Would also add 'fun, but unpolished' as a descriptive. Simple story with shallow characters and an excessive "twist" or two too many. No character is really believable or more than surface level described (they're all almost more a set of ascribed characteristics rather than characters). But it's a fun idea and a quick read to palette clense with.

takes a while to pick up, but once it does... DOES it pick up, alright.

i felt like the idea of this book was so much cooler than the actual execution. this book tried to use slasher style horror themes with jump scares but it didn’t translate the same on paper as it does in the movies. also, i’m always really wary of male authors writing female characters with intense trauma (especially from male violence) and after much thought, i should be wary because his “complex” female main characters were flat and underdeveloped in my opinion..

It's good, as good as a slasher can be. I really enjoyed the main character inner monologue. But it's not the best book of the author.

fast paced, easy to get through, and an okay read for spooky season. its a lackluster attempt at some of the big ideas Hendrix seems to be interested in (violence against women, entertainment, incels/men being radicalized on the internet, celebrity culture) because he doesnt seem to have anything to actually say about any of it. He just gestures toward the ideas but doesnt land on anything really besides...murder bad? cute little romp of a book for book club though.

I would’ve loved to put a better note, really. I’m sad I didn’t like this book as much as I thought I would but here we go.  At first I really liked the writing style and the plot, it was really interesting to follow Lynnette’s thoughts and to discover the different characters from her point of view only, but then it started to be weird and I had difficulties to follow every stories of every characters. I was lost between all the names and all the stories. But that didn’t stop me from reading the book anyway. The story was still really interesting and I wanted to know the end. At the same time I found it really interesting to have only Lynnette’s thoughts because of the atmosphere it created. I really felt her pain, her thoughts, I really tried to understand her and I really was invested in what was happening. I can’t say I always understood nor supported her and her choices but I did understand the difficulty behind every situation and choice.  I can’t relate to her nor to the other final girls as I never experienced what they experienced so I can’t even say if their reactions and decisions were legit but I think the intentions of the author were still interesting and it opened a window on the women who are final girls in real life. We need representation. Well, what I didn’t like. The book was really long for me. It took me too much time even tho the book hasn’t that much pages. I think the whole thing with Stephanie was too long.  I do understand that maybe we needed moments with Stephanie so we could feel closer to her and so being sad she’s the villain. But it was very long.Some passages were very long for me to read, maybe they were all important but they still didn’t caught my attention. I kept reading because I wanted to know what happens at the end (yes, I was clueless) but I was reading some scenes only to finish the book and not because I actually liked them. And man I was so sad for Skye. I had hope for him, really. I really liked him and I felt heartbroken after the end please I think the whole story of Chrissy was so rushed. I would’ve liked to know more about her and her story to understand her better and not seeing her being kind of a villain nobody understood. I hated each part with Garrett P. I found them interesting and disgusting at the same time. Garrett was an awful and disgusting character and I didn’t like how he used and played with Lynnette when she still was a teenager while he was a grown up man. I found their relationship really inappropriate and kinda toxic. Overall it still was a good book. I just think some stories where too long and some weren’t enough. I gave 4 stars because I think the book is still pretty good and the characters were really interesting!! I really liked reading about those characters.

The reason I purchased this book is that it sounded interesting and I was looking for something spooky for the spooky season. It appealed to me because you never hear about the person (in the book's case, girl) who survives horror movies. Sidney Prescott continues in the series Scream, but how did the attack actually affect her? That is why I figured this book would be an interesting read. It was not. The book is from a POV of an overly paranoid final girl who attends a support group with other final girls who cannot seem to let go of their past. They've all been in said group for 16 years and have made no progress. It was a slow start to the book, and things only got slightly interesting when the mc's fears come to life; someone is trying to kill her, again. It is revealed there's someone coming after all of the girls in the final girl support group which makes it kind of interesting. Yet, it took me an entire month to finish the book. To me, it was filled with nothing but filler chapters and the progress of who the killer is was slow. It very much reminded me of the Scream movies. Except the scream movies are actually a little interesting. I'm not saying the book is downright terrible, but it almost made my do-not-finish list halfway through. But I am stubborn and was curious as to who the killer was. I will say continuing was worth it. There's a huge plot twist at the end. However, huge maybe overexaggerating it a bit. The plot twist was almost the same as the ending of the newest Scream movie and was not all that impressive. Did I see the plot twist coming? No. But once it happened it felt very cliche. A surprise final girl and a man who groomed her into being his assistant. Shocker. The last few things, the killers/attacks in the books are very clearly based on original horror movies but with names and origins changed. One of the killers supposedly killed because two counselors had let his son drown in a lake while they had sex. Sound familiar? There was a twist on that killer because it turned out that he never had a son and was some pervert who had a 'fixation on kids'. Another thing that bothered me was the odd capitalization used when describing someone as black. No special capitalization was used for describing other races or ethnicities so I found this VERY odd (and this was at the beginning of the book!). Overall, 3 out of 5 stars. Not impressed.

