Teenagers talk like this, right? Even if it’s ugly in retrospect. I didn’t know there was a bloody engine inside his head just waiting for someone to turn it on. [loc. 2505]
Lynnette is the sole survivor of an infamous massacre. She's in group therapy with a number of other 'final girls', each of whom has survived contact with (and most of whom have then killed) a monster. Hendrix bases Lynnette and her fellow survivors on 'final girls' in various Eighties horror movies, but in the world he portrays, the 'final girls' own the rights to their stories, which have become successfu franchises. Each of the women in the group has handled the aftermath of horror differently. Julia, left partially paralysed by her experience, is an activist; Adrienne advocates for other survivors; Heather has turned to drink and drugs; Lynnette ... well, the therapist who leads the group, Doctor Carol, describes her as 'hypervigilant'. All Lynnette does is go to therapy and then (using a different route every time and memorising the footwear -- hardest thing to change -- of everyone she meets) home again. She does have a friend. He is a pepper plant named Fine, short for Final Plant.
The novel, after a session of bickering at group therapy, kicks off with one of the Final Girls being murdered. There are rumours that someone in the group is writing a book about her fellow patients, revealing everyone's secrets. Lynnette quickly discovers that her safe fortress of an apartment isn't safe. It seems that someone is out to get them all. Who can she trust? And is she being paranoid, or is she the only person who understands the danger?
Lots here about PTSD, about the dark side of therapy, and especially about gender-based violence. 'Men don’t have to pay attention the way we do. Men die because they make mistakes. Women? We die because we’re female.' [loc. 359] The characters sometimes feel stereotyped (the jock, the nerd, the cheerleader etc), but I think that's partly because each of them was trapped by, and still focusses on, what happened to her, unable to move past it. Happily (at least for me), the descriptions of the things that did happen to the Final Girls are generally sparse and matter-of-fact, being recounted by the women themselves. On the other hand, there's quite a lot of violence during the events of the novel. And at least one point where Lynnette is very badly injured but still, somehow, manages to run up a hill?
Note to publishers, and indeed authors: if your book includes images that contain text, please provide the ebook equivalent of alt text. The text on the images following each chapter -- therapist notes, police reports, forum discussions -- was not readable on my Kindle, and I had to switch to my phone to read, which is not always an option.
Fulfils the ‘a cover without people on it’ rubric of the 52 books in 2024 challenge.
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