The Final Girl Support Group – Book Review

A fast-paced, thrilling horror novel that follows a group of heroines to die for, from the brilliant New York Times bestselling author of The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires.

In horror movies, the final girl is the one who’s left standing when the credits roll. The one who fought back, defeated the killer, and avenged her friends. The one who emerges bloodied but victorious. But after the sirens fade and the audience moves on, what happens to her?

Lynnette Tarkington survived a massacre twenty-two years ago, and it has defined every day of her life since. And she’s not alone. For more than a decade she’s been meeting with five other final girls and their therapist in a support group for those who survived the unthinkable, putting their lives back together, piece by piece. That is until one of the women misses a meeting and Lynnette’s worst fears are realized—someone knows about the group and is determined to take their lives apart again, piece by piece.

But the thing about these final girls is that they have each other now, and no matter how bad the odds, how dark the night, how sharp the knife, they will never, ever give up.

No. of pages:- 372 pages

Date published:- July 13th 2021

Publisher:- Titan

Genre:- Horror/ Psychological Thriller

Rating:- 3.5/5

So this book was chosen for one of the buddy reads I joined on Instagram and I was interested in the plot as well. And boy! I felt like I was watching a horror movie! I’ll be using a lot of GIFs in this review

Are you a fan of horror movies? If you are, then this book will be one for you.

Lynette Tarkington survived a massacre more than twenty years ago and joined a group, known as Final Girl Support Group. The group consists of six members–Heather, Adrienne, Dani, Julia and Marilyn along with Dr. Carole and each of these girls survived a massacre of their own.

Adrienne was working as camp counselor and survived a massacre at the camp (reminiscent of Friday the 13th if you have watched the movie)

Dani’s older brother tried to kill her by wearing a mask which is reminiscent of Halloween

Marilyn’s massacre sounded eerily similar to Texas Chainsaw Massacre

And Lynette’s own experience sounded like Black Christmas

The story starts with one of their members being brutally murdered, which led to a fact that the other remaining members are also in danger and that someone knows about this secret group. The story is mainly told from Lynette’s perspective as she finds herself in great danger as she starts running and spending the night away from danger and trying to save the other members of the team. The plot is a reminscent of a horror movie and it was intriguing to read as well. Though the first part of the book was a bit boring, the story took a turn and got interesting and fast paced towards the middle. I used the audiobook to listen to the book and I must say, the author did a good job making the reader feel like they are on the sets of a horror movie.

Though I should say the story may not be realistic, nonetheless, I felt like I was watching the horror movie as I was listening to the audiobook! Initially, I thought of the main character Lynette as annoying but the character grew into me by the middle of the book. So many twists started to show and turns as well and the ending was dramatic and unexpected! This was the first book I have read from this author and would want to try out his other books in future as well!

Overall, it was a heck of a thriller and roller coaster ride I had with this book–simply couldn’t stop listening as I yearned what is going to happen to the remaining final girls in the end! Worth three and a half stars!

New York Times bestselling author Grady Hendrix makes up lies and sells them to people. His novels include HORRORSTÖR about a haunted IKEA, MY BEST FRIEND’S EXORCISM, which is basically “Beaches” meets “The Exorcist”, WE SOLD OUR SOULS, a heavy metal horror epic, THE SOUTHERN BOOK CLUB’S GUIDE TO SLAYING VAMPIRES, and THE FINAL GIRL SUPPORT GROUP, coming on July 13, 2021. He’s also the author of PAPERBACKS FROM HELL, an award-winning history of the horror paperback boom of the Seventies and Eighties. He wrote the screenplay for, MOHAWK, a horror flick about the War of 1812, and SATANIC PANIC about a pizza delivery woman fighting rich Satanists. You can discover more ridiculous facts about him at http://www.gradyhendrix.com.