The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix

Berkley, 2021

ISBN-13: 9780593201237

Available: Hardcover, Kindle edition, Audible audiobook  ( Bookshop.org |  Amazon.com )

The Final Girl is the lone survivor of horror movies. She fought valiantly, defeated the killer, and avenged her friends who were each gruesomely dispatched by the killer. But after the truck drives away, the sirens fade, and the credits roll, what happens to our heroine, other than the potential for franchise sequels? We find out in Hendrix’s new novel, The Final Girl Support Group.

Hendrix, as with We Sold Our Souls and The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, displays an uncanny ability to write complex women. Combining this with the concept of the Final Girl works quite well. Twenty-two years ago, Lynnette Tarkington survived a harrowing massacre. For more than a decade, Lynette and other women meet in the Final Girl Support Group led by their therapist, Dr. Carol Elliot. Lynette keeps herself locked safely in her home with her best friend, a houseplant named Fine. She has no identification paperwork or ID, no social life, and keeps her head on a swivel when she does gather up her strength to go outside, usually to the support group. In the support group, we meet Adrienne Butler, the first Final Girl; Dani Shipman, who along with her partner Michelle owns a rescue ranch for abused and abandoned horses; Heather DeLuca, whose life has gone off the rails with bad decisions and jail time; Julia Campbell, the talkative and angry paralyzed survivor of her own story; and Marilyn Torres, the wealthy wife of a CEO, who is a recovering alcoholic and activist in the community. When one of the women doesn’t show up for their regular meeting, Lynnette’s paranoia kicks in full-bore. Someone knows about the Final Girl Support Group and wants them all to suffer, and then die. The suspect knows where they live and congregate, and what they do. It comes to light that someone in the group has written a tell-all book about the women in the group. Who betrayed the Final Girl Support Group? Lynette sets out to find the killer and expose the truth.

There is so much going on in this book, I had a hard time putting it down. If you like the slasher subgenre and have ever wondered what happened when the Final Girl’s story ended, pick up this book. Interspersed throughout the book are articles and reports about the Final Girls, which add that extra touch to each character. Highly recommended.

Contains: violence, gore, body horror, descriptions of torture

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker