Horror movies frequently feature a “final girl,” a female character who survives to the end of the movie when most—or all—of the other characters do not. Stephen Graham Jones, author of My Heart Is a Chainsaw, is a big fan of the final girl trope. “The final girl is to the slasher as the silver bullet is to the werewolf, as daylight is to the vampire, as a headshot is to the zombie,” Jones says in Episode 482 of the Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast. “They’re nature’s antidote to this cycle of violence.”

Grady Hendrix, author of The Final Girl Support Group, says that the defining feature of final girls is tenacity. “They don’t quit trying things, they don’t give up,” he says. “Laurie Strode [in Halloween] isn’t very strong or very fast, Ginny in Friday the 13th Part 2 isn’t particularly powerful. They just keep trying, they just don’t stop.”

Final girls often appear in movies, but until recently the trope was less common in books. Horror author Theresa DeLucci says that a new generation of authors are now exploring the idea of final girls in more depth. “I think the trend in final girl fiction has been less watching them from the outside, and more looking at how they feel, and trauma, and the impact of trauma on their lives, from their own point of view,” she says. “And that’s how it’s making it seem fresh again, especially this summer.”

Listen to the complete interview with Stephen Graham Jones, Grady Hendrix, and Theresa DeLucci in Episode 482 of Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy - the podcast is included.