Fans of horror recognize the way in which tropes inform storytelling within the genre across mediums. Nowhere is this more apparent than with the archetype of the final girl—a lone surviving heroine at the end of a bloody, gruesome story, who has battled the monsters and won. The term ‘Final Girl’ was first coined by film-theorist Carol J. Clover and further explanation and interrogation of the trope was explored in her book Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film. Final girls have been in existence in the literary space for decades though; Mina Harker in Bram Stoker’s Dracula is one of my favorite unsung and unsuspecting final girls. And our understanding of what it means to be the last woman standing has and will continue to change. Often, in an interrogation of the trope we seek to subvert it—making it relevant in the ever-changing landscape of horror.
With that in mind, though some of my choices for the recommendations in this post fall right in line, others might come as a surprise.
My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephan Graham Jones
My Heart Is a Chainsaw centers main character, Jade Daniels. She is a final girl of her own making. A final girl watching a horror movie scenario playing out in front of her, one in which she doesn’t consider herself worthy of the title of final girl.For horror lovers, this book is a meta analysis of the slasher genre and is a complete delight. From the book’s chapter titles to Jade’s firsthand “reports”, everything in this story is seen through the lens of Jade’s favorite genre—horror. It’s a love letter to the genre as well as a concise interrogation of its pitfalls and shortcomings. Jade’s love of slashers is inextricably intertwined with her traumatic childhood as is her eventual fight to survive. If there is one thing Stephen Graham Jones is going to do, it is that he will give us deeply human experiences wrapped in a blood spattered package. I love everything Stephan Graham Jones writes but this novel has a special place in my heart (pun intended).
Lone Women by Victor LaValle
What does it mean to be a final girl who collects other final girls along the way? This story may not be where most people’s minds go when they think of final girls but I’m placing it here because it belongs. This story is where final girls go to become lone women.
Adelaide Henry is the main character of Victor LaValle’s Lone Women and she begins her story as what appears to be the last woman standing. A terrible event has transpired before we meet Adelaide in its gruesome aftermath. As she douses her family’s home in gasoline and strikes a match, we understand that she is carrying a terrible burden and is seeking someplace that she might set it down both literally and figuratively. Adelaide embodies all of the things that make final girls who they are. She is smart, discerning, determined, and cares for the people around her. Adelaide’s survival as she weathers the harsh Montana winter and a seemingly unending series of shocking and tragic events, is a testament to her strength and perseverance. What sets Adelaide apart is that we see what might become of final girls should they ever have occasion to meet. Adelaide befriends a group of final girls who have all endured harsh circumstances and carved out a life for themselves. Sometimes being the final girl doesn’t mean you are alone, not completely. Lone Women is yet another example of LaValle’s incomparable storytelling. It is incisive, compelling and terrifying all the same time.
The Shining by Stephen King
Her name isn’t synonymous with iconic final girls like Sidney Prescott or Laurie Strode, but it should be. Wendy Torrance holds her own in Stephen King’s The Shining and while some of her stronger character attributes are blunted in the film version of this tale, her portrayal in the novel puts her in the running as a fearsome final girl. Wendy Torrance is a woman who faces and survives a series of monsters that include her abusive husband, Jack. Wendy fights to protect her young son Danny, and herself, all while staring down the supernatural specters at the Overlook Hotel. Novel-Wendy is smart, headstrong, and self-reliant. While snowed in at the Overlook, she manages to evade Jack as he falls victim to the evil that lurks in the darkened hallways but is pushed to extremes when she realizes that the evil is actually targeting Danny. Being a mother to a small child while fighting to survive adds a unique element to the final girl trope. In the end, as Wendy watches the Overlook burn, we get a sense that she is free from many of the monsters that have plagued her life.
Mexican Gothic by Sylvia Moreno-Garcia
Noemí Taboada, the heroine of Sylvia Moreno-Garcia’s 2020 horror novel Mexican Gothic is a strong willed, intelligent young woman from a wealthy family who makes a trip to an estate where her cousin, Catalina, lives with her new husband and his strange family. What begins as a haunted house story becomes something much more sinister as Noemí peels back the layers of this dark and twisted tale. Moreno-Garcia’s writing is evocative of the gothic novels of the past with its gloomy, ominous setting and Noemí is the perfect character to lead us through this terrifying tale. She is confident and headstrong, but the fact that she exists in this space at all is a testament to how the final girl trope is constantly evolving. It is no longer only the white women and girls who get to see a horror story’s end. Mexican Gothic opens up the genre and the tropes that define it to a whole new audience. I will never look at mushrooms the same way after reading this book!
The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
Hear me out. Christine Daaé. Yes, the main character of what, until its recent end, had been the longest running show on Broadway, The Phantom of the Opera. However, before Andrew Lloyd Webber turned it into a musical, it was a book written by French author Gaston Leroux. Christine fits nicely into the dimensions of the final girl box. In Leroux’s tale, Christine is the young girl with the angelic voice who takes lessons from the Angel of Music only to be manipulated by him and eventually taken prisoner in his lair under the opera house. Christine uses her wits and cunning to lull the opera ghost into a false sense of security which allows her to escape and alert her true love, Raoul, to the growing threat. While Christine manages to escape the Opera ghost in the end and finds her happiness with Raoul, she cannot let the events of what happened in the opera house rest. Much like Laurie Strode who, because of her traumatic association with Michael Myers, often feels a sense of obligation toward him, Christine returns to the opera house to see what has become of the Opera ghost and when she finds him dead, she buries him and leaves with Raoul never to return again.
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You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight
Kalynn Bayron is the bestselling author of young adult novels Cinderella Is Dead, This Poison Heart, and This Wicked Fate and the middle grade novel The Vanquishers, and is a classically trained vocalist. She grew up in Anchorage, Alaska. When she’s not writing you can find her listening to Ella Fitzgerald on loop, attending the theater, watching scary movies, and spending time with her kids. She currently lives in Ithaca, New York with her family.
