Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix

29 reviews

wolf013's review

dark emotional 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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Murder, Car accident, Child death, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, Violence, Chronic illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Ableism, Stalking, Vomit, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Drug use, Mass/school shootings, and Drug abuse

apestforwrens's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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

4.75

Slow start but worth it. Our heroine takes a little time to warm up to, but do not let that discourage you. This is coming from someone who does not like horror: I loved this book.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Blood, Physical abuse, Medical content, Misogyny, Death, Gun violence, Murder, Mental illness, and Grief

Moderate: Chronic illness, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Medical content, Police brutality, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Animal death, Cancer, Confinement, Gaslighting, Panic attacks/disorders, Car accident, Child abuse, Cursing, Mental illness, and Abandonment

Its a slasher, there is genre typical content. Because it takes place from within the heroine's head, there is some derealization.

arys_library's review

challenging mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

This book wasn’t exactly what I was expecting but even then, I still liked it. I expected a fast paced, gripping, gory horror novel. Instead it felt more like a thriller; even though the plot of the book is definitely for a horror novel. It wasn’t very gory either. I heard and saw multiple times that Grady Hendrix’s books were gory and kept you up at night, and weren’t for horror beginners. But I disagree. It was a good and gripping book but it was pretty easy for a horror novel, and there wasn’t much gore at all. 

But onto the characters. This was one of those books that even if you didn’t see the authors name, you could tell it was written by a man. The women were unlikeable and petty in this book, which is fair and a lot of books with unlikeable characters are great. But these characters had no personality at all. They were bland and petty and besides their backstories, these women can be morphed into one simply because of their lack of personality. 

SPOILERS START HERE! This book is 100% about women. But the one man in this book turns out to hate the women so much that he becomes the main focus and person behind all of this is just bad. And the girl that helped him only helped him because she was insanely love with him, which shows a lot about Hendrix’s opinions of women. That they’re petty and all the same, that they’re such followers and need a man to do everything. I feel like if the characterse were better, this could be close to a 5 star read

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Cancer, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Addiction, Gun violence, Mental illness, Body horror, Chronic illness, Cursing, and Gaslighting

Minor: Vomit and Grief

phaas's review

dark 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Torture, Cancer, Child death, Blood, Body horror, Death, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Gun violence, Addiction, and Alcoholism

Minor: Excrement, Mass/school shootings, and Vomit

c_dmckinney's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.25

It was very tense and anxious read, which makes sense given these characters are expies of heroines who survived horrible things.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, Alcohol, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Child death, Police brutality, Stalking, and Violence

theakilahbrown's review

dark 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

4.0

 
This was a fast read for me, in that I burned through about half of it in one day. The premise is basically "What if horror movies were real? What happens to those final girls after their movies are over?" The short answer is that they would form a support group. The long answer is that the horror is never truly over for them for a variety of reasons.

This is a horror book that critiques horror books, so, on the one hand, a lot of the commentary was on point, but on the other hand, I found myself wishing at times that it wasn't a *horror* book so that the point could be made in other ways, but that's not really the point of the book. As much as it is about movie monsters, it's also about real life monsters and the impact they have on the women (and children) they harm and what the glorification of movie monsters means. So, basically, it's like Scream but with a feminist bent.

I thought Lynnette was an interesting choice of a main character for many reasons, but one of the big ones is that she's not a "true" final girl because she didn't kill her monster like the other women did, and she also has the smallest life and is the most paranoid. I think there was a missed opportunity for Hendrix to get into WHY the other women made different choices because it almost seems like he's saying Lynnette made the right choice, which I don't necessarily agree with. There also should have been way more female friendship stuff in here, but it is there so I can't complain too much.

Those are relatively minor quibbles, though. I liked the book overall and thought it was smart and engaging. I wasn't sure at first how I felt about the ending, especially who the real life monster turned out to be, but the more I think about it, the more I like and appreciate it, so there's also that.

Some quotes:

Does this ever end? Will there always be someone out there turning little boys into monsters? Will we always be final girls? Will there always be monsters killing us?

I won't let messed-up parents keep making monsters, and I won't let these boys keep making more final girls. It's not some profound and ancient ritual. It's just a waste of life.

All in all, I would recommend it, especially if you're a fan of horror movies and/or badass women. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Panic attacks/disorders, Death, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Stalking, Violence, and Gore

Moderate: Chronic illness and Addiction

Minor: Rape, Animal cruelty, Pedophilia, and Sexual violence

ashleyjapan's review

dark hopeful lighthearted tense medium-paced

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

3.75

This book started hella tropey and almost threw me off, but I stuck with it and am glad because it brought me to a very satisfying ending. The writing is definitely compelling and managed to keep my interest despite a week of overwork and exhaustion. If this isn’t the book for you though, that’s okay, I understand. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Death, Grief, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Cancer, Chronic illness, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, and Misogyny

Minor: Mass/school shootings and Adult/minor relationship

isabellecollum's review

dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, and Violence

house_of_hannah's review

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. 

---

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

rachelt18's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Cannibalism, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Cancer, Child death, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Mass/school shootings, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Vomit, Cursing, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, and Adult/minor relationship