Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

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

365 reviews

averageawkwardasian's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Listened to audiobook narrated by Bahni Turpin. 

Overall fun and entertaining with a enjoyable imprecation of the vampire troupe. Love the female lead and female centric supporting cast. 

Narrator basically saved the book for me. Around the 75% mark it feels the story is dragging too long too much.

Putting a 3-year gap in the plot before the plot twist makes it difficult to stay engaged to the book.

If it wasn't for the entertaining performance of the narrator I would have dropped it. Huge kudos to Bahni Turpin.

Upon review I realized it is littered with triggers. While most are relevant to the plot, some are graphic enough I found mildly unsettling. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Misogyny, Body horror, Racism, Rape, Gaslighting, Violence, Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, Sexism, Gore, and Sexual assault

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Infidelity, Child death, Death, and Suicide

levanthium's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Kidnapping, Adult/minor relationship, Rape, Hate crime, Racism, Animal death, and Misogyny

Moderate: Toxic friendship and Classism

Minor: Domestic abuse and Ableism

hannahhmh's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Mental illness, Dementia, Suicide attempt, Infidelity, Classism, Suicide, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Rape, Sexual violence, Gore, Excrement, Blood, Animal death, Murder, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, Death of parent, Sexism, Child death, and Child abuse

Moderate: Vomit, Body horror, and Alcoholism

femmeprints's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

This was an unexpected fun read! The story was long but well paced and the vampire edge was unique. There were some racially sensitive parts that made me a bit uneasy but not put down the audiobook uneasy. It was actually a good way to bring in true southern American racial dynamics. The characters were very well written and had me feeling all the emotions on their behalf. A surprising good read.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Animal death, and Violence

Moderate: Child death

chelbelle122's review against another edition

DNF @ 50%

This book should come with a trigger warner for mansplaining.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Dementia, Racism, Suicide attempt, Cannibalism, Sexism, Suicide, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Body horror, Murder, Pedophilia, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Classism, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Death, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Misogyny, Violence, Child abuse, Gaslighting, and Gore

hauntedantiqueshop's review against another edition

mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Grady Hendrix, you absolute buffoon. There is indeed a book club, the ladies are southern, but there is one solitary vampire and he certainly wasn’t slayed. How did he goof the damn TITLE?

Dislikes:

• All the characters + the weird choices they made. Has Grady Hendrix ever met a woman?Inquiring minds want to know.
• The misogyny and racism. It’s just so casually there and not addressed properly. Grady always misses the mark on these topics. Almost as if he isn’t qualified to be writing about them. Weird!
• James is just a shit vampire

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Racism, Physical abuse, Murder, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Misogyny, Gaslighting, Violence, Abandonment, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, Body horror, Child death, Addiction, Death of parent, Dementia, Forced institutionalization, and Blood

Minor: Antisemitism and Terminal illness

Tagged with antisemitism due to the son being OBSESSED with nazis. It’s weird and no one addresses it correctly.

_cecilie_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

 If someone had told me this was written by a woman, I would have said 'of course, who else could portray such a story so believably', and that is the highest praise I can give in this context. I came to this book expecting a fast-paced, thrilling and ultimately amusing read like the title suggests. Instead, I was frustrated 80% of the time, cried twice and ranted to three seperate people about the absolute gall this novel had to be actually impactful, thought-provoking and indignation-inducing despite having peaches bleeding from puncture wounds on the cover!

I will not repeat all my rantings and ravings here but compile a few of the points I thought most important. First, I really respect that this story would work almost as well if it had no fantasy in it at all and that it is frustrating but in a good, a real way. Patricia (and the other women in this story) is undervalued, not being believed, made to feel small and helpless and if you have any semblance of empathy it will make you curse and seethe on their behalf while feeling as powerless as them. Not to say that these are unproblematic characters, oh no! If you have a problem with reading about sexist or racist characters then maybe skip this one entirely, especially if you have the feeling that you need to brush up on your media literacy skills. All of these characters are flawed but at the same time distinct, fleshed out and worthy of sympathy. 

I loved (hated, but it was a good kind of hate) that all of them had to sacrifice something, that nothing was sunshine and rainbows at the end but they had to deal with real consequences. Also, I'm not saying that chopping up poeple you hate is a great way to deal with them but some just have it coming.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Gaslighting, Suicide attempt, Rape, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Pregnancy, Violence, Body horror, Classism, Gore, Grief, Sexism, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Dementia, Infidelity, Religious bigotry, Racism, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, and Stalking

twinkle_flavored's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Loveable characters? N/A

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dementia, Pedophilia, Domestic abuse, Body horror, Gaslighting, Racism, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Blood, Gore, and Child abuse

pacific's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book was a blast to read. The characters are loveable and their story is over much too quickly!

Plus, there's one point in the novel where I was so angry (on behalf of the characters) that I spite read late into the night just to see them vindicated. 

A wonderful dark novel from beginning to end. There are few horror novels that capture the fleeting feeling of suburbia quite like this one does.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Rape, and Pedophilia

Minor: Drug abuse and Animal death

kaitcope's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Adult/minor relationship, Grief, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Child abuse, Child death, Blood, Death, Dementia, Gaslighting, Murder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Racism, Sexism, Classism, Kidnapping, Rape, Sexual assault, and Suicide attempt