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A review by versmonesprit
The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix
adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I am well and truly dumbfounded by the poor reviews which claim everything from faux-feminist takes to boredom, which makes me wonder if all of us read the same book or not. Because the book I read was so well-written (and unexpectedly lovely) I could barely function in my daily life: all I wanted was to get back to The Final Girl Support Group. I didn’t want to get off public transport, I didn’t want to sleep or shower, I didn’t want to have to work. Pretty sure back in my freelance days this would have been a single day’s read!
From the very first page on, this was FUN. Lynette’s voice and unhealthy thought patterns were a delight to read. Equally fun was figuring out which slasher movie each character’s based on! If you love slashers like I do, and appreciate how camp they are, you will love TFGSG. (Honestly, I suspect you might be a bit too cishet if you don’t enjoy this book — it’s that camp!)
But this itself is not a slasher book. There are some gory scenes, but don’t go into it expecting a true slasher. In its self-awareness and comedic approach it was very reminiscent of Scream, though!
Hendrix is a great writer for nailing things that would be completely fumbled up by most authors. We are introduced to the full cast during one of their group therapies, which goes south as the tensions among the women turn the session into a battleground. Their arguments establish not only their characters, but their dynamics too. We are given a whole past without being info-dumped, and it flows oh so naturally. Whereas many writers fail to create high tension action scenes, Hendrix once again does not miss a beat.
Lynette is a whacky person most of the time, and seeing as reading an unhinged woman is one of my favourite activities, there’s little wonder I was engrossed. The twists gave me whiplash, and I loved every moment of it too.
I’ve seen complaints that the writing feels like a man pretending to be a feminist and failing, and I’m baffled. Hendrix incorporates some very interesting analyses of slashers, depicts the various facets of male violence, gives so much power to his female characters without forgoing their humanity (since when are portrayals of strong women who have emotional depths and complexities anti-feminist??) and weaves a beautiful tale of sisterhood.
So what fell short? The ending where it felt a bit like the characters were pretending the aggressor was some sort of victim too. And this is hard to word without going into too much detail, but there was a HUGE missed opportunity to describe a “crime scene” based on A Nightmare on Elm Street, in that it was not described, at all, beyond “it’s worse than the survivor told”. And this clearly isn’t a choice to omit any violent description, because we are indeed told what Lynette survived (though not in a lot of details). By the end of the book, this survivor is out and about, and Lynette proposes perhaps she is hunting the killer. I’ll say this much: we really, really need a “spin off” book on that!
In short, this is a super entertaining meta horror that’s impossible to put down and that would be an easy 5/5 for anyone who isn’t as insufferably particular as I am.
From the very first page on, this was FUN. Lynette’s voice and unhealthy thought patterns were a delight to read. Equally fun was figuring out which slasher movie each character’s based on! If you love slashers like I do, and appreciate how camp they are, you will love TFGSG. (Honestly, I suspect you might be a bit too cishet if you don’t enjoy this book — it’s that camp!)
But this itself is not a slasher book. There are some gory scenes, but don’t go into it expecting a true slasher. In its self-awareness and comedic approach it was very reminiscent of Scream, though!
Hendrix is a great writer for nailing things that would be completely fumbled up by most authors. We are introduced to the full cast during one of their group therapies, which goes south as the tensions among the women turn the session into a battleground. Their arguments establish not only their characters, but their dynamics too. We are given a whole past without being info-dumped, and it flows oh so naturally. Whereas many writers fail to create high tension action scenes, Hendrix once again does not miss a beat.
Lynette is a whacky person most of the time, and seeing as reading an unhinged woman is one of my favourite activities, there’s little wonder I was engrossed. The twists gave me whiplash, and I loved every moment of it too.
I’ve seen complaints that the writing feels like a man pretending to be a feminist and failing, and I’m baffled. Hendrix incorporates some very interesting analyses of slashers, depicts the various facets of male violence, gives so much power to his female characters without forgoing their humanity (since when are portrayals of strong women who have emotional depths and complexities anti-feminist??) and weaves a beautiful tale of sisterhood.
So what fell short? The ending where it felt a bit like the characters were pretending the aggressor was some sort of victim too. And this is hard to word without going into too much detail, but there was a HUGE missed opportunity to describe a “crime scene” based on A Nightmare on Elm Street, in that it was not described, at all, beyond “it’s worse than the survivor told”. And this clearly isn’t a choice to omit any violent description, because we are indeed told what Lynette survived (though not in a lot of details). By the end of the book, this survivor is out and about, and Lynette proposes perhaps she is hunting the killer. I’ll say this much: we really, really need a “spin off” book on that!
In short, this is a super entertaining meta horror that’s impossible to put down and that would be an easy 5/5 for anyone who isn’t as insufferably particular as I am.