This horror/thriller follows Lynnette Tarkington 22 years after she survived a massacre at her family home. She has spent the last two decades of her life protecting herself and preparing for the possibility of another attack. Over the past 10 years, she's been involved in a support group where all the other members were the 'final girl' of their own horrific massacre. The group is close to disbanding as many of the members have put the pieces of their lives back together and have moved forward. However, Lynnette's worst fears are realized after one member of the group is found dead and other members are put in danger. It seems like someone has found out about the support group and is dead set on taking out these last surviving women.
This is an absolutely phenomenal ride of a book. It is pure summer slasher blockbuster in book format and if the premise is at all interesting, I highly recommend you pick it up. I did pick up on a lot of structural similarities between this book and Hendrix's previous book (The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires). Similarities include: the group of women all connected by one aspect of their lives but very different in the others, the main character is convinced she is right but the other characters think she's overreacting, and the group of women come together at the end to face off against the main antagonist who has highly underestimated them. I think this is a really great horror-lite book that really feels like it embraces the slasher genre and takes the final girl trope further than other similar books I've read.
The characters in this story were my favorite part. I thought they were all incredibly well developed and interesting while being so different from one another. There are six members of the support group and each had their own very different characterization and response to their different final-girl situations. I really loved the choice to have them be older women because that gave us the chance to see how some of the maybe more immediate outcomes of being a final girl would have long term consequences. For example, books and movie deals may seem like a good idea at the beginning, but having to re-live your trauma constantly by going on book tours or to movie releases might not be so satisfying. And, of course, just because a group of people have one thing in common does not mean they get along automatically. There's a good amount of disagreement in the group in regards to how things were handled/should be handled for the best outcome individually and as a group. These differences then act as stress points for the rest of the plot as some of the unresolved tension between members comes to the surface. There are so many layers to each character that they feel very developed and well fleshed out even though we are only in Lynnette's POV through the whole story.
There's a multimedia aspect to this book that I really liked where in between some of the chapters, there would be examples of movie posters or news articles about the different women. It felt very similar to a documentary/true crime style of book instead of fiction. We get the basic information in the narrative, but these extra bits did add extra depth to the backstory of these different women. It is one thing to know that one woman had a multi-movie franchise basically made of the massacre she survived and it is a whole other level to see the movie release announcement in the book. As a downside, these little breaks did break my immersion in the story a bit and thus it felt like they slowed the pacing down. This was a very fast paced book and normally I would like having a bit of a break but I was so entertained by the plot that I just wanted to stay in that world and keep reading. Another thing that annoyed me a bit was how many of the events the women in the book survived are direct nods to classic slasher films. Now, obviously, this could just be Hendrix giving a nod to the slashers that inspired him but I just wish the events were more unique because it felt a little less like an homage and more like not very well hidden Easter-eggs for slasher fans. Maybe it was just me, but I would be reading through the summary of an event and I'd say to myself "oh, that's just Friday the 13th".
The horror and thriller elements were really well woven together in this narrative in a way that I think would attract readers of both genres. I really feel that Hendrix, especially with the success of his previous book, is a pretty commercial author so maybe this book would be overlooked or discounted by 'real' horror fans. And while I'm not a super-fan of the horror genre, I think this book had a lot going for it on that front. Hendrix is fantastic at capturing Lynnette's panic in the high-tension situations she finds herself in. The event that she lived through initially has obviously shaped her entire life and she'll see some more horrible things by the end of this book. It goes full slasher by the end, but there's a really great psychological horror build up before where we aren't sure if Lynnette is seeing and understanding things correctly. Also, the events that the women survived, even if they're just summarized, are really horrific so I think it has a lot to offer horror readers who like those sort of psychological/slasher horror tropes. From the thriller side of things, this book is pretty much pure thriller. There is a bit of a mystery element included where Lynnette is trying to figure out who is killing off members of the support group. However, her following clues and piecing an investigation together is done while she's dodging bullets and stealing cars. There are some fantastic thriller twists and reveals in this book that gave me such a rush when I read them I cannot recommend this book enough.
Finally, I just need to talk about the writing style and how fantastic it is. I've seen from some reviews that they felt the narrative style and plot points were a bit over-the-top and unrealistic. And while I can agree with them on that point, I don't view that as a negative. Hendrix's writing, for me, is so vivid and cinematic it is like I'm watching a movie in my head. I don't usually visualize very clearly when I read but there's something about the things Hendrix chooses to focus on or point out that really work with my brain. Yeah, this is over-the-top in the way every summer action movie is over-the-top and I wouldn't necessarily point to this as an accurate representation of support groups after traumatic events. But I would absolutely recommend it as a really fun and fast paced read especially for readers looking for horror/thriller elements but aren't looking for anything too serious.
Overall, this was a fantastic read. Summer slasher and blockbuster action movie all rolled into one. The plot and writing style are a little over-the-top and aren't going to be for everyone, but I absolutely loved this book and Hendrix is quickly becoming an auto-read author for me.
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