Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

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

141 reviews

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

slow-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

2.0

This book made me so uncomfortable at points because the writing is very visceral.  The fact that there is a time jump made everything so much worse.

I’m glad that I read it because I was interested in reading a few books by this author but I don’t think they will be for me after all.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Grief, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Body shaming, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Torture, Animal death, Classism, Gaslighting, Gore, Terminal illness, Vomit, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Excrement, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Stalking, Bullying, Chronic illness, Dementia, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Misogyny, Racism, Religious bigotry, Toxic relationship, and Violence

emmmapayne's review against another edition

challenging 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, Dementia, Sexual violence, Murder, Blood, Child death, Death, Chronic illness, and Violence

Moderate: Kidnapping, Child abuse, Classism, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, Rape, Racism, and Medical content

Minor: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Forced institutionalization, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, and Animal cruelty

melodyseestrees's review against another edition

challenging 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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

This is a book full of tediously bland and aggravating characters. All members of the book club turn on each other the second someone perceived better disagrees with them. Especially if it is the husbands. The only reason the book club experiences any success against the vampire is because of Mrs. Greene who embodies the 'magical negro' trope. She is also the only person of color who is a part of the story. You see a few younger people, embodying a gang type behavior in Mrs. Greene's home community. You see a mother of one of the victims immediately lose her child- because she is a Person of Color and her daughter has what turns out to be a telltale mark on her inner thigh. Other POC characters are all victims that died via suicide, save for the one that was presumably murdered due to an interrupted feeding.
Patricia's son spends the majority of the book unhealthily attached to WW2 and Nazism. All he talks about prior to

his mother's suicide attempt

is Hitler and Nietzsche. 
There are 2 notably gory scenes. One involves rats and features dog vs rats violence and also rats snapping at the two people involved like a stereotypical school of piranha. I was not at all pleased to read about the snapping of necks and chunks taken out. The other gory scene is at the end of the book and I won't spoil it. If you can handle the rat scene you will be able to handle this scene too. It is slightly more 'meat processing' than medical. One other scene that is a bit intense is

Slick

recounting her SA by way of the antagonist. 
I did not appreciate how the majority of the victims were children, especially at the reveal that the bite creates a sexual euphoria that leads to addiction. This is described in detail for two characters, one who is an adult and the other who is in their late teens or early twenties. 
Just about all the male characters embodied stereotypes and were as present in the story as they were in their kids' lives. They either drank, beat their wives, had an abusive amount of control over their wives, or gaslit the ever-loving joy out of their wives. 
The book club are all fair-weather friends. The husbands band together to gaslight and call Patricia crazy and despite the proof they had in their hands at the time, all of the rest of the book club agree. Then at the end while four are struggling in the fight against evil one of the others shows up like she is the saving grace, despite doing next to nothing to help for the entire book. By the end all the surviving book club members seem to still be meeting up as if all were normal. There was small implication that something is going on with the dog, Patricia, and her daughter but it may have been meant as a 'some wounds never heal' kind of thing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Gore, Rape, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Sexual assault, Child death, Gaslighting, Suicide, Antisemitism, Violence, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Vomit, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Racism, Confinement, Medical content, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Drug use, Dementia, Death, and Classism

Minor: Toxic relationship, Fatphobia, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Terminal illness, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship

Several characters are stated to have committed suicide in minor detail. One character attempts, also in minor detail.

xtrasmallsnail's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense slow-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

1.0

Utterly revolting. Had to struggle to finish this book. Maybe I should not have since the last 50% of the book is absolutely crazy. Never had I read a book and putout a review with this many trigger warnings.

It's terrible to use rape in such a casual way to propel the plot. The inappropriate relationship the vampire has with the children were never commented on beside the fact the children killed themselves. It leaves a bad taste in myouth for a book that's supposed to power those who society looks down upon.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Infidelity, Rape, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual violence, Blood, Child death, Death, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Adult/minor relationship, Misogyny, Stalking, Body horror, Classism, and Sexual assault

moosereads1's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

While I can't say I have the widest selection of vampire literature under my belt, I can certainly say that this is the most entertaining vampire novel I've read! The fact that the author managed to maintain a fun style while writing about gory vampire attacks is really interesting, and I had a great time reading this!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Gore, Violence, Medical trauma, Blood, and Body horror

Moderate: Rape, Animal death, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Sexual violence, Suicide, and Sexual assault

ashlynregan's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad 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

2.0

I absolutely love it when a male author writes from a woman’s point of view about women’s societal struggles and manages to create female characters that can never do anything right. I simply love it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, Rape, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Violence, Racism, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, and Suicide attempt

nicoleme1212's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Death, Sexual assault, Rape, Emotional abuse, Gore, and Blood

Moderate: Classism, Body horror, Child death, and Child abuse

lira_the_recluse's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I have mixed feelings about this book. The vampire is evil and manipulative, as one would expect. He worms his way into town and only a few people suspect him as what he truly is. His design, motivations and behavior is well done.

There are many morbid and grotesque scenes, many with a plethora of content warnings. 

I did not feel great about the climax of the book, and how much death it took to get all the white women to band together. I also don't like how the initial part of the book came off as very white savior, but I guess the book is about the flaws of the main characters and how they are finally driven to fight the vampire.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Racism, Murder, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Sexism, Rape, Dementia, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Violence, Child death, Pedophilia, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, Grief, Death, Body horror, Animal cruelty, and Adult/minor relationship

apestforwrens's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

3.75

Grady Hendrix always makes you think with his writing. Sometimes that thought is " I wouldn't have made that narrative decision" and sometimes that thought is "this is a super creative take on the vampire story".
Hendrix is fantastic at pulling you into his main character's head and forcing you to see why they are reacting to their situation the way they are. This is a horror book and contains some potentially upsetting stuff. I'd definitely recommend checking the trigger warnings before starting if you're worried about that.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Rape, Classism, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child death, Suicide attempt, Death, Death of parent, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Vomit, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Dementia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Adult/minor relationship, Terminal illness, Violence, Pedophilia, Murder, Misogyny, Medical trauma, Medical content, Kidnapping, Forced institutionalization, Grief, and Gaslighting

Minor: Drug use, Fatphobia, and Drug abuse

hdzigurski's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Gore, Rape, and Toxic relationship