The Final Girl Support Group

I was really excited to read this after reading all of Hendrix's other books (minus we sold our souls). He hasn't quite captured the magic of My Best Friend's Exorcism again, but he came close with Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires. The Final Girl Support Group has such a great premise, but unravels fairly quickly after the first 10 chapters, then picks back up in the final 5 or so.As a black person that reads some white horror authors, I'm really over them always killing us off. Or, we exist to make white characters feel better about themselves or "champion" them. *Spoilers Ahead* What sparks the whole plot of the book is the (only) black final girl being murdered. She is described as having lived a successful life, was kind, strong, and built a retreat/camp for other survivors. Buuuuut....she's the one who easily dies, when there's an unstable woman battling drug addiction in the group? Oh okay. There's also an extremely racist description of her when the protagonist is explaining how killers are particular about what they like, using a starbucks analogy: "Black nonfat camp counselor with a high threshold for pain and an extra shot". Black people having a high threshold for pain/feeling less pain than others is a racist idea that's STILL believed that started from chattel slavery. It affects us in various ways, and even causes our death in medical settings to this day. It was an excuse used to enslave, beat, and experiment on us. Now, if Hendrix meant this as commentary aka making the monsters more monstery by way of their racism, then he did a HORRIFIC job of alluding to it. Not to mention in the next sentence he stereotyped the lesbian character as masculine/butchy and spunky. I won't speak for the LGBT community on that front, but it seemed that she was just a copy of what the media tells us lesbians are like: Home Depot obsessed homesteading cowgirl types. The black character is imagined in ghost form to help the protagonist push forward towards the end, and I almost slapped the book closed.Speaking of the protagonist, I liked that she was difficult to like and root for. It was a very different approach, and it felt like she had a real, multifaceted persona. I wish we got to know the other women in the group a bit more, and they disappear for far too long when the middle of the book begins; they were VERY underutilized. He crafted distinct personalities for each of them, and I feel it was wasted.This book could've been about 60-80 pages shorter than what it was. If a character is going to an apartment, we get every little step on the way to said apartment written out in the book. Opening the door, walking down the driveway, getting in the car, driving down the road, the conversation on the way, how many stoplights there are, when they pull up to the curb of the apartment etc. It would've been nice to have a chapter just end and bam the next chapter starts off with the characters where they need to be.As always, I enjoyed the "extras" in the book. Case files, newspaper articles, and other thoughtful things that made you think. I came away from this book thinking a lot about violence in our society and how obsessed we are with it, i.e. collecting murder memorabilia, and the strange new phenomenon of women on youtube doing their make up while talking about how a family was butchered. We love violence against women in particular, and we couldn't get enough of slasher flicks at one point.The twist was very good, and I didn't see it coming. It's a slog to get to that twist, though. I found myself skipping a page or two here and there, and this is the first time one of his books has suffered a sagging middle (in my opinion). At times it's disjointed, and so many unnecessary things happen that don't add much to the story. I loved the way he created this world of what it'd really be like to be the final girl from these movies, all grown up. He pulls heavily from the slasher movies, and finds ways to inject some new humor into the stories. All in all, it is a decent book. Not his best, but I would place it above Horrorstor and below Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires.

I want to avoid spoilers, which is hard to do while discussing the numerous issues with this book. I will say it's well-written and at least kept me reading to the end. I will ALSO say: this book is not a slasher. Instead, it is a bait and switch tactic to lure people who love that kind of material into a lecture on violence against women and guns. This was one of my MOST anticipated books of the year. I read it in 2 days waiting for the "slashing" to start and it never did. Very disappointed, as I'm sure many slasher fans will be. I did not buy the book to be preached to, or have a genre of films that I love deconstructed to the point of trying to guilt the reader into feeling bad about enjoying them. Slasher fans beware!

I resent the positive reviews on here - they fooled me into spending money on this drivel. It's a sloppy mess of misogyny and broken down elements of something resembling a plot. Written entirely like a man would write a woman. Just absolute JUNK.I found myself skipping ahead and missing pages. Just dragged like crazy and made NO sense.

The premise of this creative mystery/thriller/horror-homage, is that the sole survivors of horror movie stories (Final Girls) get together in group therapy sessions to discuss their issues, until something terrible happens.... again.This book is a very clever homage to old horror movies of the 80s and 90s, with each of the “Final Girls” being a reference to a specific character from a movie; like Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Halloween, Scream, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, etc. This book is really for people that are familiar with those movies, because if you haven't seen them then you won't get most of the references.Fans of the genre though should instantly recognize these characters and be able to identify which movie they are from.There are 24 total chapters, and even the chapter names are references to old horror movies, like “The Final Girl Support Group's New Nightmare” or “The Final Girl Support Group XV: Dream Warriors”.The story mainly follows one of the Final Girls, Lynette Tarkington, as she becomes increasingly concerned with the possibility that a killer is coming after all of Final Girls. As the plot develops, it becomes a mystery/thriller as we try to figure out who the killer actually is.I was very familiar with all of these movies, so I really enjoyed this book. It is full of easter eggs and references to the old horror movies, and Hendrix weaves them together into a new mystery/thriller/horror story that is deliberately over-the-top, just like the old movies he is paying homage to. There are definitely scenes that are more amusing if you know where the inspiration comes from. If you have not seen these old horror movies, then this book probably just comes off as a pretty ridiculous and/or unrealistic generic thriller, and it might be pretty disappointing.Overall, I thought that this was a clever and creative way to tell a suspense story, but again it really relies on the reader being familiar with the movies. If you haven't seen them, then you might want to watch them first, or skip this book entirely.

