Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix

195 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.

rainbownp's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

The book was very interesting at points but had many periods where it just felt insane. I honestly started questioning so many things because it was all over the place.  The premise was very good and it was not horribly written, just not great. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Murder, Death of parent, Blood, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Alcoholism, Cancer, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, Addiction, and Self harm

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Mass/school shootings, Suicidal thoughts, and Terminal illness

andrearutz98's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

1.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Body horror, Death, and Physical abuse

Minor: Cannibalism, Kidnapping, Addiction, Death of parent, Gun violence, Animal cruelty, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Child death, Drug use, and Excrement

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

dblue236's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

5.0

Trigger warnings: Graphic violence, mass murder, gun violence, violence against women, gore, sexual abuse of a minor by an adult. 

If you are easily upset or scared, this book is one hundred percent NOT FOR YOU. I cannot stress this fact enough. While it is clearly a work of fiction, it is full of murder and gore and stalking and violence against women and if any of those things are a problem for you, you would be best served to never pick this up. Having said that, while it was definitely not an easy read for much of it, I really enjoyed the story and it kept me guessing straight through until the end. As a pretty much lifelong fan of slasher flicks and horror movies, I really enjoyed this, but it is definitely for a fairly specific audience.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death of parent, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Torture, Mass/school shootings, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Terminal illness, Addiction, and Cancer

Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Vomit, Panic attacks/disorders, and Adult/minor relationship

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

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

tiffanne11's review

tense fast-paced

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

2.75

The first 70% or so of this book was a great thriller. Our cast of characters are "final girls", reminiscent of the last one standing in a slasher film but they lived through these traumas. The main character, Lynnette, copes with excessive paranoia, locking herself away and not getting attached to anyone. 
Everything changes when one of the members of their group is killed. No one is sure who they can trust and Lynnette runs. 
The majority of the book is building up this tension about who is hunting the final girls and why. As a reader, you are wondering if it is all in her head or if there is a killer out there orchestrating this whole thing. 
Unfortunately, the "reveal" makes no sense. It's not evidenced in the text. You couldn't figure it out, and that is not what makes a good twist. A good twist is one that makes all of the pieces slot in together and make sense. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Medical trauma, Mass/school shootings, Gun violence, Stalking, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Gore, Mental illness, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Ableism, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Vomit, Violence, Torture, Kidnapping, and Death of parent

bwest6377's review

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