Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix

34 reviews

ns4's review

dark slow-paced

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

2.5

The concept was interesting and led me to pick up the book, but the narrator is so paranoid and disorganized that I couldn’t enjoy it, as well as the plot not flowing together in a way that made sense nor did anything suck me in to want to read on beyond just finishing the book. Slasher fans might enjoy the idea of a support group for final girls, but I was bored and not engaged at all.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Violence, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Vomit

Minor: Sexual violence

megancrayne's review

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Torture, Stalking, Violence, Body horror, Cancer, Child death, Medical trauma, Terminal illness, Sexual violence, Rape, Blood, Death, Addiction, Mental illness, Fire/Fire injury, and Panic attacks/disorders

cursed_sapphire's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Fun, gripping, and action-packed, this book kept me on the edge of my seat. I was never sure what was going to happen next, and the themes of breaking a cycle of violence were compelling. Very much a blink-and-you'll-miss-it book, but that also meant certain details didn't add up to me- perhaps I wasn't paying close enough attention to certain details, but certain plot points and character motivations slightly confused me. Also disappointed that, for a horror book, this wasn't the least bit scary- I recommend going in expecting an action thriller, you'll have a better time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Mental illness, Cancer, Gun violence, Violence, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Stalking, Murder, and Blood

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Alcohol, Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Mental illness, Gore, Addiction, Sexual violence, Kidnapping, and Injury/Injury detail

nialiversuch's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Addiction, Body shaming, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Toxic friendship, Medical content, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Ableism, Violence, Police brutality, Blood, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Stalking, Abandonment, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Body horror, Cancer, Confinement, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Sexual assault, Rape, Sexual violence, and Homophobia

ronnieb's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

Trigger Warning: Sexual Violence, Death of Family on the page, Descriptions of blood and body harm, Suicide, Cancer

I have really conflicting feelings about this which leads to my 3-star rating. The story follows our main character Lynnette who was part of a massacre in the 80s and now belongs to a group of other women who survived this same thing. The way this is described and they are all characterized is my first issue with the book. If you are a horror movie, specifically Slasher films, the references in this book are galore. It is pretty obvious which real-world franchise each character is supposed to emulate and it does become a bit unbelievable at points. Obviously, this kind of book requires some amount of suspension of disbelief but for me as a reader to believe that these multiple women went through multiple attacks/massacres like a Scream or Halloween just was a lot. I am a slasher film fan and it is much easier for me to do that for those films than it was for me to do that for this novel. The number of times they would mention the movies, books, and the term “Final Girl” as they relate to this group would just pull me out of the story at times. 

I also found our main character to be unlikable which is fine but she was also so annoying and kind of dumb. I see why she is characterized this way as it makes sense to her arc and it is satisfying but being in her head was difficult during some pages of this book. The other characters were mostly fine but there were a lot of characters and keeping them straight and their individual stories straight was difficult at points (especially when it comes to all the women in the group and the attack they went through). I think if the book included a pseudo-cast list in the beginning almost as a table of contents that would have helped a lot. It also would have fit thematically with the book as it really reads as if the events taking place on the page were a movie playing out. 

My final point of discussion is relating to the pacing/plot of the book. I will say the book surprised me with almost every twist and turn except our final one. However, they all had a very low impact as I realized that I was just not invested or cared that much. Looking back the twists make sense though and the overall pace is fine. I think it does sag toward the middle a bit but the beginning and ending is interesting in my opinion. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Body horror, Cancer, and Blood

Moderate: Sexual violence and Suicide

kllyholt's review

dark medium-paced

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

2.0

The premise was so interesting, yet it was very obvious to me that this was not written from a woman’s perspective. 
Don’t recommend. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Mass/school shootings, Kidnapping, Murder, Stalking, Gun violence, Violence, Sexual violence, and Gaslighting

laguerrelewis's review

dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-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

