The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires
Ratings413
Average rating3.8
i had so much fun with this one definitely my favorite grady hendrix i loved the characters (besides the men) and the ending was so so good i was scared about it but everything wrapped up so good. Grady Hendrix is an amazing author and now its time for me to read his whole backlist
I picked this one up thinking it was a cozy mystery. It's not...it's really really not.
It's the ladies of Steel Magnolias + The husbands of Stepford x Joe Hill...emphasis on Hill. Laugh out loud funny at times (Bridges of Madison County goes hilariously sideways at one point) - and then swings like a pendulum into whoamygawd horror.
That was so out of my comfort zone. I hope I will never read about cockroach in the anyone's ear ever again.
Awesome first book for bookclub with my friends. All of us even finished it and we had a lot to talk about.
As for the bookclub in the book - I wanted more from it. It was always somewhere in the background, always mentioned but rarely directly involved. The whole book had a bit weird plot structure. There was a lot of overshadowing and reader had no doubts about who the vampire was. But he was kinda the obvious monster. The main nightmare were lives of the women which looked more or less perfect but were very far from it.
Well, this book did provide me with the happiest of all possible endings, when the MC said that she wants a divorce. I hated her husband so much I couldn't understand how she can be with him in the same space. Especially when he opens his mouth. The murder should've happend sooner and to Carter.
I love this so much!! The description of the horror scenes had me reading with my book at arms length. I held my breath and gasped. The characters are written in such a way that I was rooting for those I loved and despising those I didn't. Any book that evokes this much emotion in me can never be less than a 5 star.
I found the plot to be enjoyable although at times uncomfortable. I don't lessen my rating for this however as it is of the genre that uses shock value.
Definitely check TWs
The plot was gripping
but I felt a bit uncomfortable with the usage of sex of a plot. They didn't need to be naked, he didn't need to suck on the inner thigh. The author could have chosen several different places on the body.
3.5 - it was fun, the gore/body horror was good and it read really quickly, which I liked :) chapters were short too but wasn't overwhelmingly fantastic. I'm glad I read it !
First time doing an audiobook as an adult. The reader did a pretty good job, but I won't really get into that.
This one was a slow burner. Last third was way more exciting that the first 2/3. I have a lot to say about the content but it's already been said a billion times in the other reviews. Let's just leave it at: this book was just OK.
I've seen criticism of the women representation in this book, personally I found this book to be no worse in its representation of women than a lot of books I've read that were written by women so I did not take particular exception to that. Are the characters somewhat flat? Yes. Is that something I would expect from that type of narration? Also yes.
The white woman main character ends up leaving the heavy lifting at the end to the black woman and the fattie (the character is never actually described as fat as far as I can remember but it's implied that she is heavyset) even though it was not that she wanted to leave it to them that seemed pretty realistic to me.
There were definitely moments where I was afraid this book would take a turn for the white saviorism but when it did it turned around and bit the character in the proverbial ass.
It also doesn't end with our “heroine” going back to her status quo so but with her divorcing the jerk so there's also that part which was satisfying.
Long story short, I enjoyed it well enough even though it was a little too lengthy for my tastes.
Grady Hendrix nails life in South Carolina in the late 80s/early 90s. My family moved to upstate SC in ‘89; my parents were around the age of the parents in this book, I was 14, and my brother was 7. Some folks have criticized that Patricia cared too much about what other people thought of her, but that was exactly the experience my Mom and I had during the decade we lived there. There was a lot of pressure to conform to certain societal norms, certainly more than the Chicago suburbs we came from.
I enjoyed the author's sense of humor and references to the horror genre (not as prevalent as in “The Final Girl Support Group”).
The audiobook version was really well-done; now that's it's fall, I love going for long walks and listening to good books. This production and story made me itch to get out for a walk.
I don't know how to rate this book because I can't say I really “enjoyed” reading this book but it did keep me captivated and turning the pages. There's something to be said with how terrifying danger can be when it moves quietly underneath the fog of suburban mundanity.
Mr. Hendrix wrote a truly masterful thriller mystery - highlighting how important it is to believe people and protect not just your own without making this book feel like a moral parable.
SPOILER CONTENT BELOW HERE
My biggest gripe with this book is that I felt none of the men received any consequences. All of the husbands were complicit to an extent - choosing to not believe their wives and paint them as crazy. Choosing instead to stay in the false safety of the brotherhood of white affluency. Sure they lost money but its that really the comeuppance they deserved?
Mrs. Greene was the true protagonist and hero of this story. Without her I don't think there would be a story to tell. She was my favorite character of all the women.
