#BookReview ‘The Final Girl Support Group’ by Grady Hendrix

About the book…

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

Published on July 13th by Titan, I am incredibly thrilled to bring you my thoughts on the fantastic new novel by Grady Hendrix, ‘The Final Girl Support Group’

Being an expert on the horror tropes used in movies and books, Grady sets about introducing his 6 final girls and their therapist, all cheekily named after horror alumni. Then, he puts them in danger, sets fire to their escape route and throws red herring after red herring in their way to self, and public, redemption.

In her non-fiction essay, ‘Something Out Of Place: Women and Disgust’, Eimear McBride defines and differentiates between flesh and meat, in the way that women are either subsumed, or consumed. This feels mightily apt when reading the very cleverly deconstructed ‘final girl’ trope (the virgin, the clever one, the resilient one who managed to survive by killing the ‘monster’) and then reconstructing it whilst enabling each woman to tell their tale.

From the title-the use of ‘girl’, is, I suspect, ironic,these are all women-to the final page, these women have become part of the culture in our obsession to make and create celebrities, as each of them tells their backstory, you slowly become aware that the public need for bloodied redemption is a motif where the women become mere numbers whilst the men who commit the crimes? They become martyrs on the bonfire of feminist theory, victims of their mothers, or the girl who turned them down.

Using festival dates-Halloween, Prom Night and so forth-each of these women have seen their trauma re-invented, some have benefitted from it, and been castigated for that, others have gone to ground and remain alive because of rituals and routines which keep them sane. Lynette, the narrator, has escape plans for every room she goes into, and is not emotionally attached to anyone or thing, except her plant, ‘Fine(short for Final). Her entire family was killed by a prison escapee in a Santa Claus costume, and since, she keeps her hair short-so it cannot be grabbed- wears shoes suitable for running in, leaves no paper traces and has her home fortified like a castle.

Turning up at the support group , which is purely for the women who have been traumatised in this particular way, we are introduced to Marilyn, Dani, Julia, Heather, and Michelle. Their therapist, Dr Clare, is entrusted into this group to follow their rules, their privacy and be focussed on their recovery. Another, Adrienne, has not turned up and when Dr Clare is notified that she has been murdered, fear spreads throughout the group as they begin to realise someone out there is intent on collecting the ultimate in collector’s items-the final girls. To succeed where their killers failed, doubt is cast on any of their alibis, suggesting collusion with their monsters, casting doubt on lawful imprisonment and sweeping all their progress of the past decade away down the sink.

As panic and need for survival sweeps through the women, the moment which Lynette has been preparing for has arrived and she goes on the run, simultaneously working out why someone is after them and who it is. Before long, she realises that in order to survive, again, the women need to stick together. Each has a facet of themselves which makes them a fearsome prospect, leading to a chase unlike any I have encountered and culminating in a finale which leaves you breathless and nail-less.

Grady is so adept at writing female protagonists, and he neatly skewers the blood thirsty need of certain people for ‘souvenirs’ and details of grotesque acts of murder. He intersperses the chapters with excerpts of newspaper reports, interviews, police and judicial records and so forth. They contrast the way in which we view women as public property, by dint of their survival, and those who ‘failed’ as chalk marks on a killer’s tally sheet. He pulls back the sheet and shows you exactly what is lying underneath and too often, the monster’s face is our own and we are in a hall of mirrors reflecting back our own sick desire.

The pushback against the casual victimisation of women is not gore streaked, it is filled with a sense of urgency and , whilst there is an element of ‘whodunnit’, the women have their agency and individuality returned to them. There is such a sense of satisfaction on going through Lynette’s journey with her, finding yourself emotionally invested in the survival of a houseplant and there are moments of such intensity, and pathos, that tears came to my eyes.

A wonderful meditation on the modern perception of women, death, and immortality, this will appeal to fans of horror right across the board, highly, highly recommended.

About the author…

Grady Hendrix is the author of the novels Horrorstör, about a haunted IKEA, and My Best Friend’s Exorcism, which is like Beaches meets The Exorcist, only it’s set in the Eighties.

He’s also the jerk behind the Stoker award-winning Paperbacks from Hell, a history of the 70’s and 80’s horror paperback boom, which contains more information about Nazi leprechauns, killer babies, and evil cats than you probably need.

And he’s the screenwriter behind Mohawk, which is probably the only horror movie about the War of 1812 and the upcoming Satanic Panic.

You can listen to free, amazing, and did I mention free podcasts of his fiction on Pseudopod.

If you’re not already sick of him, you can learn all his secrets at his website.

Links-http://www.gradyhendrix.com/

Twitter @grady_hendrix @TitanBooks