For everyone who wonders what happens after the credits roll on a horror film, this book is for you. The Final Girl Support Group is an action packed story about survival, trust, and friendship. It’s easy to get caught up in the story and I found myself wanting to speed through to find out what happens! Keep reading this book review for my full thoughts.
Summary
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.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from Netgalley. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
I only recently was introduced to the concept of “final girls”, but I quickly became a fan. The Final Girl Support Group examines how it changes their lives to survive. How the credits roll and we think, “they survived!” but how we never think about what kind of life they are going to live. The ways in which the world takes them and rips them apart. All the ways in which people want to disprove them, re-traumatize them, and to fetishize their experiences.
While I was definitely drawn to the action in The Final Girl Support Group, I am normally drawn to character driven stories. This book is almost exclusively action, even while it delves into the women’s memories and trauma, the ways their thinking patterns have changed. The Final Girl Support Group manages to balance introspection and action. It easily appeals to those searching for a mystery or thriller, I just wanted a bit more out of the characters.
That being said, I breezed through The Final Girl Support Group because of its action. What motivates everyone? Is Lynnette a reliable narrator? It’s an adventure packed read that is sure to appeal to fans of both horror and thrillers!
Find The Final Girl Support Group on Goodreads, Amazon, Indiebound, Bookshop.org & The Book Depository.