The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix

 

In horror movies, the final girl is the one who's left standing when the credits roll. The one who fought back, defeated the killer, and avenged her friends. The one who emerges bloodied but victorious. But after the sirens fade and the audience moves on, what happens to her?

Lynnette Tarkington is a real-life final girl who survived a massacre twenty-two years ago, and it has defined every day of her life since. And she's not alone. For more than a decade she's been meeting with five other actual final girls and their therapist in a support group for those who survived the unthinkable, putting their lives back together, piece by piece. That is until one of the women misses a meeting and Lynnette's worst fears are realized--someone knows about the group and is determined to take their lives apart again, piece by piece.

But the thing about these final girls is that they have each other now, and no matter how bad the odds, how dark the night, how sharp the knife, they will never, ever give up. 

A group of 6 "Final Girls" meet once a month for a group therapy session that seems more like a place to argue and insult each other than to recover from past trauma. Now someone is out to kill them all... I guess because that is what's supposed to happen, the slashers in horror movies keep coming back no matter how many times you manage to kill them and survive. But who is it? Which monster has found out about the group? Who is coming to kill them after all this time? Or maybe it's more than one person. What if it's several all working together? Now it's up to Lynette to find out who is after them before there is no one left to save. They never considered Lynette to be a true Final Girl because she didn't have to kill her attacker to survive. Maybe this time she will outlive them all.

I really wanted to love this book more than I was able to. It was a great idea and I'm not entirely sure why it missed the mark with me. I think it is partly because the characters in this book are heavily  "borrowed" from or at least based on the survivors of old slasher movies that I enjoyed. Because of that I already had my own ideas about their personalities and the way they might behave. In this book, these survivors mostly do not like each other, or themselves so I didn't like them much either. It also felt more like an action/thriller to me than a horror. There were lots of exciting action scenes but nothing that was really scary.

3 out of 5 stars

I received an advance copy for review.

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The List of Unspeakable Fears by J. Kasper Kramer

 

Expected publication: September 14th 2021 by Atheneum Books for Young Readers 

• Grade level ‏ : ‎ 3 - 7

The War That Saved My Life meets Coraline in this chilling middle grade historical novel from the author of the acclaimed The Story That Cannot Be Told following an anxious young girl learning to face her fears—and her ghosts—against the backdrop of the typhoid epidemic.

Essie O’Neill is afraid of everything. She’s afraid of cats and electric lights. She’s afraid of the silver sick bell, a family heirloom that brings up frightening memories. Most of all, she’s afraid of the red door in her nightmares.

But soon Essie discovers so much more to fear. Her mother has remarried, and they must move from their dilapidated tenement in the Bronx to North Brother Island, a dreary place in the East River. That’s where Essie’s new stepfather runs a quarantine hospital for the incurable sick, including the infamous Typhoid Mary. Essie knows the island is plagued with tragedy. Years ago, she watched in horror as the ship General Slocum caught fire and sank near its shores, plummeting one thousand women and children to their deaths.

Now, something on the island is haunting Essie. And the red door from her dreams has become a reality, just down the hall from her bedroom in her terrifying new house. Convinced her stepfather is up to no good, Essie investigates. Yet to uncover the truth, she will have to face her own painful history—and what lies behind the red door.

Life as Essie knows it, in the cramped tenements of NYC is drastically changed when her mother announces that she has married  a man that Essie has never even heard her mention before. As if that isn't enough to induce a panic attack she is also told she will have to pack her things, leaving her friends and her school behind to go live on an island where people with dangerously contagious illnesses are sent to quarantine. In fact she may even meet the dreaded Typhoid Mary.

Essie is still grieving for her father and suffering the trauma of his death when she meets her new step father, an imposing figure with strange mannerisms who she begins to suspect of nefarious deeds. Strange goings on in the night may also mean that she is now living in a haunted house.

Essie was a girl after my own heart, who suffers frequent nightmares and anxiety. 

