Hello, hello, hi! Happy Tuesday, hope your three-day weekend was as chill and relaxing as mine, but if it wasn’t, that’s cool too, there is no right or wrong way of doing things in this horror life of ours, only legal and illegal tho lol. Anywhoozle, have you read the 2021 novel by Grady Hendrix called The Final Girl Support Group? Please, please, please, if you haven’t already, get your copy and read it asap. Don’t be like me: I had mine for a couple of years, literally collecting dust on my bookshelf, and just recently, for no specific reason at all, decided to give it a go and, goodness me, I could not put it down, it was really that good! Sure, I bought my copy by happenstance when visiting our local B&N thanks to its pretty cover and badass title, but had zero idea the story was a true love letter (ew, sorry, there’s no better way of putting it) to the Horror movie genre, our Horror movie genre; needless to say, had I known that vital piece of information sooner, I would not have let the years go by without me enjoying it.

So, this is me, Marath, asking you to read the book (sooner than later) and take pleasure in the incredibly rich world of horror it holds for us.

Okay, now that you and I are on the same page and are good to go, let’s talk about my top-5 things (all spoiler-free) that made The Final Girl Support Group such a fun reading experience:

05. The present-day story (there were 80’s and 90’s flashbacks) taking place in 2010 here in California (and in other States as well), but in particular in the city of Burbank, aka my neighborhood; I know it is silly, but details like these add something extra to the mood, especially when a fictional character navigates the places of your very own non-fictional life.

04. Getting to know the main character, Lynette, and realizing little by little she was mentally and emotionally unwell, and then immediately proceeding to feel bad for her and wonder how a 38-year-old massacre survivor can still live in such debilitating fear and paranoia after all those years, even after her first attacker had been dead since 1988, and the second had been incarcerated since the 1990’s. Wait, if I did not mention it before, the book talks about seven middle-age women, all of whom survived traumatic events in their teenage years. Final Girls are what society, the press, and movie producers have called them for the past few decades, and it is also what they call themselves now. Every month, they meet at their secret Support Group which is guided by their therapist, Dr. Carol Elliot. The women are very different and at distinct stages of their lives, some are ready to close that chapter and move on and others, or shall we say other, not so much. Life was already though, but suddenly, and without any provocation at all, a myriad of unfortunate coincidences started happening, bringing their horrific past to the forefront. At first, it was thought to be really bad luck, but if there is something you and I, horror fans, know about Final Girls, is that they cannot afford the luxury of simple bad luck, they deal with revivals, sequels, and spin-offs :(

03. Meta-everything.

02. Chrissy’s misunderstood character; she was the anti-Final Girl on ethical and moral grounds, the one exiled from the secret and über exclusive Support Group, the traitor, the one in a relationship with a Monster, the one profiting from black market murderabilia, the one morbidly preserving the past via her art installation rooms, the chaotic and dirty one, the one with the dangerous philosophies about Final Girls & Monsters, the isolated one, the one survivor willing to die already, the one far too gone for help, but the one needing it the most. Duuuude, her character was so freaking interesting, I cannot convey in words how unique her whole vibe was. Honestly, I could read an entire trilogy based on her story.

01. All, and I mean all the references, from the big and obvious to the minute and obscure, of the cult-classic slasher Horror films and their relation to the seven Final Girls and their backstories/franchises:

I - Marilyn Torres, Panhandle Meat Hook; based on Sally from THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (1974); Sally was played by actress Marilyn Burns

II - Dani Shipman, The Babysitter Murders; based on Laurie from HALLOWEEN (1978); actress Danielle Harris played Jamie, Laurie Strode's daughter, in Halloween 4-5

III - Adrienne Butler, Summer Slaughter; based on Alice from FRIDAY THE 13th (1980); Alice was played by actress Adrienne King

IV - Heather DeLuca, Deadly Dreams; based on Nancy from A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984); Nancy was played by actress Heather Langenkamp

V - Lynette Tarkington, Slay Bells; based on Denise from SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT (1984); Denise was played by actress Linnea Quigley

VI - Julia Campbell, Stab; based on Sidney from SCREAM (1996); Sidney was played by actress Neve Campbell

VII - Christine “Chrissy” Mercer, Gnomecoming; not based on any known Final Girl, but it is loosely speculated her backstory was inspired by Canadian film PROM NIGHT (1980)

So yeah, The Final Girl Support Group was an exceedingly entertaining novel, and it not only left me feeling happy and proud for being part of the horror community, but it also gave me hope thanks to its basic message: that traumatized girls, even horror-level traumatized girls, can grow up to be normal women, especially when they have each other for unconditional support. The End.

In Love and Fear,

—Marath