Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

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

115 reviews

corporealmystic's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

Who say's a sweet southern lady can't handle the supernatural undead dark lord?

The Southern Book Club ladies and their families all seem like the perfect batch of people that most of us know. The ones who show the world the best features and hide what is truly happening behind closed doors. All that gets rocked when a mysterious stranger comes into their lovely neighborhood and shakes the very  ore of their day to day lives. Can these ladies stop the erosion of life as they know it or will everything they once held dear be ripped from their grasp? 5/5 for the plot of this novel. 

The characters all felt like people I would know in my day to day life. You felt like you were part of the book club and not just reading about their meetings and escapades. 5/5 for character development.

Sweet Southern meet Dark and Morbid, the atmosphere of this book was so tantalizing and kept you interested to the very end. You felt like you lived in the neighborhood where the story was unfolding. Like you were privy to all the things spoken behind closed doors in hushed tones. Atmosphere was a 5/5.

Grady Hendrix writing feels like you are watching a campy movie. It keeps you hooked and wanting to come back for more even though you really should be doing laundry or some other household chore. The novel stays on your mind when you aren't reading it and that to me speaks volumes on his writing. It is fast paced with day to day vocabulary that would be easy for most readers. Writing is a 5/5 for me personally.

Overall this book was a fun book to read. It was campy, horror at it's finest. The author truly put their knowledge of the time period in which they write to good use. So my Enjoyment was a 5/5 and I will be reading more by this author.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Drug use, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Suicide attempt, Addiction, Alcoholism, Dementia, Sexual assault, Violence, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Child death, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Self harm, Drug abuse, Murder, Physical abuse, Alcohol, Body horror, Gore, Medical content, and Kidnapping

sshpurple1's review against another edition

emotional funny mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

The title of this book is entirely misleading, and the characters are frustrating.  The husbands looked down on their wives and were not even remotely supportive, and domestic abuse was hinted at, if not outright, to be part of all the marriages.  When Patrica turns to the book club with her thoughts and evidence against James Harris, the women quickly abandon her when their husbands put pressure on them to do so.
There was no vampire hunting and very little slaying. I enjoyed the first third of this book; the middle was boring, and the ending, while interesting, should have happened sooner. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Blood

Moderate: Animal death, Death of parent, Dementia, Toxic friendship, Violence, Blood, Murder, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting

Minor: Racism, Self harm, and Adult/minor relationship

mels_reading_log's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

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

4.5

Wow!! I loved this book, I don’t normally read gory books but this one was great! I love that it showed a normal group of women fighting for themselves and their families. Every single man in this book is completely infuriating, there were several times I was yelling for the women to answer the men with more sass than a lady like them would dare to. When the police and men think you’re crazy and won’t help, you just have to get your girls to have your back.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Racism, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Body horror, Mental illness, Murder, Sexual assault, Dementia, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, Vomit, Death of parent, Violence, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Child death, Death, Rape, Self harm, Cannibalism, and Domestic abuse

rachelmerrie's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

2.0

I’m unsure how to feel, but I know it wasn’t a pleasant experience. 

-What was the point of the son’s personality traits? Nothing came of it. 
-The “friendships” between these women were surface level and them coming together in the end gave me zero comfort in their “unbreakable bond”. These women sucked just as much as the men did. 
-Why did the children randomly choose to live with the mom after hating her the entire book?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Racism, Self harm, Classism, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Suicide, and Torture

hellokatya's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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

4.0

my expectations for this book were pretty low, when i first got it, i read some reviews that weren’t the best, so i put it off for a long time; i’m very glad i read it.
this book was pretty slow for the first 30%, but after it got really good! 
it was hard to put down, kept me wanting more, and was the (more lighthearted, circumstantially) that i needed before fall time!
would highly recommend reading this book - and pushing through the first 30% - but be sure to look at content warnings before!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Death of parent, Gore, Sexual assault, Self harm, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Body horror, Rape, Blood, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Stalking, Animal death, Classism, Infidelity, and Misogyny

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Drug use

jaimelouise06's review against another edition

dark funny tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Body horror, and Blood

Moderate: Sexual violence, Death, Suicide, Self harm, and Rape

whatthegayle's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.25

“Think of us what you will, she thought, we made mistakes, and probably scarred our children for life, and we froze sandwiches, and forgot carpool, and got divorced. But when the time came, we went the distance.

This book took me longer to read than I thought it would. I had to take a lot of breaks between reading, but it was well worth it in the end.

The woman characters were wonderful and I loved how they were all middle aged. The men absolutely sucked, and I hated all their husbands.

Overall, it was an enjoyable read about southern woman killing a vampire! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Blood, Child death, Dementia, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, Stalking, and Animal death

the dog dies but it’s peacefully at the end of the book

leahkarge's review against another edition

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Murder, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child death, Classism, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Medical content, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Vomit

c_dmckinney's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Gore, Grief, Dementia, Death of parent, Stalking, Body horror, Child death, Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Classism, Self harm, Kidnapping, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Child death, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Racism, Terminal illness, Sexism, Sexual content, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Sexual violence

Minor: Infidelity, Medical content, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Addiction, Religious bigotry, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Fire/Fire injury

a child is obsessed with Nazis and starts being unkind to animals, multiple children are preyed on by a literal monster

jessiejonesbentley's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Pedophilia, Classism, Racism, Sexual violence, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Grief, Misogyny, Rape, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Suicide, Murder, Sexual content, Gore, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, and Violence