Reviews tagging 'Racism'

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

519 reviews

steph3nie's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape

Moderate: Gaslighting

Minor: Domestic abuse and Racism

ursimae's review against another edition

This book is a 1.5/5 stars.

The premise is sounds so good, but the execution was terrible. It's so bad that I dont think I'll even try reading another book by this author.
It's laughable that this book was supposedly written as like a love letter to his mom considering what happens in it.

Sorry for the rant, but I can't with this book.
Let me list out a few of the transgressions:

• Weak writing. Outside of the horror scenes, the prose felt sloppy.
• So many racist stereotypes. The only reoccurring black character is given the "mammy" role. The next mention of other POC are shown as servants to the rich white people of the town during parties. From there, the stereotypes just continue. At points, it seemed like Grady was opening good dialogue on how racism impacts black communities in regards to their valid concerns being downplayed and ignored. However, he kept dropping the ball with it. It's like he placed the talking point in front of us then swept it aside before we could fully digest it and have a meaningful talk.
• Why the hell does the son love Nazis? The kid is obsessed and idolizes them. It literally plays no part in the story. Why'd you add that Grady? It wasn't necessary. Why you keep bringing up Nazis. Also, why was the MC totally cool about it? Huh? Grady, why was everyone okay with Nazis? It wasn't plot relevant.
• SO MUCH GASLIGHTING. Omfg, it made me want to rip out my hair. 
• Hey, Grady...why did you write about the MC gaining 11 lbs as if she gained 200????? You just threw that part in there for what?
• Hey Grady... What's with the graphic retelling of a rape scene? Why?
• Hey.... Grady... Why did you have to include so many child sexual assault scenes... Story would've been totally cool without that. Really wasn't necessary.
• The MC attempts suicide and its treated by everyone (even the MC) like some petty "fuck you" to her husband.
• Also, there's just a lot of domestic abuse.
• I was 64% through when I DNFed and literally, never once was there a part about women becoming empowered and badass, taking on vampires. It was just 7+ hours (audiobook listener here) of a woman being severely abused.
• Not one character is likeable.
• All the other women in this book are just misogynistic stereotypes. None of them have any actual depth of character and feel very flat.
• The biggest horror wasn't the vampire stuff, but the husband, omfg they were the real villains.
• apparently at the end, she only gets a divorce from this dude... I feel like she should get to kill her husband for the shit he did to her. Also, none of the other women get to fix their abusive relationships?

There is probably more than I could say, but I've ranted about this long enough.
There is very important commentary to be had with the topics of this book that would be awesome to explore further, but it only comes across as 400+ pages of women being repeatedly abused, racist, sexist, and outright terrible characters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Death, Body horror, Blood, Domestic abuse, Toxic friendship, Dementia, Gaslighting, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Child death, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Racism, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Self harm, Confinement, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, and Grief

Minor: Bullying, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, and Fatphobia

gaylelabreche's review against another edition

4.75

Genuinely terrifying. Delightfully creepy as hell. I loved all the characters SO MUCH. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dementia, Racism, Sexual assault, Blood, Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Suicide attempt, Gore, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Child death, and Death

drpeeper's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-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? Yes

3.5

I would say check trigger warnings before reading this. not sure if it’s due to personal life struggles or the nature of the book, but this was a rough one. interesting characters and plot and some funny moments, but a pass for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Murder, Misogyny, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Blood, and Gore

Moderate: Animal death, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, and Sexual violence

Minor: Grief, Addiction, Hate crime, Religious bigotry, Cancer, Alcoholism, and Death of parent

rocket_dog's review against another edition

4.0

After this I'm reading about a woman eating men for fun cause I need the catharsis. 

I have one major gripe with it: 

The sexual assault in this book on Slick did not work for me. It seemed senseless from a monster that to this point used cunning and guile to stay alive for centuries. And then pregnant too ofc *EYEROLL*

I get the intent but why use the biggest cliché to make women feel powerless. Plenty of other ways to do it.

Best Friend’s Exorcism didn’t use this ‘trope’ and it’s a better book for it. I’ll check the content warnings of the author’s other works in the future cause they just don’t handle it well. 

Biiig criticism but I really liked the book overall. Properly grossed out. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Sexual assault

Moderate: Racism

galexywitch's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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

I have mixed feelings about this book. Overall I would say I enjoyed it but I also HATED some parts of it. 

My main issues with this book were:
1. The extreme feeling of frustration during the first ~2/3s of the book. I  had a pit in my stomach while reading, not due to the horror elements or tense moments, but because I was just SO frustrated with how everyone was treating the main character. While I understood that the other characters needed to mistrust her for the plot, it often felt too extreme too quickly and drove me crazy. I would’ve preferred a little less mistrust and gaslighting, especially coming from the people closest to the main character. That or I wish there were more in depth/reasonable explanations for why some of these characters were not on her side since it didn’t always seem justified.
2. The unnecessary sexual violence against women and children. I mean, I just don’t think this was needed? It felt like it was included for the shock value more than the author having anything meaningful to say about rape/sexual assault, which is something I really do not appreciate in books, especially coming from a male author. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Suicide, Body horror, and Rape

Moderate: Sexism and Racism

hygge77's review against another edition

This book is horrifying and it has nothing to do with the vampire. The characters say a lot about the author. This book contains antisemitism, racism, misogyny, pedophilia and sexual assault/rape. None of which has anything to do with the plot  and it’s all discussed as if it’s all no big  deal. I was disgusted by this book. I was hoping it would be a cute story, given the description but the further in I got, the more disgusted I became. This is probably the worst book I’ve ever read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Suicide attempt, Emotional abuse, Racism, Rape, Gaslighting, Pedophilia, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Misogyny

sophia_nicole's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Violence

Moderate: Sexual assault

thisbookrox's review against another edition

dark sad fast-paced

3.5

READ CONTENT WARNINGS. they were so intense i wish there was a blurb at the beginning of the book. the story was kind of shallow regarding the women and patricia. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Murder, and Rape

Moderate: Racism and Sexism

tiudragonfly's review against another edition

Extremely gory, sexist and racist.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Murder, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Classism, Gore, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Infidelity, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Blood, Toxic relationship, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, and Kidnapping