Scan barcode
kendralyris's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
I thought this book might be bad at about 30%. By 50% I was sure it was bad. I was shocked at 75% when it somehow got worse. The characters are flat and emotionless.
The main character, a housewife with no personality, and an emotionally abusive husband, befriends what she later find out is a “vampire” but the kind that is a moth I guess since it has a proboscis of all the stupid shit. When she tries to fix it, she is thwarted by toxic masculinity in the form of every single man in town and she makes a suicide attempt. Rather than spend any time with the internal emotional world of this doomed character, the author decides to skip ahead, and in the last 20% of the book attempts to bootstrap some weird sexual tension between this monster and the main character. Don’t worry though, he didn’t forget to include rape! Nor did he forget to include an absolutely plot-point scene where the main character sees her high-school student daughter naked with the vampire. Oh, and one of the characters is obsessed with Nazis. No one has any personality or interests except the one kid who likes to read about nazis.
And I wouldn’t be that mad except that the author decided to include a preface to his book going into his process and how he essentially wrote it to honor his own southern stay at home mom, whom he had apparently ignored when he was a child, shocked as he got older that she was a real person.
This book is terrible.
The main character, a housewife with no personality, and an emotionally abusive husband, befriends what she later find out is a “vampire” but the kind that is a moth I guess since it has a proboscis of all the stupid shit. When she tries to fix it, she is thwarted by toxic masculinity in the form of every single man in town and she makes a suicide attempt. Rather than spend any time with the internal emotional world of this doomed character, the author decides to skip ahead, and in the last 20% of the book attempts to bootstrap some weird sexual tension between this monster and the main character. Don’t worry though, he didn’t forget to include rape! Nor did he forget to include an absolutely plot-point scene where the main character sees her high-school student daughter naked with the vampire. Oh, and one of the characters is obsessed with Nazis. No one has any personality or interests except the one kid who likes to read about nazis.
And I wouldn’t be that mad except that the author decided to include a preface to his book going into his process and how he essentially wrote it to honor his own southern stay at home mom, whom he had apparently ignored when he was a child, shocked as he got older that she was a real person.
This book is terrible.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, Gore, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Chronic illness, Racism, Sexual assault, Classism, Dementia, Pregnancy, Sexism, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, and Sexual content
vlyon's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
sklus's review against another edition
TW: The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires has themes of sexual assault, sexual assault of children, murder, racism, and a minor mention of police brutality.
Despite being a quintessential suburban mother's book, I absolutely adored it. I'm sure there are parts of this book that would hit harder if I was actually a suburban mother, and not just the post-grad equivalent of one. For example, I do not have a teenaged daughter who is distancing herself from me. Nor do I have a workaholic husband.
What I do have is a love for the history of feminist movements and women supporting women. And this book hits both of those points hard. In a lot of ways the book reminds me of Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique as the protagonists are majority educated white women living a less than satisfactory life as a housewife. And the main antagonists are the men in their lives. I was flabbergasted when I realized that the author of this book is a man, because there is not a single good man in this entire book. Men in this book are gas-lighters, abusers, or just incompetent. And I can't tell you how validating it is to read about men's abuse in a negative light. Which is why I recommend reading this book if you're even the slightest bit fed up with middle class white men (obligatory not all men are like this blah blah blah). That being said, after reading several reviews and trying to figure out if this book is problematic or not, a not-insignificant number of reviewers found the women in this book to be flat and one-dimensional or act like they're from the 50s instead of the 90s. I was between 0-2 in the 90s, so I'm not sure if this statement is accurate.
I feel it's also important to mention that racism is a major theme in this book. Most of the victims in this story are young black kids. However, most of the antagonists in the book are white women. The only black character who is present throughout the book is Mrs. Greene. So I believe this book could be read as a white savior story, which we certainly do not need any more of but I'm not certain that it is.But it could be, which is why I'm going to do more thinking and reading reviews over these next few days. I do know that like second wave feminism, this book lacks women of color, LGBT+ women, and poor women. So on one hand, I find the lack of representation and the focus on middle class white women's struggles to be problematic, but on the other hand it did discuss racism and the failures of white people to address any issue not directly affecting their community. I've been trying to find POC reviewers to see what their take on the book is, but after scrolling through 10 pages of reviews on goodreads I did find any. It could be because it is midnight and I'm tired so my reading comprehension is poor, but I'm going to try to find more in the morning because I feel like this could be a learning experience. So despite all my praise for this book, I don't think it's perfect and understand why someone wouldn't want to give it a chance.
Despite being a quintessential suburban mother's book, I absolutely adored it. I'm sure there are parts of this book that would hit harder if I was actually a suburban mother, and not just the post-grad equivalent of one. For example, I do not have a teenaged daughter who is distancing herself from me. Nor do I have a workaholic husband.
What I do have is a love for the history of feminist movements and women supporting women. And this book hits both of those points hard. In a lot of ways the book reminds me of Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique as the protagonists are majority educated white women living a less than satisfactory life as a housewife. And the main antagonists are the men in their lives. I was flabbergasted when I realized that the author of this book is a man, because there is not a single good man in this entire book. Men in this book are gas-lighters, abusers, or just incompetent. And I can't tell you how validating it is to read about men's abuse in a negative light. Which is why I recommend reading this book if you're even the slightest bit fed up with middle class white men (obligatory not all men are like this blah blah blah). That being said, after reading several reviews and trying to figure out if this book is problematic or not, a not-insignificant number of reviewers found the women in this book to be flat and one-dimensional or act like they're from the 50s instead of the 90s. I was between 0-2 in the 90s, so I'm not sure if this statement is accurate.
I feel it's also important to mention that racism is a major theme in this book. Most of the victims in this story are young black kids. However, most of the antagonists in the book are white women. The only black character who is present throughout the book is Mrs. Greene. So I believe this book could be read as a white savior story, which we certainly do not need any more of but I'm not certain that it is.
Spoiler
In the end it's Mrs. Greene who does most of the work killing the bad guy and disposing of him. But she alsopocketeds's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
tear_uh's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
shriveled_bookworm3's review against another edition
Soft DNF will pick back up in June
effys's review against another edition
Really wasn't vibing with this book, I've had mixed experiences with Grady Hendrix and this one was a miss for me, it's so slow and I feel like I've wasted too much time on nothing happening to care enough to keep going
isabellademino's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault and Rape
badatplants's review against another edition
4.0
Suuuuper interesting, suuuuper scary. However: I felt the SA was completely unnecessary and he touched on racial and gender inequality issues but never resolved those things in satisfying ways. However, it gave me a ton of nostalgia because it mentioned so many of my favorite true crime reads from over the years and it did keep me in my toes.