Final Girl Support Group works on many levels. It’s a feminist reframing of horror tropes. It’s a love letter to every Final Girl. It’s a protest to a culture of violence and dehumanization. It’s also a very good thriller. The only reasons it’s not rated higher is because it could’ve been improved by a more diverse lens of womanhood (all of our protagonists are white) and beyond our POV character, the others were hard to get a full read on until the end. The ending though is Top Notch. If the premise is at all appealing, this is worth the read!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Police brutality, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, Child death, Death, Abandonment, Cursing, Gore, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Stalking, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Medical content, Sexual violence, Drug abuse, and Racism

c_dmckinney's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

I think it would have been a little better with a female author.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcohol, Child death, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Murder, Torture, Gun violence, Police brutality, Stalking, Classism, Cursing, Death, Sexism, Toxic friendship, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Death of parent, Grief, Misogyny, Child abuse, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Alcoholism, Blood, Cancer, Gore, and Emotional abuse

travelseatsreads's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

3.5/5

A great fun read which plays of many horror/slasher tropes but I felt the end got a little too Rambo-ish for my liking which distracted from my enjoyment of some great twists.

I really enjoyed Grady's writing style though so will be going back for more.

Full review to come.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Torture, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Police brutality, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Cancer, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gore, Toxic friendship, Grief, and Stalking

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Cannibalism, Addiction, Alcoholism, and Animal death

uraveragelesbianreader's review

challenging dark funny 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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I read this book in two hours on a train ride and honestly I think this is the best way to read this book. It was not good, the plot was not highly logical (although I think this was mostly on purpose) and the characters are odd but I actually didn't hate this book. It did mostly everything it was supposed to, it was almost written like a scream of a book. It feels like it should be a movie that you watch once on a plane and then never think about deeply again and I think if it was in that format I would have liked it a lot more. Firstly to address the illogical plot, I don't think this book was TRYING to be realistic, it reads like a comic book and I think that is not trying to be a serious book. None of what happens is realistic which I generally can enjoy but in this book I think it often becomes lost in its own sauce which ruined my enjoyment. This book does do a good job parading old tropey horror and the trope of the final girl, I think the themes are done well and aren't overly heavy handed. I did not find any of the characters uniquely compelling, but I didn't HATE any of them either, overall I felt very neutral towards most of the characters. The plot twists in this book feel either TOO well earned or out of nowhere. Partially I believe this is because we are reading from the perspective of a paranoid narrator. But at points it often feels like the twists are not earned by the plot and if they were they would have been much much more enjoyable. Plot points come at you too fast and it feels like whiplash whipping you around chapter to chapter instead of a slower plot. This doesn't mean I thought the PACE was bad, I think the pace actually served the novel more than hurt it but just because a book is fast paced doesn't mean it has to be rushed in its delivery of the plot. If every chapter was just a few more pages I think it would increase my rating of this book significantly. The characters in this book were also mixed for me. They were definitely flawed but somehow not also complex?? It is almost impressive how the main characters of the novel were flawed and they acted on those flaws but not in ways that are logical. I think this could have been solved if we got a little more screen time on certain characters to see their motivations. This is the specific situation that has occurred throughout the whole novel, there was a lot of telling not showing. Oftentimes the author just quite literally TELLS you what the theme is and what the message is instead of it being more implicit. I also found the ending to not be satisfying or enjoyable for me as a reader. It felt rushed, fake and honestly just rung wrong for me. Overall, I did enjoy this book and it was not a horrible read in the sense of enjoyment. As a reader I tend to read more for enjoyment which is why this book makes 3.5 stars for me, if your someone who reads purely for enjoyment and enjoys horror comedy (because I did oftentimes find this book funny, on purpose or not) then you will like this. However if you are someone who reads more for the literary aspect or any of the early concerns mentioned in my review sounds like dealbreakers turn back now. It is a hyper specific book in the same way that slasher/final girl horror (Think the scream franchise) is hyper specific. If that sounds like something you're into then you will probably enjoy this book, if it doesn't then you will hate this book and should turn back now.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Sexism, Sexual violence, and Injury/Injury detail