Meh

so boring

I couldn't put this one down and finished it in two days. The story follows Lynnette, a survivor of horrible tragedy and her fellow final girl friends. It asks what we carry with us after tragedy and how we move on. It was utterly suspenseful, and felt like a slasher movie - the killer and their motives shifted from moment to moment in a way that made me desperate to get to the end and find out who was behind it all.

A great read overall.

this was… underwhelming

the twists especially in the last chapters had me both having to put the book down for a second and simultaneously wanting to keep reading.

stupid & UNREALISTIC plot and characters

Lynette was annoying at times and there were some unresolved issues, but overall I had a good time, and the audio version was good

Rounded up from 4 1/2 stars. I love how Grady Hendrix's books are not just entertaining and action-packed, but they also have a message. They always leave me feeling hopeful, despite (or maybe even because of) all the horror that has happened throughout. There's always a deeper message about friendship or kindness or persistence. He also notes the complexity of the horror. It's not just monsters coming to get you, it's people. And it's not just because they want to kill you, it's because of, for example, internalized misogyny and manipulation and the desire for fame. The Final Girl Support Group started out feeling a little aimless, but when it came together it really ignited. As with all of Hendrix's books, it has a gimmick, with some kind of supplemental text between every chapter. We get movie reviews, police reports, interviews, etc., all of which help build this world where final girls are both survivors and commodities. The end of this book is an explosive page-turner with a satisfying, and yes, hopeful, conclusion.

A tentative 2.5☆ for the time I spent on this.

I think this might be the worst book I have read this year - and I have read some absolute garbage, but at least I did not have any expectations for those books and I could laugh at their stupidity. This? I spent tweets upon tweets whining about how long "Light Bringer" is (which I am reading simultaneously, as a physical book) and how I do not want to sit through Lysander and Lyria chapters but this book could not get me to run fast enough to go read "Light Bringer". In fact, it made me wish I had picked up its audiobook instead to listen to while I cannot physically read.

This book's main issue was being extremely annoying and just throwing anything at you. I understand that the slasher genre on principle is over-the-top but this just felt nonsensical and, frankly, a little stupid. At no point was I particularly thrilled nor particularly invested. Events just seemed to follow a random order with the most unbelievable connective tissue between them. There is a perpetual feeling of "I guess we are doing that now". I guess there was something very chaotic and retro about this.

But maybe I was just an ill-suited reader for this book; maybe someone would enjoy the chaos and pace of it. For myself, I liked a lot of the ideas behind it - like the twists, the unreliable narrator who never reveals all of their cards to the reader, the twists. But god did the execution made me wish I was doing anything else but reading this book.

a thrilling book full of gruesome twists and turns with an ending you won’t see coming! this one had me looking over my shoulder

⭐️1 This book was DNF-worthy. The book was absolutely awful, and I have never zoned out as much while reading a book as I have with this one. Initially, I was really intrigued by the premise of this book. In spite of the book's great potential and interesting premise, it failed to live up to its potential. The majority of the book left me bored out of my mind. I found the writing to be a bit confusing. Often, the book felt disorganised and unconnected due to flashbacks and flash forwards. I found the book to be oddly written, nonsensical, and baffling. The book can be summarised in one word: baffling. What's also baffling is how this book won the Horror category at the 2021 Goodreads Choice Awards. In all honesty, I am at a loss for words. This is not a book I would recommend to anyone, not even my worst enemy. That's how much I dislike this book. Just one month into 2023, and this book is already a contender for my worst read book of the year.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4 At first I wasn't sure if this book was going to be my cup of tea but I pushed through to give it a chance. And I'm glad I did because this book had me questioning myself on who and what. It had me in its grip and didn't let go until I had finished. I also really liked the idea of it being about final girls that the movies were based on because that does happen and there is a disturbingly large following of serial killers and the likes.

really interesting idea and a really good thriller. the twist towards the end was really good.

I had the highest of expectations for this book. Noelle really liked it, it won the Goodreads award and Grady Hendrix is overall highly praised. However, I couldn't love it. At first, I thought it was going to scare the shit out of me. It didn't. The plot was very interesting and I really liked the writing, but I was expecting so much more from this book.

Good, fast read. Shocking and intense for sure, if that’s your thing. BUT I will say it was hard to follow at times and I feel like by the end of the book I still didn’t know the characters that well. I would have loved a deeper dive into each one, I feel like it was kept kind of surface level.

The problem with thrillers is that you never know if they’re good until you get to the end. This one delivers all that and more with a unique premise, delightfully realistic characters, and a compelling story. Absolutely recommend for anyone who enjoys strong women and crime thrillers.