ARC Review: The Final Girl Support Group

 

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book or my review itself.

This is a very unique and terrifying book, examining what could happen to those famous final girls of horror, when the killer is dead and real life begins again. 

Lynette, the final girl whose eyes and mind we see the rest of the story through, survived a massacre that took the lives of her family, boyfriend and local police officers. She is technically still surviving. But life for her now entails hiding in her fortified apartment, memorizing people's shoes, and all of her possible escape routes, when she goes outside once a month to her group therapy-a gathering of other women who are also Final Girls. 

But when someone doesn't show up to the group, Lynette becomes convinced there's a villain out there coming for them, and she's determined to survive again.

This is a super unique read-a horror story combined with a meta commentary on how "final girls" are treated after surviving unspeakable trauma, utilizing (fictional) magazine articles, essays, reddit posts, and interviews. This is also definitely a really dark, intense read, sometimes so dark that I debated if I was going to be able to finish the book, but the thing is that the story is so compelling and the mystery so intriguing, that I had to keep reading, and I'm definitely glad I did. The ending packs a real punch.

I would recommend this book, but just go in knowing that you are entering a dark and twisty world with almost no light. This was definitely not an easy read.