The Final Girl Support Group
by Grady Hendrix
Berkley, June 2023, $17, paperback
Very high concept, very meta, The Final Girl Support Group, by Grady Hendrix, celebrates the tropes and dashes preconceptions of the so-called Slasher film genre. “Final Girls," are the "real-world" women whose tragic experiences inspire the seemingly endless stream of horror movies featuring high kill counts and a plethora of plucky, never-say-die heroines.
Five of these women are now in support group therapy together, having lived through traumas most could hardly comprehend. They do their best to move on from these experiences, dealing with the fallout in myriad and surprising ways. Most do manage to cope, with varying degrees of success, but, one by one, they begin falling under attack from a mysterious killer, who seems intent on exterminating them. As they again face imminent death, they are forced to revisit their sad histories, and confront the fallout caused by their coping mechanisms.
One of their number, Lynette Tarkington, whose Final Girl status has been questioned in the press and by serial killer aficionados, finds herself on her way to becoming the literal last woman standing as she desperately seeks to uncover the identity of their merciless stalker.
Hendrix’s latest is a sly, ironic, subversive, and darkly funny novel, one that delivers unexpected laughs and chills, exciting action and covert commentary on a society that seemingly can’t get enough of these women in peril. A love letter to slasher films, it’s also critical of them, harshly condemning the pillars of these movies, which seemingly celebrate the cheapness of life and the vulnerability of women. Given its release date, I want desperately to say it makes for “terrific summer reading,” but, truth is, it’s a gripping, highly readable piece of work that will thrill you any time of year.
A review of this novel in hardcover first appeared in the print issue of Mystery Scene Magazine.
The Private Eye Writers of America
Puzzles get harder as they go along. In the easy section, each Murdle has three suspects, three weapons, and three possible crime scenes. The rules say that a suspect can have only one weapon and can be in only place. Ergo, once you've deduced which weapon a suspect has and where they have been, no other suspect can claim that weapon or be in that place. The identity of the murderer (hopefully) becomes clear. As the puzzles get harder, the number of each variable is increased to four, and you are also asked to guess the motive for the murder.
