Reviews tagging 'Torture'

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

52 reviews

hebrideanreader's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

In the late 80s, Patricia Campbell finds her people, forging a “not a book club” book club with 4 other very different women, all of whom have a penchant for true crime books and thrashing out their personal problems. Their lives are predictable, and set in societal stone, governed by etiquette and manners.

Some years later Patricia is brutally attacked by an elderly neighbour, leading to the woman’s mysterious grand-nephew, James Harris swaggering into her life. He is funny and handsome and well-read and utterly magnetic for the women of the book club. But as children start to die in strange ways Patricia begins to suspect that her charming, handsome new neighbour is not what he appears to be, and that he is actually a monster previously only found in fiction.

I devoured this story (pardon the pun). It was compelling and horrifying and nail-biting. There are moments of gore and horror that make you want to turn away. And fair warning, there is a particularly dark incidence of rape, although the focus is on the aftermath, and the care provided by women, as opposed to the actual attack.

Where the genius of this book lies however is not only in the surface horror – which is tense and palpable (there’s one moment early on involving a hand where I genuinely felt my skin crawl) – but in the allegory. 

James Harris is able to slip into their lives, their communities and devastate them from the inside out because of the institutional racism and misogyny that permeates the Charleston communities: The societal systems which cause “good people” to turn the other cheek, shrug and think “Oh well that’s just the way it is” rather than standing up for what’s right. 

White powerful men are offered power and money on a silver platter to distract them and seduce them while their children are groomed, and the poor and minority areas of their community are ravaged,  and they are only too willing to reach for the gaslight if the women in their lives dare to ask questions. The real horror that turns the stomach are the subtle moments where you watch how easily James’ hold on the communities brings out the hate and selfishness in people, how quickly family relationships curdle, and how easily people are corrupted. 

In the 20s he wrapped his hold around the hearts of men who scapegoated their own failings onto vulnerable black men and had them lynched as a way to divert from their own evil choices. In the 80s and 90s he schmoozes and charms his way into being a pillar of the community, where he finds the existing darkness in people’s hearts and twists it until it grows beyond their control: Men become power hungry at the expense of all those around them; Women become fractured and suspicious; the racial barriers in the community are shored up with mistrust and betrayal as the rich elite ignore the pain of and suffering of the black communities; Blue and his minor (yet still uncomfortable) interest in World War two is steadily led down the path of fanaticism; children are seduced and corrupted while their parents look the other way. James Harris is not just a blood sucking monster, he is the hate, and darkness and sin that creeps and lurks, hooks onto the already existing dark spots in people’s hearts and insidiously grows until communities are unrecognisable. James Harris is Naziism personified. And despite warnings from Miss Mary, who lived through his terror before, he is invited in under the assumption that he can be controlled and befriended.

It is only when the members of the book club learn to trust each other and work together as a team, when they admit their mistakes and find their voices to stand up for each other and what is right that they can begin to route out the evil now embedded in their homes.

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charlesmrose's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

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