Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix

425 reviews

itshrewsbury's review against another edition

• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

 Interesting premise, okay-ish-ly executed. The fun premise, what happens to final girls when they get older and someone starts to pick them off again, really carries the book. I agree with another review I read, where they speak to there being obvious themes (and ones I usually love! What is femininity, feminist themes, grace for older women, the toughness of women to survive the abuses against them, etc), but not a super great/in-depth exploration of them, rather instead favoring Lynette’s characterization (Jamie Lee Curtis’s Laurie in the Halloween (2019) reboot, basically), and creating confusion (there were so many NAMES to keep track of with all these intertwining and complicated final girl backstories). Honestly, it might’ve worked better as a movie lol But you can tell Hendrix has a deep love of horror and its tropes, and this was still a satisfying Halloween-season read! The last 5-6 chapters are what really made me push the book into a 4 instead of a 3-stars. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Drug use, Gun violence, Kidnapping, and Stalking

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Sexual content

Additional TW/CW: anxiety attacks (graphic), statutory rape mention (minor), death threats, grooming (minor), school shooting mention (minor)

imogenlj's review

dark tense

3.75

This is my second Grady Hendrix book and each has reflected the genre he’s writing in; so while TSBGTKV was all slow-building, southern gothic horror, The Final Girl Support Group is pacy, relentless and stereotypical- exactly as it’s trying to be. A winking homage to the slasher genre, reading it was an enjoyable ride.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, and Gaslighting

jraley_writes's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, and Murder

calhudak's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Cursing

teresaelj's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.5

I wanna start with why I gave this book 4.5 as opposed to 5 stars.

1. Garrett is a Terrible person and a groomer in of himself. We are definitely led to not like him but I still don’t like the past relationship at all. I understand it just don’t like it. 2. I don’t like the heather is not seen after the main events.

Now with that out of the way. I will read every thing Grady Hendrix writes. I’ve said this before and i will say it again- man writes women well. And that’s saying a lot. The fact that this book specifically is written by a man astounds me. The commentary throughout the book of our societies obsession with horror and horror especially towards women hits home a much deeper point. While we see Lynne come to terms with her trauma and truly learn that life continues and that it is the strongest force in this world - Beautiful in of itself- we truly see how monsters are men. Even how Stephanies story ends makes you want to cry; women are always victims, but women also are sisters. We support one another and turn up and it’s such a gorgeous book. I think it may be my favorites of Hendrix’s. I really truly loved it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gun violence, Blood, and Murder

lormag's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Addiction and Cancer

emilyliest's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad 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

4.0

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Sexual content, and Vomit

tm400's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Cancer, Drug use, and Terminal illness

m_delaney's review against another edition

challenging dark sad 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: Child death, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

miaaa_lenaaa's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

lets take a guess- was this written by a man:
Main character seeing someone who had been shot in the face and going ‘omg… i wonder if she was pretty before 😔… and like also her name that too’

Also i fucking called it
Also why would literally no one believe her like what? That made no sense

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gun violence, Misogyny, Blood, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, and Murder