The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix REVIEW

 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. Far 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 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.

My Thoughts:

Was this hard to put down? Yes. But was it top tier? No.

Lynnette is an interesting choice for a main character. She isn't really that likeable, even though you are on her side against the killer. You would think that Julia would have been the main character. She is pretty likeable, and so is Dani. So Lynnette being the main character is different. Not bad, but just weird. 

The way the killer is handled as a big mystery so we don't know who it is was really good. The issue I had though, is that it would end up being a lot more interesting if the killer was actually the therapist and not her son, who really doesn't have a motive? It's kinda hard to believe. Scratch that, really hard to believe. And Stephanie being the "partner in crime" with him was dealt so lazily. It felt like a last minute addition to the final draft and not something that builds from the start of the character's journey. 

Parts of the book are also stagnant. I understand the need for character development (I very much love that), but it was overdone to the point of it having no bearing on the plot.

I enjoyed it, but probably won't read it again.

My Rating: 3 stars