we start! The longer you're in the narrator's perspective, the more you question everything. It was like a lesson in paranoia.

The characters all felt like people I'd met before, which got unsettling in the best way! You think you know someone... It's pretty heavy on the feminism, but for once, it actually fits the genre and makes sense within the narrative.

There were a few bumpy, forgivable parts, but the message? It's pretty good, y'all.

My love of Grady Hendrix is real! I have devoured everything the man has written and loved every single one! That being said, this one fell a little flat for me. Still a very enjoyable read but just seemed to be missing something. Does this change of love of Hendrix? Will this single 3.5 star book keep me from being a Hendrix superfan? Absolutely not! My love is still real and I will still buy and read anything this man writes

This book felt a little hard to follow. It felt like the readers at times needed more explanations than we were given. At times it felt like I missed the first book in a series because it took so long to receive back story for some of the final girls.

Any fan of slasher films will know what a final girl is. She’s the nice, sane one who escapes harm for most of the film while her friends and/or family are butchered, only to have a confrontation with the killer at the end. She will be the only survivor of the massacre...unless the killer comes back from the dead over and over in an endless amount of sequels.

The Final Girl Support Group is a...well, it’s just like it sounds: A support group for Final Girls, a group of women in L.A. who have all survived horrible attacks, their tragedies having been turned into movie series offers (and countless sequels).

They meet with a therapist on a monthly basis to discuss the trauma that they still face after years and years of sessions. The monthly sessions seem to have run their course. However, after one of the women doesn’t show up, Final Girl Lynnette Tarkington has a bad feeling.

Turns out she is right to worry. It seems as though someone knows about the group’s therapy sessions, and wants to kill them all.

What proceeds is an often silly and unrealistic journey as Lynnette does crazy thing after crazy thing to try and save herself and the other final girls. Some of it is amusing, and I even chuckled a few times, but other parts were too absurd for me to buy into.

As a fan of some of the 70’s and 80’s slasher classics, what I wholeheartedly appreciate is how author Grady Hendrix paid homage to those films. Several winks are give to the reader. A few examples: Heather is a final girl that inspired the Dream King/Deadly Dreams series (like Heather Langenkamp’s character, Nancy Thomas, in “A Nightmare on Elm Street”). Adrienne worked as a camp counselor at Camp Red Lake (like Adrienne King’s character, Alice, who worked at Camp Crystal Lake in “Friday the 13th”).

The chapter titles are also a fun and clever nod to these films. Examples include: The Final Girl Support Group 3-D, The Final Girl Support Group’s New Nightmare, and my favorite... The Final Girl Support Group XXI: The Final Chapter II.

The final confrontation is a bit long-winded, which also sometimes happens in these slasher movies.

I think plenty of classic slasher/horror fans will gobble this book up, so I definitely suggest they read other reviews and check it out, even if I personally found it to be much more OTT and unrealistic than I expected. I still found it entertaining enough at the end of the day.

Not for the squeamish.

Thank you to Elisha at Berkley for sending me a widget of the ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The book will be published on: 7/13/21.

Review also posted at: https://bonkersforthebooks.wordpress.com

All horror fans will know who final girls are. Those girls who escape the clutches of a murderous monster, killing them, and leaving themselves as the sole survivor. Perhaps films will be made about them. Stories will be published about their experience. But what most do not consider is what happens to these women who are considered final girls after the spotlight begins to fade. Lynnette is one of these final girls. She escaped death not only once, but twice as a teenager. And now as an adult, she is always prepared to save herself again. Living in a sheltered apartment, she only leaves when it is essential and for her Final Girls Support Group. When a fellow final girl misses a meeting, it seems as though the final girls must fight for their lives once again.

This was one of my most anticipated books of 2021, and it did not disappoint. From the first page to the last, I was on the edge of my seat. So many times I thought I figured the mystery out only to be surprised by something new in the next chapter. The mixed-media elements helped in creating the suspense and mystery. I found myself studying them, almost like clues.

The narrator was such an interesting character to follow. She seemed a little unlikable at the beginning, but by the end I felt like I truly understood her and the sentiment of being a final girl. I was also worried I would not connect with the other final girls and their own stories, but once again Hendrix did an amazing job of establishing each girl. They were all individuals connected by their shared experience of being a final girl. Even when they seemed to hate one another, the connection was always felt.

This book is for mystery and horror fans alike. I highly recommend this to anyone looking for a little scare and mystery in their reading.

Often gory, sometimes funny, this is definitely a book for fans of the horror genre and of slasher films. Lynnette was the sole survivor of a massacre over 20 years ago. Her support group of other survivors try to deal with how each of their lives has been impacted by being the only survivors of a rampage. When the girls are targeted the real story begins. This book has so many twists and turns that you will be on the edge of your see trying to figure out who the killer is and how they will survive. A really fun read with a great ending.

Grady Hendrix has done it again with another satisfying horror/thriller! Lynn is what’s known as a “final girl”. Someone who lives while after a serial killer rampage. So how do you cope.? Therapy of course! You just have to be brave enough to leave your house to meet in a secured basement with a few women like you. It seems like just another rowdy session until Adrienne is late. She’s never late.
From here on out it’s a rollercoaster ride of lies, espionage, and of course murder.

This book. This freaking book. Was amazing. I couldn’t stop reading it. I thought I figured out who it was, but I was wrong.

I seriously love this book. I can’t wait for this book to come out. It’s 100% going on my endcap!

That ending. 👀 is there going to be another one?!!!! I would love a sequel!