The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix

The Final Girl Support Group
by Grady Hendrix
⭐⭐⭐⭐

In The Final Girl Support Group, we meet Lynette - a Final Girl whose real life horror story has made her live her life in lockdown, cutting out all relationships and refusing to leave her apartment, except to attend the Final Girl Support Group (which is exactly what it sounds like). Every week, every Final Girl (women who are the sole survivors of a mass murderer) gets together to work through their past trauma in a therapy setting… until one day, one of the girls doesn’t show up, and each woman seems to be targeted by a mystery threat. 

I loved this book. Each character has a unique personality, voice, and response to trauma. It is very rare for a book to have a large cast of characters that don’t bleed into one another. Grady Hendrix did an impeccable job building these characters in a realistic and totally believable way. I also loved how funny the story was. There were no laugh out louds or punchlines, it was more of a social ineptitude that caused many snorts of mini laughter. I just loved Lynette and her inability to interact with any other human in a somewhat normal capacity. She is a pretty unreliable narrator, which also adds a fun twist to this story. Due to her trauma and PTSD, she fears and distrusts every person she comes into contact with, so you’re really as confused as Lynette is throughout this entire story. 

Generally, the story moves fast - it’s a page turner for sure. The twists are great and the effort that Grady Hendrix puts into world building and fabricating things like newspaper excerpts, movie reviews, and Final Girl interviews really adds to the story and makes it even more enjoyable. 

I would have given this book five stars but its ending was rushed and felt a bit unsatisfying. The ending wasn’t bad, it was quite good story-wise, but the climax at the end was too quickly pushed into a resolution. There was so much good about this book, so much that really stood out. I just wish the ending had been a little better. I still really enjoyed this book though and would definitely recommend it to anyone who is a fan of horror movies. This is definitely a story for you!