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A review by maxierosalee
The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
3.5/5
______________
I'm not a horror person, so I wouldn't say this is the kind of book I usually read. I was intrigued by Grady Hendrix, though. I had heard copious amounts of praise for his books, and the premise of his books sounded interesting to me, even though I am not really into the genre. Even as someone who doesn't watch horror, however, I am familiar with the tropes and really famous movies, which grabbed my attention.
So, how do I feel about the book after finally reading?
It was...a decent book. Between "okay" and "good." Here's a breakdown of what I think, no spoilers:
What I Liked
+ Really cool premise. The setup is really neat: a group of final girls based on famous real-world horror slashers have to deal with the aftermath of the slayings, surviving and witnessing horrible atrocities done to their loved ones. But what happens after the credits roll? How would a "final girl" from all of those famous movies go on throughout the rest of their life being a "final girl"? All while the story acts as a deconstruction and commentary on the final girl trope in general? That sounds amazing to me.
+ I enjoyed the brisk writing. Maybe it helped that I was reading [book:Galilee|52639] by Clive Barker at the same time as this book (yes, I'm one of those weirdos who reads multiple books at the same time), and it was nice to read something where the prose was more casual and interpersonal, but not in a way that felt juvenile to me. It was short, snappy, and full of personality.
+ This is sort of a double-edged sword, but the fast pace made this a vigorous read. And despite my issues with it, it was gripping in its own way, and I found myself reading on to see what would happen next.
+ Lynette, the main character, does genuinely feel like a flawed person struggling with trauma. I appreciate how Hendrix explores the ways that her trauma affected her while still making her make genuine mistakes and bad calls. It makes for an interesting character.
+ The fake-out for the plot twist was pretty good, I totally fell for it.
+ While this book didn't scare me, there were actual parts that were pretty tense and had me on edge. These are probably my favorite parts of the book and the ones that had me gripped the most.
+ If you're interested in horror but don't want to read anything too hardcore or upsetting, this is a great book to read. There are moments of violence and descriptions of gore, but they did not push me into the "discomfort and want to put this down" zone. It wasn't overly detailed or made me sick. And I really appreciate that there are books like that!
Now, onto the cons...
- This book felt like a case of "really cool premise, lackluster execution."
- The characters all dealing with their trauma in different ways is something that probably needed more time to flesh out because, in the end, it didn't feel very immersive.
- The meta-commentary for the book, as cool of a concept as it was, very much felt a little too on-the-nose. It broke the immersion. In a deconstruction, we're supposed to believe that these things actually happened to these girls, because the whole point of deconstruction is to analyze the workings of a commonly accepted trope and analyze how it would actually be played out in real life. But when the commentary is too obvious and too trite, it lessens the impact of it and we're left with a bunch of characters talking about the obvious without us being invested in it. There's an extended scene with a character called Chrissy that illustrates this perfectly, in my opinion. I can't take your "analysis" seriously when I'm rolling my eyes at the poorly written dialogue.
- Adding to the last point, the commentary of the books should have been better integrated into the story itself. It's too often an occurrence where the prose stops in the middle of the story to have a tangent talking about the final girl trope, or a whole scene with ridiculous, unrealistic dialogue that felt like a teenager wrote it because they don't have enough knowledge to write dialogue that would actually sounds like it would theoretically come from an actual person.
- The in-betweens of the chapters, with the essay blurbs and interviews with the victims, ultimately don't add much. It should have been focused more on the phenomena in-universe of over-zealous horror fans. It's just another example of the meta-commentary not blending well with the story.
- While I did appreciate the fake-out of the plot twist (see the pros above), the actual plot twist itself made little sense and the setup was not convincing. We don't spend enough on the motivation that when it does come out, I was just mostly thinking "Huh?" and "Who would through <i>this</i> to do <i>that</i>?"
- There are other plot points that I feel like were poorly fleshed out (that I can't really go into because of spoilers) or were glossed over. I feel like the book would have really benefitted from either cutting down the focus to just Lynette and fleshing her out more, or adding an extra 200 pages to flesh out all of the final girls.
All in all, even though I don't think this is a great book, I still got some enjoyment from reading it. And for what it's worth, I'm more interested in Grady Hendrix's other novels after partaking in this one.
______________
I'm not a horror person, so I wouldn't say this is the kind of book I usually read. I was intrigued by Grady Hendrix, though. I had heard copious amounts of praise for his books, and the premise of his books sounded interesting to me, even though I am not really into the genre. Even as someone who doesn't watch horror, however, I am familiar with the tropes and really famous movies, which grabbed my attention.
So, how do I feel about the book after finally reading?
It was...a decent book. Between "okay" and "good." Here's a breakdown of what I think, no spoilers:
What I Liked
+ Really cool premise. The setup is really neat: a group of final girls based on famous real-world horror slashers have to deal with the aftermath of the slayings, surviving and witnessing horrible atrocities done to their loved ones. But what happens after the credits roll? How would a "final girl" from all of those famous movies go on throughout the rest of their life being a "final girl"? All while the story acts as a deconstruction and commentary on the final girl trope in general? That sounds amazing to me.
+ I enjoyed the brisk writing. Maybe it helped that I was reading [book:Galilee|52639] by Clive Barker at the same time as this book (yes, I'm one of those weirdos who reads multiple books at the same time), and it was nice to read something where the prose was more casual and interpersonal, but not in a way that felt juvenile to me. It was short, snappy, and full of personality.
+ This is sort of a double-edged sword, but the fast pace made this a vigorous read. And despite my issues with it, it was gripping in its own way, and I found myself reading on to see what would happen next.
+ Lynette, the main character, does genuinely feel like a flawed person struggling with trauma. I appreciate how Hendrix explores the ways that her trauma affected her while still making her make genuine mistakes and bad calls. It makes for an interesting character.
+ The fake-out for the plot twist was pretty good, I totally fell for it.
+ While this book didn't scare me, there were actual parts that were pretty tense and had me on edge. These are probably my favorite parts of the book and the ones that had me gripped the most.
+ If you're interested in horror but don't want to read anything too hardcore or upsetting, this is a great book to read. There are moments of violence and descriptions of gore, but they did not push me into the "discomfort and want to put this down" zone. It wasn't overly detailed or made me sick. And I really appreciate that there are books like that!
Now, onto the cons...
- This book felt like a case of "really cool premise, lackluster execution."
- The characters all dealing with their trauma in different ways is something that probably needed more time to flesh out because, in the end, it didn't feel very immersive.
- The meta-commentary for the book, as cool of a concept as it was, very much felt a little too on-the-nose. It broke the immersion. In a deconstruction, we're supposed to believe that these things actually happened to these girls, because the whole point of deconstruction is to analyze the workings of a commonly accepted trope and analyze how it would actually be played out in real life. But when the commentary is too obvious and too trite, it lessens the impact of it and we're left with a bunch of characters talking about the obvious without us being invested in it. There's an extended scene with a character called Chrissy that illustrates this perfectly, in my opinion. I can't take your "analysis" seriously when I'm rolling my eyes at the poorly written dialogue.
- Adding to the last point, the commentary of the books should have been better integrated into the story itself. It's too often an occurrence where the prose stops in the middle of the story to have a tangent talking about the final girl trope, or a whole scene with ridiculous, unrealistic dialogue that felt like a teenager wrote it because they don't have enough knowledge to write dialogue that would actually sounds like it would theoretically come from an actual person.
- The in-betweens of the chapters, with the essay blurbs and interviews with the victims, ultimately don't add much. It should have been focused more on the phenomena in-universe of over-zealous horror fans. It's just another example of the meta-commentary not blending well with the story.
- While I did appreciate the fake-out of the plot twist (see the pros above), the actual plot twist itself made little sense and the setup was not convincing. We don't spend enough on the motivation that when it does come out, I was just mostly thinking "Huh?" and "Who would through <i>this</i> to do <i>that</i>?"
- There are other plot points that I feel like were poorly fleshed out (that I can't really go into because of spoilers) or were glossed over. I feel like the book would have really benefitted from either cutting down the focus to just Lynette and fleshing her out more, or adding an extra 200 pages to flesh out all of the final girls.
All in all, even though I don't think this is a great book, I still got some enjoyment from reading it. And for what it's worth, I'm more interested in Grady Hendrix's other novels after partaking in this one.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content, Violence, and Gore