Reviews tagging 'Excrement'

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

39 reviews

emma1023's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Murder, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Suicide, and Violence

maxmeann's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

3.5

This book was really slow to start, but was a very good tense horrifying book, there is a strong sense of monotony before the really terrible things happen. 

Some themes seem to try to address racism and the apathy towards the plight of black Americans, but I’m not sure it hit the mark. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Murder, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

I think the scariest things about this book are actually how the men treat and belittle their wives in favor of a slimy white man

oncasette's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Drug use, and Blood

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Excrement

Minor: Animal cruelty and Vomit

maramergens's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-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

3.75

Moral of the story: TRUST WOMEN! I was so into it but felt like the ending was a little anticlimactic!

I think they could have done without James taking advantage of Korey. It felt like he threw in the sexual assault of a minor for shock value. I’m glad Patricia divorced Carter, but I honestly was kind of expecting him to die! It would have been very satisfying for the men to learn that their wives were right all along, but they didn’t end up getting any credit for saving everyone in the town

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Gaslighting, Gore, Misogyny, Murder, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Confinement, Mental illness, Medical content, and Forced institutionalization

sarah984's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I liked parts of this book, but overall it disappointed me. The little flairs to remind you the book is set in the 90s are pretty cute. Some of the scares really worked for me (there is a scene where the main character is trying to escape a location without being seen that is both so tense and SO gross, and I'm not usually squeamish), and the idea of a vampire that is hunger personified (he just always wants more no matter what) was interesting. When the book club finally gets together for the plan I had been waiting for the entire book, it's great. The intro mentioned that the book is kind of a tribute to the author’s mom and I could really feel it in those moments.

I appreciate what the author was trying to do with the Mrs. Greene character and the vampire going after children he thinks won't be missed but the execution didn't really work for me. Mrs. Greene had to take charge of everything all the time and it basically circled around from her being part of the team to her having to coddle and take care of all the white characters. The women in the book club were thinly drawn and not very interesting. I only finished the book a couple of hours ago and I can only remember that Slick is religious, one is named Kitty, one wears whimsical sweaters and Grace is the biggest jerk. Patricia is a huge doormat and the husbands are universally terrible. It was weird to me that the parents weren't more concerned with their son’s nazi obsession, aside from it being mildly embarrassing in public.

My biggest negative though is the use of rape in this book. It really feels like it's just there for the shock scenes, and the way the women's (and girls’) bodies are described during those scenes is really voyeuristic and weird. The worst of the rape scenes takes place off-screen and the author STILL manages to describe the victim’s breasts and the state of her pubic hair. What happens to the character afterward is also weird and felt pointless.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Medical content, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Infidelity

Minor: Animal cruelty, Excrement, Fatphobia, and Vomit

There are some pretty gross "critter" scenes in this involving rats and bugs/spiders.

bebidocrimes's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

I'm officially obsessed with Grady Hendrix, if I wasn't already after I first read My Best Friend's Exorcism. This one focuses more on housewives and how they deal with all their problems quietly and often without their husbands' support. Fantastically written, with a token cryptic ending that had me seeing it like a movie.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Gore, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Body horror, Drug use, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Dementia, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Police brutality, and Racism

barefootamy's review against another edition

dark emotional funny tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Blood, Death, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Gore, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Vomit

ricareviews's review against another edition

sad slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No

2.0

I finally finished it! It took me a whole month, but I somehow did it. I wanted this book to be campy, exciting, and entertaining. It was everything but that. I got a mixture of everything I despise in a book: one-dimensional characters, weird pacing, boring plot, and prose that is too descriptive. A lot of scenes just made my heart boil. There was no reason to include them because they served no purpose to the story - at least that's how I see it. The book's aim to be disgusting and vomit-inducing was accomplished, but at what cost? I could have lived without having read this and I wouldn't have regretted it one bit. Perhaps the greatest sin this book committed was that of being forgettable and ultimately really dull.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Panic attacks/disorders, Infidelity, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Animal death, Car accident, Dementia, Excrement, Medical content, and Vomit

puttingwingsonwords's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Hate crime, Toxic relationship, Sexism, Self harm, Racism, Misogyny, Medical content, Infidelity, Excrement, Child abuse, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, and Religious bigotry