In an odd coincidence I read this book on the anniversary of the tragedy in Little Germany, an incident that I had never even heard of until I read this book. When it was first mentioned I looked it up, and what I found tells me that what was later explained in the book was factually correct, always an important part of historical fiction for me is accuracy of the time period. This was a well researched work of historical fiction with a bit of spooky suspense and a lesson that without fear there is no such thing as bravery, Essie learns that being afraid is ok but that things almost never turn out as badly as we feared they would. Although this is listed as being for readers in grades 3-7 there is really no reason it can not be enjoyed by older readers.

5 out of 5 stars

I received an advance copy for review.

Available for pre-order

About the author
J. Kasper Kramer is an author and English professor in Chattanooga, Tennessee. She has a master's degree in creative writing and once upon a time lived in Japan, where she taught at an international school. When she's not curled up with a book, Kramer loves researching lost fairy tales, playing video games, and fostering kittens.

Website: www.jkasperkramer.com 

Ride or Die by James Newman

Amelia Fletcher is a good girl. She’s a straight-A student, second chair in her middle-school chorus, and she never uses the Lord’s name in vain.

But a few days ago, she discovered that her dad has been cheating on her mom.

For the first time in her life, Amelia decides she would like to know what it feels like to be a bad girl. For just one night.

With the help of her BFFs, Cassie and Folline, she plans to teach Dad’s “other woman” a lesson. It's harmless fun, right? An evening of teenage mischief. When all is said and done, the homewrecker will go away and never come back. Only then can Amelia's family begin to repair what has been broken.

However, this was no ordinary affair. And the trio could never expect the horrors that await them inside the house on Callaghan Drive.

When three teenage besties set out to teach someone a lesson about messing with a married man, the important thing to remember is that nobody was supposed to get hurt. Their intention was only to make the other woman go away. Sure there may have been some property damage, but mild destruction was not meant to include death. Well you know what they say about best-laid plans. Things go awry for Amelia and her friends when they discover a horrifying secret and there's no telling who will survive the night on Callaghan Drive.

"Silence. Even the crickets had stopped chirping for now. As if they too were appalled at what they had witnessed."

I loved the friendship between these three girls and the way they were portrayed as willing to do anything for each other no matter the risk. These girls were tough as nails in a day when so many female characters in horror are portrayed as catty or weak and waiting for a man to swoop in and save them. The story itself is quite unsettling. It went places I did not expect to go. 

5 out of 5 stars

I received an advance copy for review.

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Camp Neverland by Lisa Quigley

 

Camp Neverland is special. At least that's what it said on the mysterious brochure. But when Max arrives to discover her tormentor Chuck Snyder is there, too, her hopes for a magical summer are dashed. Still, the bond she develops with her cabinmates feels almost too good to be true. And when kids start dying in gruesome ways, Max hides a frightening secret. She soon learns just how far she'll go to belong.

Camp Neverland
Book 29 in the Rewind-or-Die series: imagine your local movie rental store back in the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s, remember all those fantastic covers. Remember taking those movies home and watching in awe as the stories unfolded in nasty rainbows of gore, remember the atmosphere and textures. Remember the blood.

This was my first venture into the Rewind or Die series and although this is book 29 don't let that stop you from diving in. This is a stand alone novella, in the style of those great old horror movies of yester-year.

Max is a lonely teenage girl with a passion for drawing, and no friends to speak of. She is ignored by most, and tormented by one in particular. She is looking forward to the end of the school year when she can get a break from being bullied and harassed by Chuck, the boy who makes her life hell. This summer will be special, because she's going away to Camp Neverland, a mysterious summer camp that sounds too good to be true. Now we all know what happens in horror movies when a teen is bullied beyond her breaking point. Especially a girl like Max who may be more powerful than she knows. Bad things happen that's what. Painful, deadly things.

This was a fun read with a nostalgic horror movie vibe. I enjoyed the woodsy camp setting and will definitely be looking into more of the Ride or Die series. 

I received an advance copy for review.

Camp Neverland will be published on June 24

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About the author

Lisa Quigley is a writer, mother, wife, and irreverent witch living in New Jersey. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of California, Riverside's low-residency MFA program in Palm Desert. Her work has appeared in Unnerving Magazine, Automata Review, The Manifest Station, and more. She is the co-host of the dark fiction podcast Ladies of the Fright, and she is a professor of English and communications.