Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

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

137 reviews

alybarnett02's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.75

Didn’t love the audio. But the story was captivating! Even during the gross parts, I still wanted to listen more. Recommend if you want a good story about vampires, and taking place over a few years. It was a long audiobook, but I did enjoy getting to know Patricia and her character in depth. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Murder, Rape, Blood, and Sexual content

Moderate: Gore

Minor: Animal death

danaaliyalevinson's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny 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? It's complicated

4.0

I can always rely on Grady Hendrix for a good time. I wouldn't say this was my favorite of his books, that crown still belongs to "How To Sell a Haunted House," but I still really enjoyed it. A fun southern gothic horror comedy that manages to squeeze in commentary on racism, sexism, who people choose to believe, and how easy it is for us to refuse to see what's right in front of us.

Additionally, I always love how he manages to put a twist either on the lore of the horror he’s tackling, or on the lens it’s filtered through. In this one, I love how he filtered it through the lens of the “true crime” genre. It was unexpected and fun for a vampire novel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Rape, Dementia, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Body horror, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Suicide attempt, Violence, Murder, Sexual assault, Gaslighting, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Classism, Misogyny, and Racism

wheelyautistic's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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 actually really enjoyed this book. The amount of times I had to put the book down because of how tense it showed just how good the writing is. 

I'm afraid I have to disagree with most of the negative reviews regarding the 3-year skip, where the main character is complacent. Many reviewers viewed it us difficult and unrealistic or annoying however they fail to realise that this book whilst it does have a vampire and the supernatural elements is far more about a serial killer and a murderer then a high energy vampire slashing book.  It feels realistic that no one would believe her or that she would become complacent and subdued because in reality any outburst could land her straight into an institute given the timing. The race aspects were necessary to indicate and portray a very real and common thing seen in real-life killers: that those deemed as less than are usually the ones killed and often their murders are overlooked. I think this book perfectly paralleled the real lids true crime books the characters read with a hind of supernatural influence to increase the severity and difficulty of the situation.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Stalking, Gore, Body horror, Toxic friendship, Torture, Sexism, Mental illness, Death of parent, Terminal illness, Blood, Grief, Animal death, Vomit, Murder, Gaslighting, Death, Child death, Violence, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Rape, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Medical content, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, and Cannibalism

Minor: Racism

darlingunknowing's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

1.0

Not a good book, very shallow characters with a un-nessacary, Rape plot point. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Pregnancy, Self harm, Violence, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Sexual violence, Pedophilia, and Sexual content

readwithkwanie's review against another edition

dark funny slow-paced

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

3.5

i don't know. it's not THAT bad but would i be recommending it to someone? no. this is my first vampire related read and i'm quite disappointed. the characters are frustrating and stupid (mostly the men). i listened to the audiobook and i loved the voice actor but other than that, everything's meh...

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Murder

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Suicide attempt and Blood

rowancdewit's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious medium-paced

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

1.0

Man. I'm really disappointed by the ending of this book. Albeit the last eighty pages, I WAS LOVING THIS BOOK. I am not a horror novel fan, but I really liked Hendrix's "How to Sell a Haunted House" and upon reading the title of this book, I gave it ago. 

The first two thirds of the book just felt like a funny, satirical take on being a housewife in a southern community. The concept, so fun. A book club of women addicted to their true crime novels, when one woman in the group watches a supernatural true crime novel unfold in front of her. Not only is the premise enough to make you want to keep reading, I truly feel like Hendrix has the gift of gab. Just like with his other books, I just never wanted to put this one down. I HAD to keep reading!

But, like I said at the beginning of the review, the last eighty pages really ruined this book for me, and left a bad taste in my mouth. Without spoiling, it was so sad to realize that Hendrix was writing a supernatural novel, about a supernatural being, and he resorts to sexual assault as tactic. The way Hendrix wrote it in felt extremely distasteful and just plain gross. Again, you have a whole supernatural creature, with supernatural powers to be explored, but instead, his climax of terror is three grossly described sexual scenes, all at the very end of the book. As soon as the first scene hit, I was like, "are you kidding? this is what we've been building up to?" The scenes just completely erased the whimsy and drama of the book for me, and immediately just made the book feel immature and, again, gross. And felt lazy. Like, AGAIN I SAY, we have a whole supernatural creature, we know extremely little of his powers and his backstory, but instead of exploring that and trying to create an intense powerful climax of a story.... let's just very quickly, in the last EIGHTY PAGES of this book, throw in three extremely perverse (and distastefully written) scenes that make you dislike him, without effort. Lazy, off-putting, and, again again again cannot emphasize enough, gross.

Also, hated how inconsistent the characters were. Mainly, the husband. Which, I think I could have ignored if I liked the ending of the book. But I think hating the ending is making all of my other qualms with the book this book stand out even more to me. (EDIT: After uploading this review, I'm reading other negative reviews to see if anyone else agreed with the points I've made, and realizing there were so many more issues in this book that I also didn't like. So, I think I feel pretty justified in my scoring.)

I really wanted to love this book, and I honestly really did like most of it, but the ending really just killed it for me. One start it is.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Violence, Blood, and Gore

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

randilion28's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

I read this book in 3 days. I absolutely LOVED it. Love that its set in Charleston SC, my favorite city and close to where I live so I could Invision some of my favorite things about the city while reading. Also, growing up in the late 80's and 90's this definitely took me back to my childhood days. I love the new take on Vampires - how they are described is nothing like anything I've heard before and I LOVE anything vampire related. You may dislike some of the characters to start but they 100% become BADASSES and you will be rooting for them the entire way! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Death, Violence, Gore, Murder, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, and Child death

azh950's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad medium-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Drug abuse, Child abuse, Blood, Murder, and Rape

Moderate: Racism and Sexual content

maxattack's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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

4.0

“He thinks we’re what we look like on the outside: nice Southern ladies. Let me tell you something…there’s nothing nice about Southern ladies.” 

See content warnings. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Misogyny, Classism, Death, Gore, Sexual violence, and Violence

Moderate: Rape, Toxic friendship, Ableism, Antisemitism, Child death, Death of parent, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, Infidelity, Racism, Sexual content, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and War

Minor: Animal death and Fire/Fire injury

Re: antisemitism — a young boy forms an obsession with Hitler and the Nazis, which is treated by his family members as a morbid fascination and a source of annoyance rather than a major concern. There are no blatant acts of antisemitism, and apparently the boy grows out of his fascination, although he remains a major edgelord. There are themes of racism throughout, as this is set in 1990’s American Southern suburbia. I don’t believe that racist or antisemitic behaviors are being promoted in this book, but of course read with caution.