Overall I think I'd rate this 3.5 stars.
5 stars!! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I was on the fence between a 4.5 and a 5 star but since I stopped reading, I can't stop thinking about everything that's happened!
What a whirlwind. From beginning to end I was pushed from one direction to another, not knowing what to think or who to believe or what the hell was going on.
Honestly from reading this... I'm gullible as hell lmao. I truly enjoyed Patricia as a main character. I enjoyed how deeply she cared and her determination to keep people especially children safe. I loved the friendship between the women in the book club and I loved how you could see the ups and downs in the friendship. The husbands.. SUCKED. Especially Carter. But I am so happy how things wrapped up in the end.
This caught me by surprise. Definitely wasn't expecting this to be a 5 star but I'm so glad it was. AND my first Grady Hendrix!! Can't wait to read more by him!
4.5
This book was unique, disturbing, complex, atmospheric and one of the most entertaining books I read this year. Truly an unforgettable read!
There were so many moments in this book that made me shake with rage because the characters were just being so awful. The people were worse than the vampire most of the time. The climax was just so good, everyone should experience it. Loved getting to see older women standing up against the men in their lives and just being so badass.
“We're a book club,” Maryellen said. “What are we supposed to do? Read him to death?”
Yes, exactly that. (Just kidding, they didn't but how fun that would've been lol)
Dang, the narration was so good, and Hendrix's way of writing kind of sucks you in with all that detail that you don't need to hear but you listen anyway LOL
The summary had me hooked! Recommended by my husband because he knows I love a good suspense/thriller story. I hadn't read a horror book before in my adult years so it was a different type of read for me. I liked it! It had some slow parts and some weird parts, but I did enjoy it. This was book #3 on my group book club thing we have going on!
Despite everything that follows, I think this is basically a perfect novel. Grady Hendrix's modern output is immaculately plotted, richly detailed, eye-burningly addictive, and chockablock with vibrant three dimensional fully realized characters. He is a fucking master of his craft and an author I'll never not be excited to devour a new release from.
That said, I think his current output is bordering on being TOO perfect? It's not that the books are predictable, and it's not like they're dumbed down or overly simplified. It's almost like, and I hate this comparison but, it's almost like they're the horrorlit version of Marvel movies? Like, written by committee almost, focus tested and data-driven to perfection. Inorganically designed to be the least offensive and most broadly acclaimed?
Again, this is a 5-star nearly perfect book and I'm basically nitpicking here, but I think my biggest issue is that it's just TOO digestible. It goes down so quick and so easy. It's a popcorn novel. I devoured it and when I was finished I was still hungry. After I finished it I was left kind of empty. No lingering wondering or questioning, no real thoughts besides “that was great! ok now what's next?”
A large part of why I like to read books, especially horror books, is that I like to feel challenged. I like ambiguity and open-endedness and unclear motives and confusion and maybe just a little bit to reaffirm my belief that nothing happens for a reason and everything is chaos. This definitely isn't that. It's very neat. It's very clean. It's absolutely perfect. I loved it. I also want more from Grady Hendrix. I hope he doesn't languish in this space for long. I'll keep reading his perfect books, but I'll also keep craving his experimentation.
Also now that I've read all of his ‘modern' output, here's my GH ranked.
#1. My Best Friend's Exorcism
#2 We Sold Our Souls
#3 The Final Girl Support Group
#4 The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires
#5 Horrorstör
(Excluding Paperbacks from Hell, I own it, and it's incredible, best coffee-table book ever made, but in a completely different category)
Overall, I liked this book, truly, but I'm also frustrated. While The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires takes a minute to really pick up, once it does it grabs your attention and hold it until the very end in a spooky and thrilling ride. But holy hell did I want to reach in and strangle several characters throughout the entire book (starting with Carter and ending with Patricia herself). You know that feeling where you're screaming at people acting dumb in a horror movie, that was me while reading this book. I hated it but also loved it because I couldn't look away without knowing what happened.
Now for a grain of salt. I think this book dropped a major ball on one of its key underlying theme: racism. We're in the deep south in a small rich white town where a monster preys on the poorer black community of Six Mile and our characters turn their backs on the problem. Don't get me wrong Hendrix definitely TRIES to make this commentary, but it's in throw away details and one-liners by the books singular black character whose name we don't even learn until the final arc of the novel. It's simply not enough. I think at it's heart, the novel has potential to be a great commentary on racism and the willingness of privileged characters turning their backs on a problem until it directly involves them, but every time the story sets us up for this commentary, it falls flat and refocuses on how the problem is bad because it involved white women and their equally white children.
