Book 40 Final Girls Support Group

 

Final Girls Support Group by Grady Hendrix fulfilled the category “Book with a Quote from your Favorite Author on the Cover or Amazon Page” for the PopSugar 2022 Reading Challenge. I read so many books.

My search for this category was difficult. I love many authors and try to find titles I wanted to read with quotes already built in. Yeah, that didn’t work out well. Among the four I ended up reading, one seemed worthy of a blog post. But here they are.

The Troop by Nick Cutter has a quote from Stephen King on the jacket and the Amazon page. I use horror books for the October posts and figured here was a good match. The story centers on a troop of boy scouts on an overnight trip to a secluded island to earn their last few badges. Unbeknownst to them, a man exposed to a deadly virus has escaped a laboratory and is hiding on the island. Let the chaos ensue.

I mostly liked the novel. The plot was solid, and the horror factor good. I thought the author went too far. Adding more conflict with a sociopathic kid felt a bit much. But honestly, the lack of editing on the description of the horrific events killed me. The author would describe some gnarly, bloody scene and, as a reader, I was like, “whoa.” He added more and more description until the whole thing became comical. Less is more, Mr. Cutter. Overall, the book was enjoyable, but I had months to find others.

The second title was The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz. This book also has a quote from Stephen King on the Amazon page. I’d seen it go in and out of the library many times and grabbed a copy.

The Plot centers on a writer stealing a plot idea from a student. The writer is struggling to become successful with something new and exciting. The student tells the teacher his idea, then dies under mysterious circumstances. So, our writer writes the book. Afterward, he is stalked and terrorized by both his own guilt and a stranger who calls him out over his “theft.”

I had a few issues with the concept of the book. First, plots are not subject to copyright. As a teacher, he would know that. The whole guilty conscious bit felt contrived and unrealistic in today’s writing world. No plot is unique. It’s the author’s interpretation and words that make writing original. And the “amazing” plot he “stole” was just another story told a thousand times—secret identities, murder, sociopathic behavior. The book fell flat for me.

I can’t seem to find the quote that got me to Devil House by John Darnielle. My hopes for this title fell flat. The end of the book didn’t match the beginning. It seemed as if the author’s idea ran its course before he finished. Instead of reworking it, he switched the plot and ruined the story for me. I won’t say more.

The last book I grabbed was Final Girls Support Group by Grady Hendrix. It has a credit on the “blurb” page from David Wong, author of John Dies at the End and Charlaine Harris, author of the Sookie Stackhouse novels. I’ve read a few others by the author, HorrorStör being my favorite. In this novel, Mr. Hendrix pays tribute to the women who’ve survived slasher horror films. Each woman has a unique backstory and current trauma from dealing with being the last person standing against a slasher killer.

The book was so fun. I loved putting the movies with the characters he created. Each person had their own unique trauma and method of dealing with it. Some choose fame, some hiding, some something in-between. The women attend a group therapy session to help work through their ordeals, but the group is breaking up. Someone is after the last five women standing. The plot twists and turns until you have no idea who the killer is. I suggest boning up on your slasher movies—Friday the 13^th, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Halloween.

So, for your reading pleasure, here are four scary books that might tickle your fancy this October. I liked Final Girls Support Group the best.

I give Final Girls Support Group by Grady Hendrix Five Butcher Knives Hidden under your Pillow.