Cover Image: The Final Girl Support Group

The Final Girl Support Group

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Member Reviews

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.

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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!

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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.

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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).

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What happens to those ‘final girls’.? The sole survivors of a mass murder? Well they join a support group specifically targeted to them and their needs, of course!
I was initially underwhelmed with this novel, feeling like I had read other books like this and it couldn’t possibly be any different. Boy, was I wrong! This story is told from the point of view of Lynette, one of the ‘final girls’. What happens when someone begins targeting all of the final girls for murder? Who has targeted these survivors ten years after joining this support group? These women now have each other, and they are determined, led by Lynette, to not be victims again.
Fast-paced, original, with nods to ‘80’s slasher movies, Grady Hendrix puts a unique and original spin on the typical serial killer novel. For horror fans and mystery fans, this book will keep you guessing about the killer’s identity until the last few pages.

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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.

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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

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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!

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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!

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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.

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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. :)

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Mr. Hendrix might be my favorite deconstructionist horror/humor writer on the planet. I love his characters, and it seems as though he comes at them from a place of knowledge and affection; it's clear that he writes what he knows. His viewing habits must be terrifying.

Once again present here is the Hendrix mix of nostalgia and sheer terror, and with an intimidating number of strong and complex characters to write, he does not back down.

On occasion, his books can, in my opinion, lag in the second act - not so here. If anything, the brutally weird left turn off the highway that is the penultimate section of this book is maybe the most compelling - while being satisfying for the reader, the character's actions make you immediately question why, and only good books can do that.

I will highly recommend this to horror readers in my library when it hits the shelves.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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Hendrix has used the final girl theme to create a gripping, clever horror story. The callbacks to classic slasher films are sure to appeal to any horror film buffs, but the exploration of trauma and resilience push it past a generic slasher tale. Once again, Hendrix provides us with a thrilling, character-driven journey.

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As usual, this lived up to Grady Hendrix standards. Pleasantly amusing, and not at all predictable. I liked that the main character had some moral ambiguity, especially when it came to her survival. Highly recommend, even to non-horror readers.

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Do you love old B slasher movies? Do you love screaming “Don’t run up the stairs! You’re going to die!” While simultaneously yelling at the TV in anger and gripping so tightly on your chair that the stuffing comes out? Are you a horror flick junkie that realizes you know more about murder and escape than all your friends and neighbors? Well, pull up a chair. Get cozy. Stay awhile... or 20 years,, but remember there’s no crosstalk or <i>killer</i> interventions promised here, but we do have good news...

<i>The Final Girls Support Group</i> is DEFINITELY for you!

Have you ever wondered what it would be like, or feel like to have the worst thing that could ever happen to you in your whole life, happen to you when you were 16? How do you come back from that? Adjust to the world around you? Trust anyone? How must it feel to realize that dying was easy, but living - REALLY LIVING- was hard as heck?! Enter the support group. Survivors supporting survivors ... or it’s what it SHOULD be, until it’s penned by Grady Hendrix, and then you’ve got horror 2.0!

This gem works as a showcase to all those battered and bruised “final girls” out there, and how these women show just how tough and resilient as well as adaptable they really are.

This is an emotional rollercoaster of highs and lows that will have you hiding under your blanket, yet peeking out as to not miss a single minute of the nonstop action.

This is one you won’t want to miss!

Thank you so much to #Netgalley, #BerkleyPublishingGroup, and the talented @Grady_Hendrix for the ARC in exchange for my honest reviews.

A full review will be posted on my blog http://OceansOfBooks.com when this awesome book is released July 13, 2021. If I were you, I’d go ahead and pre-order mine today!

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The Final Girl Support Group started out intriguing and compelling to read, but somewhere it seemed to take a turn and in the end just sort of ended up being "meh" and just OK. Definitely think that I prefer Hendrix's early books to this one.

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