Reviews with content warning for Self harm - The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires

Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

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

117 reviews

brizlee's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Her one job as a mother was to protect her children from monsters. The ones under the bed, the ones in the closet, the ones hiding in the dark. Instead, she’d invited the monster into her home and been too weak to stop it from taking whatever it wanted.

I can understand people not liking this book however I really enjoyed it. This book does an excellent job portraying the small abuses women, especially in the late 80s early 90s, endured. While parts of the book feel slow and monotonous, I felt those parts were a good reflection of Patricas days as a house wife. As Hendrix says he wanted to make Dracula fight his mom. Of course it’s entertaining.

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poeths's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny 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

I am not going to give it 5 stars just because that rape scene was horrible. For me it didn't make sense. I am tired of men not knowing how to actually write a rape scene. But also, why it has always to be rape? Why it's always sexual violence against women? He was doing so well, you don't need that to make it more horrific. Nor to make someone a vampire, you don't have to rape them. Just as you don't have to drink from their thigh... In that sense, with violence against women and little kids that was pretty sexual, just like when he is basically having ¿¿sex?? with a minor... I don't know man but like, we have moved on past that. It made me disappointed on the author, as he talks about gaslighting and sexism and racism and he depicts very different and interesting female characters... I am just sad because of that, overall the writing it's amazing, the grotesque elements are chilling, the book is raw and you hate the villain so much.

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sethisthegoat's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny 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? Yes

4.0

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btw_rae's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective medium-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? Yes

4.0

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fanboyriot's review against another edition

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dark slow-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

3.0

I have some mixed feelings about this book. I liked the plot, a bunch of true crime loving housewives starting a book club, reading their way through all the major serial killers. Only to be met with a new guy to town, a guy who doesn't like the sun and who is all too charming once it sets.

It started out well though I would have liked to read more about some of the side characters. I loved Mrs. Greene and would have liked to see more of her. It was at the halfway mark or about there that things kinda went down hill for me. Patricia was slowly being backed into a corner and the more she found out about her charming new neighbor the less people in her life believed her.

There are obviously some major issues within this book I'll add some content warnings that I think apply but I suggest looking them up if you're considering reading this.

The major problems I had with thus book were pretty self-explanatory. The misogyny, sexism, and child molesting really popped off in this book. I understand this took place at a time were housewives were seen as less than human and were it was common for misogyny and sexism. That doesn't mean I wanna read a book about it. And onto the child molesting vampire. What was the point of that? It wasn't like he could only feed off kids. So why add that to the book? It's absolutely disgusting. And lastly what was with all the world war ii stuff? Like dude your kid is drawing a swastika on their notebook and you're not worried?! It just seemed really random to add.

I will say that it ended decently and I really liked the small town setting. The kind of neighborhood that was safe enough to leave your doors unlocked all the time, and where the people who lived there would welcome you with some kind of food only to drop it off and learn your whole life story, that part was written really nicely.

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