Reviews with content warning for Cancer - The Final Girl Support Group

A re-read of one of my fave Grady Hendrix books. Pace is medium with a few heart-pounding events until a very exciting and tense end. Perhaps slightly rushed towards the end after such a long build-up. Lynette and other characters aren’t really likeable which I actually enjoy because you’re not meant to relate to them! Learning to try and understand minds with trauma and highlights the detachment she feels after her experiences. The writer has such a talent for gory and shocking descriptions that stay with you long after reading. On second read I noticed a couple loose ends which felt open to further development, eg The Dream King and Dr Carol. Overall a fantastic gripping read which fully embraces the horror genre instead of combining with other genres.

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tm400's review against another edition

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dark 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

3.75

this story follows a woman who had survived an attempt on her life - a “final girl”. she attends a therapy group for other women who have experienced similar trials & she quickly takes action when she suspects that someone is out to get her & the other final girls. this book was so addicting, i found it physically hard to put down every time i was reading it. i liked how it was paced & i felt the inclusion of paper articles, interview transcripts, etc between the chapters was a nice addition as well.
reading this book was also incredibly frustrating at times. there’s more than one instance where specifically the main character makes decisions that just make no sense/are legitimately aggravating to read!! in addition, there’s just entirely implausible occurrences in the book that sometimes seem to exist just to make sense of the story

(like when the cabin had the protection shield capabilities against skye’s machine gun??)

and others that existed for literally no reason

(LITERALLY WHO THE FUCK EVER would kidnap their friend’s dying wife, take her to a random ass park to die, then leave her body with a random unknown man for the police to uncover later?? what???)

while i think this story could be a GREAT limited series or film, i felt the book could have had some improvements but, again, i was very much enthralled by the story the whole time. 3.75/5 stars

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wishbea's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No

2.0

The concept had great potential but nothing interesting is done with it. The characters also lacked any depth. The best thing I can say about this is that it was a very quick read.

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sage_alexandra's review against another edition

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fast-paced

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

3.0

It was, cute. The first half+ of the book was pretty strong. It's definitely made for fans of classic slashers from the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Literally. These women and their stories are essentially copies of the movies they are nodding to.

Scream-> Stab (could've been a bit more original, seeing that the Stab franchise exists within the Scream universe)
Friday the 13th-> Summer Slaughter
Nightmare on Elm Street-> Deadly Dreams
Halloween-> The Babysitter Murders

My favorite was "Panhandle Meathook" aka Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

The 6 women in this support group are also named after the actresses who played their characters, or after supporting actresses. (Julia Campbell = Neve Campbell; Heather DeLuca = Heather Langenkamp).

Between each chapter is a photo page: movie reviews, excerpts of interviews, police reports, etc. Definitely adds to the book.

The reason this gets a 3 rating is mostly due to the ending. Spoilers ahead:

If you've seen Scream 5 (2022), then there's your ending. Although I just googled to confirm, TFGSG was published in July 2021, 6 months before Screa/V\, so I guess Ghostface is the copycat. Even so, you don't find out How they managed to do everything.

But also, the horror from these franchises just wasn't here. This book was cute as an homage to Final Girls in media, but in the end, I would've preferred originality. This concept but with teens and early 20-somethings, fresh out of surviving their horrors, with original concepts. A lot of tropes are overdone, but it wouldn't be hard to come up with "new" slashers.

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