Hendrix’s novel has a clever hook: what if the girls who survive horrific mass killings grew up, with all the emotional baggage and residual issues they surely must have from such trauma, and were in a support group, led by a dedicated clinical psychologist? And what if that group started to be targeted by a psychotic killer? This novel is part homage, part send-up of seventies and eighties slasher movies, such as Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Friday the 13th. Hendrix hits every trope, and has many Easter eggs planted for fans of those movies. While I did not watch those films, the devices and themes are well embedded in our culture. The Last Girl is the typical good girl— good grades, resists going all the way with her boyfriend— who survives the psycho killer who kills all her friends at the summer camp, or her nighttime babysitting gig, battling back with smarts and grit, and running, hiding, and screaming. She usually has to survive one or more sequels, since the psycho escapes, or is released prematurely, or has a crazy brother, or some other copycat who becomes obsessed with her. Often the murdering tool is unconventional, such as a machete, chainsaw, meat hook, the more unlikely the better.

So what would the Last Girl be like, if she made it to womanhood? This story is told from the perspective of Lynette Tarkington, who spends her time and every penny on personal security, rigging out her apartment with carefully thought-out surveillance and obstacles to any access; has learned every survival skill; planted go bags and back-up kits and a car; and whose daily routines take hours longer than necessary, due to the circuitous and unpredictable paths required to thwart any attempts to follow her. In short, Lynette has no life, unless you can call paranoid survival a life. Dr. Carol Elliott has facilitated this support group for 16 years, when one member is killed, and rapidly others are threatened and attacked. These Last Girls-become women are survivors for a reason, however, and quickly use their defense mechanisms to spring into action. Trouble is, they were each last girls, alone— working as a team is not in their toolbox. They will need to learn how to act as a team to survive this onslaught, however.

We learn the back stories of each woman, and how they chose to cope with the subsequent trauma. While it becomes difficult to keep them straight at times, the more quickly you read the novel, the more fun it is. Hendrix ties the slasher movie phenomenon to the mass killings of today, suggesting that the killer’s motive is to be remembered in the social consciousness by name, acquiring lasting celebrity status. The author addresses the misogyny of the slasher phenomenon, and the pseudo-psychological explanations, in a conversation between Lynette and Chrissy Mercer, a Last Girl who identified with the killer, known as Stockholm Syndrome. Hendrix artfully inserts these ideas in the flow of the story, never didactic or slowing the pace. The killings, attacks and defenses become more outlandish and over the top as we speed toward the novel’s climax.

Even if you aren’t a fan of such cinema, you’ll enjoy Hendrix’s storytelling. His ideas are creative, dialogue is quick and clever, and characters are wacky, eccentric, and offbeat. He manages to create a story structure much like the slasher movies themselves, convoluted, quick paced, sacrificing some plot integrity for the over-the-top action. This is a very fun read. One of the funniest books I’ve read this year, in a macabre way.