Reviews with content warning for Cursing - The Final Girl Support Group

In my own personal opinion, this book is garbage. It is the most graphic, viscious and depraved book that I've ever read.
The only reason that I read it was because it was a gift box book. I am sure that there are fans of the horror genre that have read this and enjoyed it, and I am sorry to disagree with them. I read it to the end, even as difficult as it was, and am kind of glad that I did as the end was the only tiny flicker of light in the entire book. The descriptions of the slayings are so horrendous that I am afraid I skipped through most of them. The characters are a depraved and vicious lot. At some primal level, I can understand how anyone that had gone through and seen the horrors that these girls have lived through would forever be scarred and unable to function normally. It is the most extreme form of PTSD that there is. That at least came through loud and clear in this book. Each of the victims had their own coping mechanisms, and each relied on their group therapy to help them through it. That all makes sense, but to have to live through what each of them saw and experienced was too much for me. I know there are monsters in this world, but I don't have to get to know them as well as I came to know the monsters in this book.

Content Warnings

flufficorn's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

The first third of this book excited me, as I realized I had never read/listened to a book like this. But at some point near the half way mark, I found myself struggling to stay interested. I think it is because I eventually realized that there are a lot of reasons I lost interest in the Slasher sub-genre of films, and this story falls victim to those reasons and still expects me to think they are asking me to question the genre through their end-of-chapter quote blocks. That part of the story felt phoned-in. If the author really wanted the reader to question the concept the The Final Girl and the Slasher sub-genre, they would have had Lynette question herself and her actions more. Instead, Lynette found justification for all of her behavior. To that end, this book might have some kind of commentary about group therapy/trauma therapy, but it isn't a commentary that I picked up on.

A lot of reviews mention that this story is very predictable. While I did not specifically predict any particular plot point, between my knowledge of Slasher genre tropes and the clue crumbs left by the author, nothing in the story was particularly shocking or unexpected. The characters felt flat and one-dimensional to me, but Lynette did some healing at the very end there. Femme characters written by cis-men always fall flat to me, and this story was no different in that department.

This story positions itself as something questioning the inherent misogyny of the Slasher genre and our relationship to it as media consumers, but is really just a Slasher genre story that wants you to think it is smarter than it is.

Content Warnings

chasingpages1's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad tense 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

3.5

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