THE FINAL GIRL SUPPORT GROUP by Grady Hendrix (Berkley Books, July 2021) Hardcover, 352 pages. ISBN #059320123X / 9780593201237
Summary on the Goodreads website . . . . .
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 is a real-life final girl who 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 actual 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.
Grady Hendrix has not disappointed me yet. Whenever I want to read a new horror novel that is inventive, clever and darkly comedic he has become my go-to author.
Despite the seemingly absurd nature of some of the events and character quirks, THE FINAL GIRL SUPPORT GROUP is not as funny as some of his other works. It seemed more serious, and I was really worried about some of these characters and what might happen to them. That just made it harder for me to put down. I read the beginning at my normal pace, but finished the second half of the book in one day.
This is the second horror novel involving slasher killings that I've read recently, and they were both excellent. The other was MY HEART IS A CHAINSAW by Stephen Graham Jones. I recommend both of them.
The premise at the root of Hendrix's novel is a good one: What if all those slasher films involving final girls that survive the killing sprees were actually based on real life events? What kind of life would those real-world final girls have after the event?
The novel focuses on one final girl in particular, Lynette Tarkington, whose first person narration drives the story. Her reaction is to isolate herself in a secured apartment and go to elaborate measures to avoid shadowing or entrapment anytime she leaves her residence. The only activity she engages in on a regular basis is to attend the Final Girls Support Group led by a professional psychological therapist along with five other final girls. Each of them has handled life after survival differently which allows readers to experience the various reactions to their traumatic situations. They once were seven, as one member of the group departed and lives out her crazy fantasies in the remote countryside. As the story opens, several members air their grievances and threaten to disband or leave the group.
Twenty years or more have passed for many of the members, and some feel there is no new ground to tread together and there's no longer a benefit to continued meetings. Then, one of the members misses the meeting, later turns up murdered, and Lynette seems to be the only one to recognize the new threat: someone knows about the group and is going to stalk and kill them. Is it some obsessed fan of the final girls, or some of their imprisoned assailants working through intermediaries, or a brand new slasher/killer?
Things take off from there, as Lynette has to flee her apartment and live on the run with one eye constantly on the shadows. Will she unravel the identity of the murderous mastermind behind these events, and become a victim this time or play the role of final girl again?
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