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A review by root
The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
medium-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
4.5
I loved this book. The story is inherently about someone who has survived horrific trauma--she is an unreliable narrator with interpersonal issues as a result. It is not just about current events in the book, it is about how trauma survivors' lives change drastically because of what they experienced and how they are trapped in the past even as they deal with the present.
The majority of the "plot twists" are not plot twists so much as the product of an unreliable narrator jumping to conclusions about small things that, if you look at the actual evidence she is using, is utterly meaningless or at least is missing details. Because she is not just reacting to what's happening now--peppered in are comparisons of people who look like someone else, how she trusts them or wants to keep them safe because they remind her of people, how she distrusts others for the same reason.
I think that itself makes the book outstanding, to depict a variety of very real reactions to trauma in such an accurate way, including their flaws. It is a testimony to the fact that being hurt does not make you inherently better at surviving: it can also make you that much more vulnerable and unsafe. It is a very real look at the effects of trauma, and a good critique of how the true crime community and of the horror genre turn real events into mindless entertainment at the detriment and suffering of real, living people.
Criticisms of the book would be the following:
It is a very rudimentary, white feminist perspective of the world that goes exactly one layer deep in gender politics which is "man evil, violent inherently" and "girl (not woman) innocent, dainty, victim." Even the author's attempted subversion of it still ultimately played back into this rather elementary understanding of the sociopolitical effects of gender. It's very "girlhood is grief" in its angle.
The very few times race is brought up is...unfortunate. Listen, I just don't think that a white author can place a Single Black character in horror media without it being a bit weird. His choice was essentially to have the Black character die or have the Black character live but being chased down and tormented by a white man. Neither of which reflect very well. You either have to have multiple Black characters with different outcomes or it's just not good. Or I don't know, just as side characters that aren't involved. I would have taken that too. Anyway the way the author handled the race topic was...not great. It tried to be progressive about it but just failed spectacularly.
The last point is something I've seen others bring up. Although the author was presenting a criticism of how the true crime community and horror in general utilize real events and make references to external stories, he was also simultaneously doing the same thing. I understood what the author was trying to do with this. He was trying to show that the book itself is Also That, that the reader should be cognizant that THEY are being criticized and that their consumption of the book itself is participatory in this exact thing. But it wasn't done well so the message was lost on a lot of people and so it just felt flat. I appreciated the sentiment, though.
The majority of the "plot twists" are not plot twists so much as the product of an unreliable narrator jumping to conclusions about small things that, if you look at the actual evidence she is using, is utterly meaningless or at least is missing details. Because she is not just reacting to what's happening now--peppered in are comparisons of people who look like someone else, how she trusts them or wants to keep them safe because they remind her of people, how she distrusts others for the same reason.
I think that itself makes the book outstanding, to depict a variety of very real reactions to trauma in such an accurate way, including their flaws. It is a testimony to the fact that being hurt does not make you inherently better at surviving: it can also make you that much more vulnerable and unsafe. It is a very real look at the effects of trauma, and a good critique of how the true crime community and of the horror genre turn real events into mindless entertainment at the detriment and suffering of real, living people.
Criticisms of the book would be the following:
It is a very rudimentary, white feminist perspective of the world that goes exactly one layer deep in gender politics which is "man evil, violent inherently" and "girl (not woman) innocent, dainty, victim." Even the author's attempted subversion of it still ultimately played back into this rather elementary understanding of the sociopolitical effects of gender. It's very "girlhood is grief" in its angle.
The very few times race is brought up is...unfortunate. Listen, I just don't think that a white author can place a Single Black character in horror media without it being a bit weird. His choice was essentially to have the Black character die or have the Black character live but being chased down and tormented by a white man. Neither of which reflect very well. You either have to have multiple Black characters with different outcomes or it's just not good. Or I don't know, just as side characters that aren't involved. I would have taken that too. Anyway the way the author handled the race topic was...not great. It tried to be progressive about it but just failed spectacularly.
The last point is something I've seen others bring up. Although the author was presenting a criticism of how the true crime community and horror in general utilize real events and make references to external stories, he was also simultaneously doing the same thing. I understood what the author was trying to do with this. He was trying to show that the book itself is Also That, that the reader should be cognizant that THEY are being criticized and that their consumption of the book itself is participatory in this exact thing. But it wasn't done well so the message was lost on a lot of people and so it just felt flat. I appreciated the sentiment, though.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Torture, Stalking, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Mass/school shootings, and Gore
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship
Minor: Racism and Suicide