Review: The Final Girl Support Group

4 stars. Wow, what a wild ride! This was super all over the place, unexpected, breathtaking, action-packed, gritty, and full of all the twists and turns one can expect from a book directly inspired by slasher horror movies. This is horror for fans of horror - fans like me, who aren't just interested in the surface-level stories but also the driving forces within and around the industry and the history and the audience. Fans who like to be "in the know" when it comes to the details, fans who will enjoy the Easter Eggs and clever references and recognize the tropes.

Every horror fan knows about the final girl: the ultimate victim... the survivor. But what happens after the fact, when the blood dries, the news dies down and the monster faces justice? What is she left with? Serious trauma, and the fragile support of her fellow final girls. This book explores, through the lens of an action-packed thriller, what that trauma, recovery and justice would look like in a world that isn't a movie with a happy (?) ending. Spoiler alert: it's messy. Lynnette, our narrator and protagonist, is absolutely shattered when she learns that her carefully-curated existence is under threat. Moving on instinct, fear and determination, she ends up on a crazy mission to save herself and keep her fellow final girls alive, once more, at a horrific cost.

It sounds so grim, and it kind of is. These are big, big themes wrapped up in a clever premise with unlikeable characters. I found it to be really unpredictable and unreliable even though you know to expect, like, a red herring here, a fake fatality there, a twist around the corner. It's incredibly violent and twisted and ugly... stylishly brutal. Hendrix is a master at the "nobody except the audience believes her" thing and some moments really made me squirm in angst. But it's also, honestly, super fun. Almost meta in execution. It's self-aware and darkly funny at times and I loved the dynamic among the final girls group, all of them weird and unhealthy in their own ways, so far from the classic, beautiful, resourceful slasher heroines depicted in Hollywood.

I especially loved Chrissy. Her small yet memorable appearance was beautiful and uncomfortable. As a super fan of slashers and true crime, two "industries" that often focus on (and exploit) crimes against women, I do sometimes ask myself why I'm so fascinated, and what equals too far. I don't think Hendrix is offering any answers here, but he leans into what makes horror movie endings so satisfying and thrilling and why we return to them again and again. Maybe it's not the death depicted, but the life saved.

I docked a star because sometimes things got really random, or I felt like I was missing context. There were a lot of "who wait what now?" moments that will probably be smoothed over in an inevitable adaptation. I can't wait, by the way. This story might be even better as the very thing it examines, satirizes, and references. For now, Grady Hendrix continues his winning streak as a must-read author for me.

The Final Girl Support Group on: Amazon | Bookshop.org | Goodreads