In horror movies, the final girls are the ones left standing when the credits roll. They made it through the worst night of their lives…but what happens after?
Like his bestselling novel The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, Grady Hendrix’s latest is a fast-paced, frightening, and wickedly humorous thriller. From chain saws to summer camp slayers, The Final Girl Support Group pays tribute to and slyly subverts our most popular horror films—movies like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Scream.
Lynnette Tarkington is a real-life final girl who survived a massacre. For more than a decade, she’s been meeting with five other final girls and their therapist in a support group for those who survived the unthinkable, working to put their lives back together. Then one woman misses a meeting, and their worst fears are realized—someone knows about the group and is determined to rip their lives apart again, piece by piece.
But the thing about final girls is that no matter how bad the odds, how dark the night, how sharp the knife, they will never, ever give up.
Adapted from the novel and produced with a full cast of actors, immersive sound effects and cinematic music!
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 Satanic Panic.
Try this if you like: • slasher horror mixed with psychological suspense • mystery thriller with unreliable narrator vibes • final girl movie references—but make them real • fast-paced with high intensity gore • single POV w/chapters broken up with epistolary elements
Notes: Usually, I love epistolary elements in an audiobook, and since this is a Graphic Audio and had multiple narrators, it should’ve worked for me. And yet, it didn’t. I feel it must be Grady Hendrix’s writing style that mucked it up, since he is hit or miss for me. Even when he is a hit, I still have some issues. His writing style is definitely uniquely his own, though. Narration: It’s good I listened to the Graphic Audio Adaptation because I’m sure that I would’ve DNF'd this if it had only one narrator. It was hard enough to follow as it was.
This was an amazing listening experience! I really enjoyed the full production that came from the GraphicAudio audiobook, all the actors did an amazing job and I felt like this story really leant itself to the fully dramatized format.
I also enjoyed the story in and of itself, I loved the little preludes of the different mediums (scholarly journals, news articles, YouTube videos) discussing the final girls stories or the concept of the genre. The plot twists were great, the characters were diverse and well developed (Dani was my favorite, let’s go lesbians!), and this story genuinely had me on the edge of my seat waiting to see what was around every corner.
I would HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone who likes reading true crime esque stories, and anyone who wants to elevate their audiobook listening experience with a full cast of characters.
Okay let me start off with this— this narration and cast is incredible and honestly made it tolerable to finish the story! 10 out of ten experience to listen to. But ohhhh man. This book was a bummer. This was super campy and slasher but in a weird, disjointed way? And I’m so sad about it because I loved his other books.
Too many plot twists, repetitive loops of the MC's internal nonsense, and a weak ending... The only thing redeeming this mess was the full cast narration and FX that come with a Graphic Audio adaptation.
There are a couple more Hendrix stories available from Graphic Audio, and one of them has a friend's recommendation. I will be done with this author if those two titles can't change my mind.
**Listened to the audiobook (dramatised version)**
I’ve zoned out for most of the second half. This is the second book by Hendrix that I listened to and didn’t like — at this point I’m not sure whether it’s the dramatised version or the author himself that just doesn’t do it for me…
"No one's too lost to be found." Beautiful book, the twist at the end didn't really surprise me, but made the story more bittersweet. I loved Dani and her story, I think that was the strongest part of the book. It might be just me, but I wish I was able to connect the same way to the other women. I'm unsure of that's because they didn't resonate with me or of their stories were less emotionally written? Anyway, not something I usually read, but loved it nonetheless.