'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 realised--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.'
The Final Girl Support Group feels like a love letter to slasher horror films, a book that's written by a fan of the genre for fans of the genre, and one that packs in a host of nods to famous cinematic killers.
The story follows Lynette Tarkington, a woman who lived through two brutal massacres in her youth. She's part of a very special group of people, a group known as Final Girls. These are young women who've gone up against brutal and sadistic killers and lived to tell the tale. Although Lynette sometimes questions if she can really be a Final Girl herself.
Once a month Lynette leaves her specially adapted apartment, which has become a secure prison designed to keep any would-be killers away, to attend a support group meeting with a handful of other survivors. These women, like Lynette, faced off against brutal killers and lived, and killed the killers who were targeting them. Together they've managed to find others who understand the trauma that they've been through; though it doesn't necessarily make them all friends.
When their latest meeting is broken up by the news that one of their own has been murdered Lynette believes that this can only mean they're all in danger. Whilst the others don't believe her claims at first, when other members of the group come under attack Lynette knows that it's only a matter of time before this killer gets her, and sets out to find out who's brave enough to try and take on the ultimate group of survivors before she's the only one left.
For those that are familiar with the tropes of the slasher sub-genre there's a lot to get out of this book. Even within the first few chapters, before anything has really happened, the reader gets treated to characters that are inspired by some of the best leading ladies of horror; and their survival stories bear a striking similarity to some pretty well known films too.
At first I wasn't quite sure what kind of book this was going to be, as when the characters are talking about their slashers and their franchises I started to think that this was some kind of world where film characters live on beyond the end of their films, and that these were those fictional characters. This wasn't helped when Lynette was talking about their franchises being 'rebooted' as if I was supposed to know what she was referring to. After a while, however, it became clear that this was supposed to be a world where these were the women that inspired the slasher films.
The idea that some of the cheesiest, bloodiest horror films around could have been inspired by real events was definitely a more interesting approach. The concept of something as strange as Friday the 13th being based on a real person's life was one that was definitely worth following; and for the most part the book did this well. There were parts where I wished they'd have explored this more, such as the killer that inspired A Nightmare on Elm Street.
For the most part the book isn't about slasher killers, but is instead a tense thriller were we see this one woman fighting to survive in a world where people don't believe her, and where attack could come at any time. Lynette is clearly a capable and competent woman, and over the course of the book we see her bringing plans into place that show that she's been ready for something like this to happen for years. However, because we get inside her head we also see that a lot of this is very much just a surface level thing, and that underneath it all she's a woman dealing with severe trauma and mental health issues.
For me Lynette was a very unusual protagonist, because for a lot of the book I wasn't sure if I liked her or not. She seemed selfish, and even rude at times. She's certain that she's right, and that her way is the only way that's going to work. Yet despite it all she was always worried about her friends, about the other final girls; and is willing to walk into danger in order to help them. She's a flawed and complex hero in a genre that normally has quite one dimensional leads.
The Final Girl Support Group is a book where the author clearly loved the source material that inspired it, and it's a book that horror fans are sure to enjoy. It takes a look at the tropes of the slasher genre and tries to put a real world spin on it, and pretty much does so perfectly. I'd have loved to have spent longer in this universe, learning more about these final girls, as well as the people who stalked them, and how the world sees survivors like this. Sadly, Grady Hendrix couldn't spend longer on this project, as I think it'd have to be a vast tome to fully satisfy me; but then I guess if I'm wanting to read more it shows that the book has really gotten its claws (or knife gloves) into me. Definitely one to pick up.
No comments:
Post a Comment