[ARC Review] The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix

Release date: July 13, 2021
Format: eARC
eARC provided by: Berkley Publishing & Netgalley

--------------------

The Final Girl Support Group follows Lynnette, a straight-from-a-horror-movie “final girl” - that one girl left screaming at the end of horror movies, physically, mentally, and emotionally scarred after watching her friends and/or family destroyed by the sadistic and psychotic killer. Final girl is an elite title that no one wants, and oftentimes the only people Lynne has to talk to are the fellow final girls in her support group and their therapist. But after Adrienne’s would-be killer comes back to finish the job, it seems to Lynne that she’s the only one seeing all the signs. The final girls are all in trouble and their horrors are far from over, but even Lynne can’t see the enemy coming or know who she can trust. As Lynne sets out to save herself, she realizes the game is much bigger than any one of the final girls could have ever imagined and they’re about to be tested in ways they never expected. 

For fans of horror and thrillers, there’s a whole lot to love about The Final Girl Support Group. Right from the start, most of the other characters - the other final girls and Dr. Carol - make Lynne out to be an unreliable narrator. With Lynne established as unreliable, the story is full of suspense; right along with Lynne, I ended up suspecting a handful of people before the true villain was revealed. The question of who was behind the new attacks on the final girls was the primary plot motivator, but Lynne was a wonderfully flawed and paranoid character and she added so much to this story. I love a good horror story where I have to second guess every conclusion the narrator comes to, and there is plenty of that in The Final Girl Support Group. Lynne, as well as the other final girls, are all fantastically three dimensional characters. Lynne’s primary characteristic is paranoia; she’s always looking over her shoulder and questions everything - even her own instincts. Lynne also has a lethal dose of imposter syndrome spiking through her veins, convincing her she isn’t as good as or as worthy as the other final girls. I might not be a final girl, might never have been in a situation anything close to what these final girls were, but that sense of imposter syndrome, of doubting your own instincts, is very relatable. Relatable responses combined with nail-biting suspense made The Final Girl Support Group a fast-paced page-turner thriller fans won’t want to miss. 

A huge thanks to Berkley Publishing and Netgalley for providing an advanced copy of The Final Girl Support Group in exchange for an honest review.