Two Girls and Friends Bookclub: Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix

It is the spooky season so we had to turn to horror for our monthly book club read with Grady Hendrix's newest book The Final Girl Support Group

SUMMARY:

A fast-paced, thrilling horror novel that follows a group of heroines to die for, from the brilliant New York Times bestselling author of The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires.

In horror movies, the final girl is the one who's left standing when the credits roll. The one who fought back defeated the killer, and avenged her friends. The one who emerges bloodied but victorious. But after the sirens fade and the audience moves on, what happens to her?

Lynnette Tarkington is a real-life final girl who survived a massacre twenty-two years ago, and it has defined every day of her life since. And she's not alone. For more than a decade she's been meeting with five other actual final girls and their therapist in a support group for those who survived the unthinkable, putting their lives back together, piece by piece. That is until one of the women misses a meeting and Lynnette's worst fears are realized--someone knows about the group and is determined to take their lives apart again, piece by piece.

But the thing about these final girls is that they have each other now, and no matter how bad the odds, how dark the night, how sharp the knife, they will never, ever give up

TEE'S THOUGHTS:

This is my third book by Grady Hendrix, and I really want to like him, but to be honest, I just don't. Oh..I did enjoy The Southern Book Clubs Guide to Slaying Vampires. I thought the story was bizarre ( what was with all those rats? ) but I loved the banter between the women. That saved the book for me.

And I am still not sure what the hell I read when I ended Horrostor...

So that brings me to The Final Girls Support Group. I LOVE slasher movies, I grew up in the early '80s when they were at their height of popularity, and oh my gosh were they good. So I thought I would love this book. Reading it, however, I just think that slasher movies do not transfer well on paper.

What I did love about the book was the nod that Hendrix gave to all the classic films, you'll catch them if you are a fan of slasher films and I thought the chapter titles were absolutely hysterically funny....

" The Final Girls Support Group XXI: The Final Chapter " we all know that would totally be a film title to one of the many sequels a film would have.

I felt the story and writing were messy, think B horror movie. Plus I had a hard time believing any of it, it got a bit absurd. But I also think I should have known it would be written by Hendrix. The book does get a bit gory, which was fine for the slasher movie lover in me, but some people might find it a bit too much. So if you are squeamish, or have a trigger to murder and violence, this may not be the book for you.

This book just wasn't for me, but I know plenty of people who will love it, probably as much as a slasher loves an underwear-clad girl running for her life in the dark woods.

 I have read two of Grady’s other works. Horrostor and Vampire book club book and while I disliked both, one of those I couldn’t even finish; I gave Final Girls four stars. To me, this was fast-paced and kept me entertained for the most part. It did have a couple chapters that were just boring inner monologue but I just skimmed by those. 

 I enjoy the constant paranoia. Making the main character more and more unstable to the point you wonder if she has some part in this or it's in her head. Some of it was really extreme and not sure I would believe it other than in a movie, but this is a book, so same thing.

 I do agree that it does have gory bits so it might not be everyone’s favorite but if you read Karin Slaughter it’s nothing compared to her. I also don’t do scary movies so I have no reference for comparison to the slasher films. Though I was part of the ’90s, horror movies were just never my thing. That could be why I enjoyed it in the writing.