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The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires

Grady Hendrix

Start date: November 1, 2020

Finish date: November 30, 2020

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What Members Thought

Jan 03, 2021 Robyn rated it liked it

I don’t even know where to begin with The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix. I am really torn on what I want to say and how best to say it. SO, maybe I should just come right out and state that I loved parts of this book, but also hated a lot of it as well.

Let me first start out with the good. I absolutely LOVED the book club! Who wouldn’t want to spend their time ready trashy true crime books. Patricia Campbell and her book loving friends loved classic literature l I don’t even know where to begin with The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix. I am really torn on what I want to say and how best to say it. SO, maybe I should just come right out and state that I loved parts of this book, but also hated a lot of it as well.

Let me first start out with the good. I absolutely LOVED the book club! Who wouldn’t want to spend their time ready trashy true crime books. Patricia Campbell and her book loving friends loved classic literature like Helter Skelter, Zodiac and fatal Vision. Right on, this is so up my alley! The relationship between Patricia and her friends were often comical and I admit to laughing at quite a few scenes. They are quite an odd assortment of women, but they seem to get along for the most part. Well, until a new single man moves into town the drama starts to heat up and intensify and the women soon find themselves at odds. Is this stranger more than meets the eye?

Now, let’s get to the bad parts of the book. I absolutely HATED their husbands, particularly Patricia’s. Misogyny runs rampant among the men folk of this story and at times I wanted to bang my head into the wall. I am usually never one to complain about misogyny in books so this is kind of new for me, but it is definitely something well worth mentioning. Hendrix also added a lot of trigger topics to the point of it being way too much and seemed to just be in the story at random times and I don’t feel most of it was needed. Please, don’t even get me started on the stereotyping. Holy Moly! The way black people were talked about in this book was kinda astounding. Again, this is something I probably would not have complained about if it was relative to the story, but it wasn’t. Sighs!

One aspect that I will probably never ever ever complain about, and I am sure many might take issue with, is a male author writing female characters as I believe in artistic creativity.

I guess I am just kind of in the middle of the road with this one? I mean the book did get some really good reviews and many people loved it. So, I guess it is just personal taste at this point.
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Jul 19, 2020 Megan rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 5-star-reads, wheelathon-2020

I absolutely loved this one.
Grady Hendrix takes tropes, mixes them with horror and then creates something wonderful. There is an element of parody and silliness but at the same time this book tackles some pretty heavy topics. This book features sexism, racism, gaslighting, child abuse, poverty, domestic abuse, oh, also a pretty gruesome vampire.
The writing itself is fantastic and I couldn't put it down. I felt completely immersed, I could practically feel the hot southern humidity of South Caro ...more

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Jan 16, 2021 Ivory rated it liked it

3.5 ⭐️’s
Hmmm 🤔 what does one say after reading this book???

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Sep 07, 2020 Elle rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This was a different kind of read, but I still found myself enjoying it. I read it via audio, which I will say probably enhanced my experience. It helped create additional atmosphere. The writing was really great and the narrative felt like a mix of pulp fiction and literary fiction in its approach. That sounds odd, but it worked quite well. The read was both entertaining and gripping.

The synopsis combination description works well, but for me I would have also included that it had a very Stepfo ...more

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May 29, 2020 Stefani Robinson rated it liked it

Shelves: library, ebook

I had fairly high expectations for this book when I got the audiobook. I had heard a lot of great reviews from good friends of mine and it sounded absolutely thrilling and charming. Taking horror back to a time when the Internet was still just dial-up and cellphones weren’t a thing. Center it around a southern ladies’ book club and you have the stage set for a great read. Unfortunately it was just okay.

Patricia started out as a good character but she quickly became boring. Most of her narration I had fairly high expectations for this book when I got the audiobook. I had heard a lot of great reviews from good friends of mine and it sounded absolutely thrilling and charming. Taking horror back to a time when the Internet was still just dial-up and cellphones weren’t a thing. Center it around a southern ladies’ book club and you have the stage set for a great read. Unfortunately it was just okay.

Patricia started out as a good character but she quickly became boring. Most of her narration is complaining about her boring life as a housewife. She complains about her mother in law, her husband, her children, her book club, her friends, the household chores, the new neighbors, the weather. She just complains a lot. And I was okay with that at first because it seemed like the plot was moving on from it, but then it didn’t and I had to listen to many more hours of Patricia complaining about everything. She’s also a very weak character and I just couldn’t deal with her anymore.

The plot meanders quite a bit too. We meet the suspicious James (I am fairly sure that was his name at least) early on and Patricia grows suspicious of him early on too. But when the women decide that they have to turn over the information they’ve found to the police their collective husbands hold a meeting to tell them how hysterical and ridiculous they are being. The husbands decree they are never to speak of this again. (Sidenote: I really really hated all the husbands in this book, there should have been a massive neighborhood divorce going on.) And so we spend many more hours of book club meetings, dinner parties, and pretending that James is just a perfect new neighbor. In fact no further plot development happens until three years later. And it literally felt like I had been listening for three more years too. It was so utterly boring.

It also isn’t lost on me that the white women in the book club are all perfectly fine with overlooking their suspicions for three years when it’s children from a poor, primarily African American community who are going missing or turning up dead. They only change their minds when it’s their children who are in danger. Then they can’t remain silent any longer.

Now, once Patricia decides to stop cowering behind her husband (remember what I said about her being weak?) and starts bringing the women over to her side I was back on board too. Things were moving and it was interesting and well written. I really loved the back half of the book. It was gritty, dark and at times disgusting. The ending was imaginative and unexpected. If the middle half had been taken out of this book then it would have been an easy five stars from me. But that middle half was some of the boring drivel I’ve ever read.

Reviewed for Written Among the Stars ...more

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Nov 09, 2020 Tanya Patrice rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook-is-better, audiobooks

I almost stopped reading this because it is quite slow in my opinion. It's a slow ... slow build as the novel really takes the time to develop the characters, set up some period details and setup the scene. Honestly, it could have been cut by about 1/4 - but I'm glad I stuck with this. The story picks up about 2/3rd of the way through * spolier-ish alert * after the big break down. This pick up and the drama intensifies.

I listened to the audiobook and the narration was superb. I'm going t say l ...more

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Jul 19, 2020 Kaleen rated it really liked it

Shelves: horror, 2020, 4-star, july-2020

This was so fun to read! My first time reading a Grady Hendrix book, but I don't think it will be my last.

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires follows a group of ladies in Charleston in a true crime book club. Mainly we focus on Patricia as she tries to sort out the mysterious goings on of her new neighbor, Jim Harris. I loved the interactions of all the ladies. There is a good depiction of friendship, that also shows the good and bad parts of adult relationships. Some parts were a ...more

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