Reviews with content warning for Gore - The Last Final Girl

I'm sad to have to give this one a low rating, but the style really didn't work for me - the screenplay-style writing made the book really hard to follow. The plot was ok but definitely would have been more effective in a regular novel style, at least in terms of being able to follow what was happening.

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erollinus's review

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challenging dark 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

3.75

Hard to get into at first - helps to imagine it as camera instructions for a movie and imagine along.

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readthesparrow's review

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dark mysterious fast-paced

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

2.75

Style is interesting, and on a technical prose level is is excellent. However, the heavy references can make it difficult to follow at times, even for a horror/slasher lover. Style, despite being interesting and being thematically appropriate, was also difficult to follow at times and often exhausting, even for a 200 page novel. Normally I would blaze through a 200 page novel, but this took me five days to read because I could only get through around 20-40 pages at a time before having to take a break.

Liked the story and the characters, but it was just. Too much at times.

Also,

the final college epilogue was really goofy. Did I like it? Eh. Sure. It's camp.

I think I was mostly just glad it was over.

Interesting to see the bones it shares with MHIACS.

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bkwrm1317's review

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dark funny 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

4.0

What a fun read this was. SGJ hasn’t disappointed me yet, and this was a different setup than the other novels of his I’ve read. Definitely going to need to work my way through his back catalog.

Laugh out loud darkly funny, and a great slasher that is simultaneously making good fun of the genre.

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missbreathing's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Immediately after finishing Don’t Fear The Reaper, I decided I needed to read something else by Stephen Graham Jones. I just wasn’t ready to say goodbye to his writing.
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His 2012 meta slasher, The Last Final Girl, is on KU, so I decided to read it. It was so interesting to read a meta slasher by SGJ that preceded My Heart Is A Chainsaw by almost a decade! This one is even heavier on the meta angle and the slasher film references, something I frankly did not think possible. 😅 It’s obvious the author has in-depth knowledge of the genre.
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This novel has a unique format. It’s not-quite-a-script in that it uses the first person plural and relies more on descriptions and actions than internal thoughts. It’s akin to someone narrating the experience of watching a movie.
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It’s not as gory as I’ve come to expect from SGJ, but the handful of gore scenes it did have were unique and memorable.
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This was just the read I needed to follow up Don’t Fear the Reaper (which, in case you were wondering, I am still not over. At all.)

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frannysal's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

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krzzykitty92's review

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dark funny fast-paced

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

4.5

It’s a fun, fast paced horror set up like a screenplay with all the beloved slasher movie tropes and plot twists.
A lot of fun to read once you get used to the format, the first 54 pages is the perfect marker.
SGJ brings his amazing gore, humor, and there is a turtle!

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navayiota's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

The writing of this book is so unique and meta, I really liked it. I loved the use of tropes and self awareness, really just super interesting. The only reason I gave it 3 stars is I don't like slashers, so I found it a bit boring sometimes. It being an audiobook really helped.

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