Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix

157 reviews

kazy's review against another edition

adventurous 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? Yes

4.25

a thrilling, fast-paced homage to the slasher genre and their final girls, whose main characters are middle-aged women surviving their trauma with scars fully on display. 
really enjoyed! it’s always fun to see things that are so clearly love letters from the author to the genre itself (not without its own criticism of the genre as well). it certainly felt like watching a contemporary slasher movie, the kind made by someone who’s seen every one and had some notes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Gun violence, Cancer, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, Child death, Death of parent, Violence, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Torture, Hate crime, Mass/school shootings, and Misogyny

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Sexism, and Mental illness

Minor: Ableism, Pedophilia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Suicide, Cannibalism, Drug abuse, and Incest

mentions of victim blaming (both external and heavily internal),

mental health professionals violating patient’s trust

, extreme agoraphobia.

A lesbian dies through terminal illness. the black character dies first, though remains relevant to the plot and characters throughout the rest of the book. adult men taking advantage of traumatized young women, including minors, including a man who knew the girls’ father before he died and used his death as a jumping off point to groom her. one of the final girls (though not of the main group) is in a relationship with her slasher, and another is accused of conspiring with hers to kill her family as well as sleeping with him. one of the girls is mentioned to have been “forced to wear a suit made of human skin” during her traumatizing event. at least two young children are explicitly murdered violently, the murder isn’t described in extreme detail but with enough description to fully understand what happened. Someone’s diary/vent journal/mental health exercise is published without their consent.

justmys's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child death, Cursing, Vomit, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Violence, Torture, Murder, Misogyny, Stalking, Terminal illness, Sexual content, Body horror, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, and Sexism

Moderate: Confinement, Car accident, Cursing, Suicide attempt, Medical content, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Toxic friendship, Adult/minor relationship, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

Not sure if I'll actively search out to read any more by Grady Hendrix. This is only my second book and it feels a little...icky? For lack of a better term. He's so determined to have women go through such harrowing events and it's just starting to feel like...like every other man making a living off of women's suffering????? Maybe the others are different but for now I need a break.

bluestar_apologist's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Gun violence, Sexism, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, Ableism, Child death, Cursing, Drug abuse, Misogyny, Drug use, Grief, Medical content, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Terminal illness

sarahbrianne's review against another edition

Honestly I love the idea of this book, but living inside the main character’s made me feel more mentally ill than I already am

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders and Mental illness

Moderate: Murder

Minor: Child death, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Addiction, Death, Stalking, and Violence

90centspaghet's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny hopeful tense slow-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

1.75

This book was slow to get into…hence it took me fully out of reading for a bit and 3 months to finish…but the second half was compelling and adventurous. It was quite mysterious and I liked how you had to attribute things back to real horror works and slashers. Unfortunately the slow start really pushes it down in the ratings significantly for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Terminal illness, Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Grief, Mental illness, Medical content, Murder, Blood, Death of parent, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Classism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, and Violence

ccoterie's review against another edition

2.0

God. Where to even begin with this book? The premise is strong and paves the way for a compelling look into the slasher genre and its final girls. It's clear (perhaps too clear, some references were basically direct copies) that Hendrix loves the genre. And yet I can't tell what this book was going for. There are a lot of details that left me baffled (not including racist stereotypes - I get that the book is an homage to classic slashers, but some tropes can die) or, as I look back on them, confused about their inclusion. I think this book could've benefitted from cutting a few plot points or picking a clearer tone.
The beginning involved a lot of starts and stops as I texted my friends my newest hesitation. I couldn't get into Lynn as a protagonist. Her mindset was certainly understandable, sometimes her paranoia was uncomfortably familiar, but something seemed off. It felt like an "I'm not like other girls" would've fit perfectly - there were some lines that got pretty close. Without a concrete reason to believe her mindset, Lynn just got on my nerves. The middle rectified this issue, providing a fast-paced action thriller that made her compelling. Chrissy marked another turning point.

I understand the reasons behind her inclusion - everything she has going on has potential. However, her mysticism, murderabilia, and boyfriend didn't have any payoff. They were all loose threads making more of a vessel for the author to get a message across than an actual character. I still can't understand why she was written to be so narratively cluttered. Her scene did not have to be as long as it was considering her sole purpose.

The ending left a lot unresolved for me, mostly regarding its mental health themes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Cancer, Confinement, Gore, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Blood, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Toxic friendship and Vomit

Minor: Addiction, Drug use, Racism, Drug abuse, and Mass/school shootings

The protagonist has codependent and paranoid thoughts/behaviors.

concon95's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Murder, Mass/school shootings, Gun violence, Violence, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Blood

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, and Death of parent

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Addiction, Car accident, Grief, Cancer, Vomit, and Police brutality

laurenexploresbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

This was a challenging work for me. I personally did not find this work to be enjoyable due to the mass amount of gore and trauma porn throughout the work. I appreciated the last 20 percent of the work, but again I felt like I did not fully get to connect with characters within this work. I kept going out of anger and horror than enjoyment. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Murder, Vomit, Gun violence, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Death, Stalking, and Child death

alexdefel513's review against another edition

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Car accident, Death, Gun violence, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, and Stalking

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Mental illness, Addiction, Alcoholism, and Ableism

bwest6377's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.5

I wanted to love this book but found myself struggling to finish it. I really loved the concept but there were so many details the story became hard to follow. I did enjoy the twist and the final chapter, but the middle/main scene lost my mind interest because it felt way too minor detail oriented rather than focused on the main plot, like a flashback scene in a movie. I would 100% watch a movie adaptation of this book, but just unfortunately not my favorite 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Gun violence, Grief, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Death of parent

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury