Reviews tagging 'Torture'

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix

154 reviews

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

dblue236's review

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

enyltiak's review against another edition

adventurous 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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I loved this book—I didn't want to put it down as I was desperate to find out what was going on, but I also really didn't want it to end. This is really a book for horror movie (especially slasher horror) lovers, and in particular will be a fun read for Scream fans. 

I think this book is incredibly divisive when it comes to the representation of the female characters—some think it's flawless, some think it's offensively dreadful—but truly it's just... fine. I think a female author would have more nuance, something different and interesting to say that a man can't understand, but Hendrix clearly wrote these characters with the consideration that they're people, not objects, and so I really didn't have a problem with it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Violence, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Blood, Kidnapping, Cancer, Gore, Gun violence, and Mental illness

concon95's review

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 against another edition

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

dreamofbookspines's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes

3.5

Couldn't enjoy it because I kept feeling like there was subtext I was missing, and the descriptions of violence were way more brutal than expected. But damned if it wasn't a good time. Twists and humor sprinkled in really kept things moving.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Torture

raichoreads's review

funny fast-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

1.5

I found this book to be very disappointing. This felt like a not so fun amalgamation of disjointed, shallow, and boring. I sadly ended up skimming the latter half of the book, which I’ll admit probably also tainted my experience, but it was just not engaging enough. And this is maybe too particular of me, but Hendrix’s writing style frustrated me. He would regularly describe a character’s action that is meaningful in context, and then turn around and explain that it’s meaningful. I found this read to be exhausting because it felt like it didn’t trust its audience and didn’t really know what it wanted to say other than making a bunch of slasher references.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Torture

Moderate: Death

narbine's review against another edition

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

3.25

interesting premise. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Murder, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Misogyny, Torture, Death, Abandonment, Blood, Mental illness, and Grief

Moderate: Addiction, Confinement, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Child death, and Stalking

cssquared's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

5.0

I had high expectations and it lived up to the hype. The characters were highly developed and the story was exciting. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Addiction, Child death, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Stalking, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, Body horror, Death, Murder, Violence, Torture, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, Drug abuse, Gore, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Rape

win_bin's review

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Cannibalism, Body horror, Drug abuse, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Murder, Physical abuse, Suicide, Cancer, Child death, Grief, Terminal illness, Addiction, Blood, Car accident, Gore, Kidnapping, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Stalking, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, and Violence