First I would like to thank Mr. Hendrix for the compliment he gave medical professionals. Yes, we do often run into danger in order to save others.I started this book while sitting on a fence. I’ll let you choose the fence, since I’m feeling generous. I loved the opening dedication, but was worried about the story. After chapter two I was hooked. This story is much more than a spoof on horror movies. It is also respectful of life, whether you like it or not. I liked it.Well written, well paced, and the author possesses a through knowledge of the genre. One scene did not fit in with the characters behavior pattern, and there were two medical mistakes, but other than that I found the story to be flawless.Mr. Hendrix please tell Fine I said hi, and that when he’s big enough I would like a cutting.

Okay, so if people don't want to see a full review, I would reccomend reading it for certain chapters alone. The world is so well built and if you like horror it lets you indulge as well as examine the tropes within the genre. The plot is secondary to this which is great because it's weak in places. Okay now a detailed review. Having read all other works by G.H I was super excited to see the release of 'The Final Girls Support Group'. The concept is unique, fun and an interesting parody of the slasher film. The writing was brilliant in lots of different ways. When it wanted me to feel scared, I did. When it wanted me to feel heartbroken, I did. The characters were mostly compelling though some felt a little shallow and underdeveloped. The plot for the majority was well paced and gripping. Then the end happened. I like that the book ends up on such a high note but it felt like it touched on a lot of stuff that was just never explained or expanded on. The ending felt a little hollow. The motive of the big bad is explained in a few sentences after the fact and just doesn't seem to justify the actions they took. I feel like the book had some great concepts and ideas. The worldbuilding was detailed and interesting. However, a lot of the worldbuilding was bought in as if it would play into the big bad and then just kind of didn't. There is also definitely room for a work exploring the Dream King. I hope there is otherwise it's just like oh Lovecraft stuff exists in this universe too, no reason tho. To end on a positive, I loved the design of the book and the constant examination of the final girl as a concept that is prominent in horror media.Worth picking up!

After the glory of the Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, I couldn’t wait for this book. Boy, what a let down. The concept was original, but didn’t really work well. There was no sense of camaraderie between the characters, and the main protagonist Lynette had no likeable qualities. I preferred the character “Fine,” her potted house plant.Ultimately I couldn’t really understand what motivated any of the killings, yes a little far-fetched is ok, but this book didn’t really hold together in any way. Such a shame.

I knew this wasn’t going to be a breathtaking work of literature, but good lord. As a massive horror geek i was super excited about the concept of this book, but the writing has just really let it down. It spends a lot of the story explaining the story and the characters rather than letting us discover things as we go along. Feels like it was written specifically for people who don’t already know what a Final Girl is. Within the first 50 pages the main character has said ‘i am a Final Girl’ about 12 times. The idea of this is brilliant, but I then read the writer saying that they essentially pulled it out of a drawer after not being able to sell it when their publisher/agent said ‘have you got anything ready to go?’ and they then reworked it and put it out. You can tell. Very clearly written with selling the film rights in mind.

I noticed after the second chapter that the book stopped making sense - the first two chapters were definitely Final Girls Support Group then the story was about a character called Kris who used to be in a band - I went online and discovered that the rest of the book was actually We Sold Ours Souls by the same author (I purchased the Kindle edition of Final Girls). Amazon offered me a full refund but I didn’t accept it as I’d, by then, read the whole of the book and enjoyed it 😂Had to give one star at this time as only had 2 chapters worth to base my opinion!Update - I seem to be unable to purchase another Kindle version of this book as I now only am given the option to ‘read’ when I try & don’t want to fork out the extra cost for the hardback version - guess I’ll need to purchase from another retailer!

A really good, engrossing take on the "final girl" concept.Loved the parallels with the slasher genre, and the whole "what happens after the slashing stops" theme. Loved the side parts between each chapter - snippets of interviews, books, etc.I found the main character completely irritating - understood the reasons behind it so wasn't a massive problem but sometimes she was a bit too eye roll inducing.The ending? Well it wasn't fantastic and its the reason it's getting 4 and not 5 stars, but it did keep me guessing to the end.Thoroughly enjoyed and a worthwhile read.