Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix

69 reviews

seawarrior's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Having only read Hendrix's first novel, I didn't have high hopes for the quality of writing within this one. Thankfully Hendrix has impressively grown as a writer over the years, and most of my qualms about the characterization, or lack thereof, I might find within the book were settled. Lynnette is an interesting and whirlwind protagonist for many reasons. She's intensely paranoid but makes one poor decision after another, resulting in a ricocheting plot that hardly allows the reader to catch their breath. She's also immensely unlikable, but despite her selfish, judgmental and avoidant nature I found myself understanding and forgiving one of her mistakes after another. 

Hendrix has a lot to say about horror franchises and their repetitive, exploitative and misogynistic nature, most of which is done through the characterization and dialogue of Lynnette and the other woman of the Final Girl Support Group. In between chapters various fictional archival interviews and journal articles are plastered to the pages, adding to the realism of the story and to the mythology surrounding this group of survivors and their monsters. For the most part I felt this was done very well. I only felt dissatisfied with Heather's characterization; she serves as a stereotypical "junkie" figure and is widely disrespected by both the characters within the book and the narrative that gave them life. What she survived and how is also defined the least, which only becomes more disappointing as the book continues. The other women's stories are revealed in segments, by their own admissions, Lynnette's memories, or their respective archives. Since each of them were inspired by an existing horror franchise most readers can assume the bulk of the violence they witnessed and endured, negating the need to force the women to rehash the most traumatic moments of their lives. Lynnette is the only character who has in depth flashbacks of her encounters with her monster after a tortuous accusation of who was truly responsible for her family's slaughter. 

The book primarily focuses on Lynnette's efforts to survive in the present, while attempting to solve the mystery of who wants the Final Girls finally gone. Pieces of this puzzle were fairly obvious to me, while others came as a surprise. Ultimately though, the villains, their motivations, and their weapon of choice, all serve to make a statement about mass violence and horror franchises as a whole. This is a love letter to horror, but a scathing one, fully aware of its flaws and refusing to hold back. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Torture, Terminal illness, Stalking, Police brutality, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Misogyny, Mass/school shootings, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Gore, Grief, Blood, Confinement, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Car accident, Child death, Drug abuse, Excrement, Infidelity, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

house_of_hannah's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This could have been a 4 star read as I quite enjoyed the plot, but the characters were just insufferable. The main group of final girls we are introduced to at the beginning range in age from late 30s to early 50s as their trauma happened in the 70s & 80s. However, they acted like catty high school girls, and argued over the most petty things. I'm not sure if this was done in a "their trauma happened when they were teens, so they are stuck mentally at that age" thing or what, but it was really hard to picture them as older women. 

On a positive note, this is a very readable book, and I found myself flying through the pages quite quickly. It flows well, has great pacing, and the chapters are the perfect length. This is also a mixed media book, as at the beginning of each chapter there is an article, transcript, or even a reddit post that gives some insight to the backstories of the characters. 

Overall, this was a promising book, but I just found it too difficult to look past how annoying the characters were. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Cancer, Violence, Toxic relationship, Terminal illness, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Bullying, Suicidal thoughts, Police brutality, and Kidnapping

Minor: Drug abuse, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Vomit, and Pedophilia

hngoodlett's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

keen's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cancer, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Child death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture

Minor: Mass/school shootings, Racism, and Sexual assault

literary_vic's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship

traciereads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Alcohol, Animal death, Cannibalism, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Stalking, and Vomit

romiress's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

I enjoyed it, but I have mixed feelings. I feel like the pacing suffered a bit and took a while to really get going. It just didn't hook me the way I expected it to.

Also, her mental illness is cured in the last chapter by brain damage.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, and Violence

Moderate: Addiction, Excrement, Medical content, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Mass/school shootings

moz_art's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Thought it was weird this book about violence against women is written from the women’s perspective by a man. I thought it was bad and not in a campy way but just like straight up poorly written and glossed over a lot of important stuff.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Car accident, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexism

Moderate: Addiction, Blood, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, and Panic attacks/disorders

mommarex1221's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

A wild af ride with an end I didn't see coming, slasher movie references were awesome. I never knew I could love a plant so much. 😅

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Cancer, Car accident, Confinement, Death, Excrement, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Car accident, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Vomit

Minor: Addiction, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, and Mass/school shootings

toofondofbooks_'s review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I'll say this for sure about TFGSG - I was never bored. However, I was often extremely confused. As always, I will start off with positives. I thought that the pacing of the book was sharp and there was always something going on. This book did not let me breathe. The whole thing was messy and chaotic, dark and sometimes funny in a quintessentially Grady Hendrix way. I thought every "final girl" in the group was a strong addition to the story and I think Heather and Dani were my favorites. A really nice touch were the newspaper and media clippings throughout the book that helped tell the story and also provided meaningful commentary to the phenomenon surrounding these "final girls."

My gripes aren't really that big. Really, the main one is that Lynette can be so maddening to read at times. She is so traumatized that living in her head was sometimes suffocating and insufferable. I had some issues with her as a character too, but that didn't necessarily affect my enjoyment of the book because my enjoyment does not usually hinge on a protagonist being likable. Something that was hard for me throughout the book was keeping track of every girl's story. I wrote down what I could, but some girls in the group got lost in the shuffle. I cannot definitively tell you what Heather's backstory is as a result of this. Just a LOT going on.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Car accident, Child death, Cancer, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Excrement, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Medical content, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Vomit, and Mass/school shootings

Minor: Mass/school shootings