{Audiobook Review} THE LAST FINAL GIRL by Stephen Graham Jones

 

The Last Final Girl

Standalone

Stephen Graham Jones

Horror

216 Pages

Blurb:

"The Last Final Girl is like Quentin Tarantino's take on The Cabin in the Woods. Bloody, absurd, and smart. Plus, there's a killer in a Michael Jackson mask." - Carlton Mellick III, author of Apeshit

Life in a slasher film is easy. You just have to know when to die.

Aerial View: A suburban town in Texas. Everyone's got an automatic garage door opener. All the kids jump off a perilous cliff into a shallow river as a rite of passage. The sheriff is a local celebrity. You know this town. You're from this town.

Zoom In: Homecoming princess, Lindsay. She's just barely escaped death at the hands of a brutal, sadistic murderer in a Michael Jackson mask. Up on the cliff, she was rescued by a horse and bravely defeated the killer, alone, bra-less. Her story is already a legend. She's this town's heroic final girl, their virgin angel.

Monster Vision: Halloween masks floating down that same river the kids jump into. But just as one slaughter is not enough for Billie Jean, our masked killer, one victory is not enough for Lindsay. Her high school is full of final girls, and she's not the only one who knows the rules of the game.

When Lindsay chooses a host of virgins, misfits, and former final girls to replace the slaughtered members of her original homecoming court, it's not just a fight for survival-it's a fight to become The Last Final Girl.

My Review:

This was my first book by Stephen Graham Jones although I've seen his books recommended by booksellers before and added them to my TBR.

 The Last Final Girl is a satirical homage (in my opinion) to the campy 80s horror that fans know and love. If you like movies like Scream and Friday the 13th I think you'll really like this book because it reminded me of elements of both. 

The way it reads (or is told as I listened to the audiobook) is like you are watching a movie that pans from one character's perspective to another. It is like you're watching a movie, and I love how that was done because I enjoy books that are unconventional. 

The cast of characters are a mixture of what you'd normally find in a horror movie along with a bunch of unlikely heroine types. The one thing I didn't get was the Billie Jean thing (as I am neither a fan of Michael Jackson or a child of the 80s) so I had to look it up. 

If you like the horror genre and know it's not to be taken seriously, you'll enjoy this book. I didn't really find it scary which is why I think of it more as satirical horror.  I recommend listening to the audiobook!

My Rating:

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

4.75 of 5 Stars!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? - 17 May 2021

#IMWAYR is a weekly meme started on J Kaye’s blog and then was hosted by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at The Book Date.

Happy Monday Bookdragons! I've been taking advantage of my library's hoopla borrows the past week and enjoying a bunch of audiobooks and ebooks... 

What I Read Last Week: 

Shadow Touched (A Touch of Vampire Book 1) by Becky Moynihan

Becky is such a talented author and I loved this paranormal romance novel. Vampires are coming back to popularity in books lately and this is the first one I've really enjoyed recently. This has all the elements to love - vampires, werewolves, witches, secrets, swoon-worthy boys, great friendships, and steamy chemistry between the main character and her love interest.

The Last Final Girl by Stephen Graham Jones

This was my first book by Stephen Graham Jones although I've seen his books recommended by booksellers before and added them to my TBR. The Last Final Girl is a satirical homage to the campy 80s horror that fans know and love. The way it reads (or is told as I listened to the audiobook) is like you are watching a movie that pans from one character's perspective to another. It is like you're watching a movie, and I love how that was done because I enjoy books that are unconventional. If you like the horror genre and know it's not to be taken seriously, you'll enjoy this book. I recommend listening to the audiobook!

The Second-Best Haunted Hotel on Mercer Street by Cory Putman Oakes

I saw this book on bookstagram but I can't afford to buy books right now. Luckily my library's Hoopla had it and I was able to enjoy this cute middle grade read. I don't often read middle grade but I loved everything about this book! I even teared up a little bit when a couple of the ghosts Moved On... I know, I know... I'm a 28-year-old woman blubbering over a book written for young readers. I'll definitely buy a copy of this in the future to add to my collection. 

Currently Reading:

Fresh Brewed Murder by Emmeline Duncan

This is a book I saw on a Can't Wait Wednesday post a month or so back. I'm not the biggest fan of cozy mysteries but this one is an interesting mystery without having all the squeaky-clean aspects of a Hallmark movie. I love the complexity of Sage's background and how she's overcome her mother's infamy to become the full-rounded person she is. As a coffee addict I'm also enjoying all the coffee references. I'll finish this audiobook tonight (only 50 pages left) and I'm definitely looking forward to reading more of this series!

Next Read

No Way Out by Fern Michaels

I remember my grandmother reading Fern Michaels's books over the years but I always thought they were more in the romance genre so I didn't read them. But when I saw this book on the library's Hoopla and read the description I added it to my borrow's list. 

*** 

 What are you reading this week? Have you read any of my recent reads?

Friday Night Frights: There's Someone Inside Your House

Hey Bookdragons! Welcome to the 4th installment of the Friday Night Frights meme!

How It Works:
On your blog feature a horror novel you loved (it doesn't have to be a new release) and recommend a horror movie you love then come back here and post your link in the comments! That's it, as simple as that! 

There's Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins

Love hurts...

Makani Young thought she'd left her dark past behind her in Hawaii, settling in with her grandmother in landlocked Nebraska. She's found new friends and has even started to fall for mysterious outsider Ollie Larsson. But her past isn't far behind.

Then, one by one, the students of Osborne Hugh begin to die in a series of gruesome murders, each with increasingly grotesque flair. As the terror grows closer and her feelings for Ollie intensify, Makani is forced to confront her own dark secrets.

What I loved about There's Someone Inside Your House:

I love, love, loved this book! It was gripping and fast-paced, gory yet not too scary. The killings were well plotted (if not a little unbelievable in a couple cases) and when they were woven in with the hints of Makani's mysterious past it really made you wonder what exactly Makani had done for her parents to ship her off to Nebraska. Could she be the killer, I wondered. 

In true horror-suspense fashion I kept guessing at who the killer might be up until the reveal. I was a bit worried, because we find out the identity of the killer with about 100 pages left in the book, about how the author would wrap the book up. Surely the killer wouldn't be able to go on killing once people knew who he was, right? Boy was I wrong! 

This book had me biting my nails until the very end.

Movie Rec: Alone in the Dark

My grandmother watched this movie first. It was 3 am and she wakes me up to tell me about this terrifying movie she's watching on Turner Classic Movies. I caught maybe 5 minutes before I went back to bed, promising my grandmother I'd add it to the Netflix queue so we could watch it together. 

"Dr. Bain (Donald Pleasence) precariously presides over an eerie asylum that houses its fair share of eccentrics and very dangerous figures, including the murderous Frank Hawkes (Jack Palance) and the holier-than-thou Byron "Preacher"Sutcliff (Martin Landau). Not even the arrival of kindly Dr. Dan Potter (Dwight Schultz) on the scene can keep everyone in check. And when the lights go out mysteriously all over town, mayhem starts to rule."

I went in not knowing what to expect from this movie. Was it as scary as my grandmother said? Would it frighten me, the unfrightenable? 

Alone in the Dark is classic 80s horror in all the best ways. It's got an asylum run by a doctor who should probably be a patient, not one - not two - but FOUR crazy killers, an unsuspecting doctor who comes to work at the asylum leaving his family at home after a blackout.. and that's just a taste. 

If you like Friday the 13th, Halloween, or the original Nightmare on Elm Street and it's classic slasher horror format you need to check out Alone in the Dark ASAP!