A review by cinderrunner
The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective 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? Yes

5.0

On the surface, yes, this is a great book for classic 80s slasher fans. It has awesome nods to all your favorite movies and iconic final girls (so scream, halloween, friday the 13th, nightmare, texas chainsaw). It has just the right dash of campiness to tickle the senses of camp fans but not piss off people who dont like campy things. The book is very fast past which i liked. The author does very well writing an almost exclusively female cast and making them feel authentic while keeping strong individual voices. I get nervous when male authors try to tackle female trauma but i think it is very well done here. The final girls all offer an interesting look on the ways trauma can impact people. There are valuable themes of found family, different forms of trauma, the complexity of "monsters" and what defines a victim. The concept of gender violence and our society's lackluster response to it is dealt with very well. I read this not long after the Evan Peter's Dahmer thing came out on Netflix and there has been a lot of DISGUSTING discourse in favor of Dahmer online as a result. When looking through that specific lens, this book hits so much harder. It gets into the ways we trivialize trauma for entertainment and the sick ways some "true crime fans" will glorify serial killers. And how, even if youre watching something like a fictional slasher, many of us are complacent in allowing this exploitation of the victims to continue. 
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