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A review by _chelseachelsea
The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix
dark
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-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? It's complicated
2.75
Pacing issues, too many characters, a boring narrator, and some deeply unnecessary scenes keep this story from being the great thriller it wants to be. It’s clear that Hendrix set out to make a deep commentary on horror tropes and feminism, but it simply falls flat. In short, The Final Girl Support Group falls victim to its own hype.
First some basic complaints, spoiler-free. For one, there’s very little gore or true horror. This is surprising for a book that is, supposedly, a love letter to slashers. Any intensity Hendrix attempts to build is quickly dissolved by yet another change of location, annoyed conversation between the protagonists, long drive across California, or exposition dump by the narrator. One scene manages to come close to horror, but it’s still bogged down by unbearably slow timing, and comes at a moment when we’ve already been dragged around for what feels like days.
But my real complaint (and there is a bit of spoiler here so proceed with caution) is that, for all the inside jokes and slasher references and unique character backstories Hendrix builds this novel around, there is a shocking lack of originality in the actual unfurling of the plot.
(SPOILERS BEGIN HERE)
I’ll give TFGSG one thing: the cast of characters is more diverse than what we normally see in a thriller. We have some LGBTQ+ representation in Dani, a physically disabled final girl in Julia, a black final girl in Adrienne (though she’s not so much a character as she is the memory of a character who is now dead), which is a nice change of pace.
Unfortunately, we barely get development for these women, in part because Hendrix has tried to write too many final girls into one story, and then picked the worst one to be narrator. By focusing all of our time on Lynette, who is (in my opinion) one of the LEAST interesting FG’s of the group, he robs us of what could have been a very interesting narrative.
Why not write from Heather’s perspective - an addict who survived a trauma apparently so twisted that Hendricks couldn’t even be bothered to give us any details about it - and tell the story of her being dragged into a movie she doesn’t want to be part of?
Why not give the story to Adrienne - the black woman who rises from the ashes of a massacre and builds her life around empowering other survivors to advocate for each other?
Why not tell us more from Dani - the tough as nails queer survivor who will do anything to protect her fellow Final Girls?
By stripping away the deeply fascinating layers of his most intriguing characters, by boiling the script down to a standard “red herring meets plot twist meets second plot twist,” by cramming so many slasher references into the story that it becomes distracting and confusing, Hendrix doesn’t make nearly the statement he wants to. He doesn’t say anything different than what Wes Craven or John Carpenter have already covered.
And, like the final villain in this stop-and-go, overly drawn out novel, he’s not as smart as he thinks he is.
First some basic complaints, spoiler-free. For one, there’s very little gore or true horror. This is surprising for a book that is, supposedly, a love letter to slashers. Any intensity Hendrix attempts to build is quickly dissolved by yet another change of location, annoyed conversation between the protagonists, long drive across California, or exposition dump by the narrator. One scene manages to come close to horror, but it’s still bogged down by unbearably slow timing, and comes at a moment when we’ve already been dragged around for what feels like days.
But my real complaint (and there is a bit of spoiler here so proceed with caution) is that, for all the inside jokes and slasher references and unique character backstories Hendrix builds this novel around, there is a shocking lack of originality in the actual unfurling of the plot.
(SPOILERS BEGIN HERE)
I’ll give TFGSG one thing: the cast of characters is more diverse than what we normally see in a thriller. We have some LGBTQ+ representation in Dani, a physically disabled final girl in Julia, a black final girl in Adrienne (though she’s not so much a character as she is the memory of a character who is now dead), which is a nice change of pace.
Unfortunately, we barely get development for these women, in part because Hendrix has tried to write too many final girls into one story, and then picked the worst one to be narrator. By focusing all of our time on Lynette, who is (in my opinion) one of the LEAST interesting FG’s of the group, he robs us of what could have been a very interesting narrative.
Why not write from Heather’s perspective - an addict who survived a trauma apparently so twisted that Hendricks couldn’t even be bothered to give us any details about it - and tell the story of her being dragged into a movie she doesn’t want to be part of?
Why not give the story to Adrienne - the black woman who rises from the ashes of a massacre and builds her life around empowering other survivors to advocate for each other?
Why not tell us more from Dani - the tough as nails queer survivor who will do anything to protect her fellow Final Girls?
By stripping away the deeply fascinating layers of his most intriguing characters, by boiling the script down to a standard “red herring meets plot twist meets second plot twist,” by cramming so many slasher references into the story that it becomes distracting and confusing, Hendrix doesn’t make nearly the statement he wants to. He doesn’t say anything different than what Wes Craven or John Carpenter have already covered.
And, like the final villain in this stop-and-go, overly drawn out novel, he’s not as smart as he thinks he is.