Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix

51 reviews

leeghlee's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Murder, Confinement, Violence, and Cancer

Moderate: Death of parent, Excrement, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Car accident, Chronic illness, Cursing, Terminal illness, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Sexual content, Stalking, and Suicide

Minor: Drug use, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Gaslighting, Ableism, Addiction, Body horror, Drug abuse, and Mass/school shootings

sav_22's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book is a lot of fun. Very captivating, interesting plot. The concept of final girls in the real world is very alluring to me as someone who loves slashers and horror movies like the Scream franchise. I also admire the diversity in age range specifically, as the narrator is in her 30-40s, which I feel is rare in these circumstances. I also appreciate

how unreliable the narrator can be due to her trauma! She is very complex, she grows on you but it really does a good job exploring how trauma changes your entire way of thinking and feeling. The more you read, the more you question her sanity and her truthfulness.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Murder, Death, Blood, Bullying, Dysphoria, Violence, Cursing, Eating disorder, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Gore, Grief, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Chronic illness, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, and Stalking

brookey8888's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I really enjoyed this one and I know a lot of people don’t t like this so it’s an unpopular opinion. I just was so invested in the story and the characters and I didn’t see a lot of things happening. I thought the concept was interesting and the topics thought provoking and I liked some of the discussions in this. I really liked Lynnette as the main character and the strength and growth she went through. This also made me weirdly emotional at times, but it’s just the dark themes and the horrible world it’s hard not to. This was also pretty funny at times. I don’t know something about this just worked for me. I liked the sister aspect which I think really made me enjoy this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Cursing, Death of parent, Child death, Blood, Body horror, Pedophilia, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Panic attacks/disorders, Stalking, Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Vomit, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Torture, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Mental illness, Violence, Animal death, Kidnapping, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Lesbophobia, Police brutality, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, and Misogyny

joscelynhe's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I had a lot of time on my hands today, so I did read most of this all in one sitting. It was an easy, thrilling story that was very fun and entertaining. I did have a bit of a hard time getting attached to the group of main characters at first, but otherwise this book was a breeze (fast-paced, not light and airy). Some of the details were more graphic than some of his other books. Hendrix nails the tone in the head like always, though. He has a way of writing that sucks you in almost immediately. “Horrorstor”is up next.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Body horror, Murder, Torture, Violence, Physical abuse, Gore, and Grief

Minor: Alcoholism, Cancer, Addiction, Drug abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Cannibalism, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Confinement

tiernanhunter's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Cannibalism, Death, Drug abuse, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Car accident, Child death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Classism, Confinement, Cursing, Death of parent, Drug use, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Mental illness, Sexism, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, and Violence

lancemama's review against another edition

dark emotional funny tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Anxiety inducing, for lovers of slasher flicks

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Cursing, Drug abuse, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, Adult/minor relationship, Addiction, Body horror, Cancer, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Gore, Misogyny, and Police brutality

chessakat's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Murder, Body horror, Confinement, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, Stalking, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Violence

sofia_guks's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Blood, Death, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Addiction, Grief, Police brutality, Child death, Cursing, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Vomit, Mass/school shootings, and Mental illness

hypofocus's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Even though I felt myself struggling to keep reading at points, this was an enjoyable ride through a plethora of campy horror tropes. Any fan of the slasher genre would feel satiated by consuming this title!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Blood, Kidnapping, Bullying, Drug use, Murder, Cursing, and Violence

Moderate: Emotional abuse

megansmith's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I had higher hopes for this book, it was on my list for a long time for some reason and I finally just got it... and it really fell flat for me. 

The main problem I had with it is you could very clearly feel this was a book about women's issues and trauma written by a man. Every female character felt seen only through the lens of a man and men's thinking around women and it was so difficult to read the book for that reason. IE, one example - I don't think the book really figured out if these women liked or disliked being commodified as much as they were. Lynnette hates being in the spotlight but she also solely refers to the people in her group as Final Girls (and that's sentence case, because they're a Thing). 95% of this book was just women hating each other, women hating themselves, and some visual descriptions of torture, with a small bit of a redemption arc for the last 15 pages of a 300+ page book. I think I'd be interested seeing this written through a female gaze but also, this book really ruined that idea for me. 

The plot felt so messy, it felt like the most amount of changes for the suspected killer(s) in any piece of thriller / mystery media I have ever read or seen. There were so many pieces of plot that felt unexplained or small missing details that threw me out of the moment, which sucked. Stephanie just felt so random and sudden and made little sense in this book. And to boot, it truly made no sense to me for how "smart" Lynette was with all the doomsday prepping she did, she still made a bunch of freaking dumb mistakes. Like, she managed to get her own burner phone but had zero concerns using Stephanie's phone as they tried discretely traveling across the country? So. many. inconsistencies. I get flawed characters are flawed for a reason, but this just felt messy and not thought out. 

I will give this book the credit in that I did finish it REALLY quickly, Im not sure if it's because I had a nightmare about myself getting murdered when I had to pause right before bed at the details of Lynette's backstory, or if I was really wanting to know who was behind it all, but I'll let you decide (whoever ends up reading this). There was some solid writing styles, just a badly executed idea that probably should have been written through the female gaze. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Gore, Body horror, Grief, Gun violence, Mental illness, Death of parent, Torture, Blood, Violence, Police brutality, and Death

Moderate: Child death and Car accident

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Excrement, and Emotional abuse