Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

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

427 reviews

xeniba's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

2.0

I honestly don’t know why I finished this. It was unnecessarily gory and the only character I liked even a little was Mrs. Green (and Slick, to an extent). It was supposed to take place in the late 80s and early 90s, but the way the characters behaved felt more like the 50s. A woman’s place was in the home, cooking and cleaning for her philandering husband, etc. 

It felt very “white women’s tears” and of course the person who ended up taking charge and doing the dirty work was the one Black character. 

I get that it’s probably supposed to be about the patriarchy and racism and gentrification, but I really don’t need to read about that from a white dude. I definitely will not be reading anymore of his books. 

This was my first fiction audiobook and I did enjoy the narrator, so that’s something.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Sexism, Gore, Misogyny, Rape, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Death and Alcohol

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Infidelity, and Forced institutionalization

bookphilos's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Rape, Murder, Racism, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Drug use

Minor: Pedophilia

shirleonelsie's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.0

This book...makes me feel conflicted.

The beginning was good. 
The ending was great.
But the middle, the majority of the book, slogged. I think I sped read through 40+ pages. 

There were moments where I felt like the explaining or the moments during characters disbelief were going on for way too long and I just felt myself prodding the author to just get to rhe point. I was also extremely annoyed that the husband's reacted the way they did. I get disbelief, but they were outright disrespectful and unkind. Not okay.

I did go into this book thinking it was going to be a group of vamps that the book club needed to take down. And the synopsis gives me a little more like a dramatic bloody fight where we got more of an attack and destruction. (I really don't want to give too much away.)

I think, overall, I was very disappointed. The way it was written and the plot gives off a "could have been way shorter" book. What we were given, in my opinion, was way too few short little moments that were dragged on unnecessarily long. I needed more meat to full in those gaps. Or - make it a shorter book.

(I use other book tracking apps so you might see this verbatim elsewhere!)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Sexual violence, Classism, Rape, and Death

lmszalay's review against another edition

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Death, Sexual violence, and Rape

degitzlibrary's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting

Moderate: Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Sexual violence, Suicide, and Rape

Minor: Physical abuse and Infidelity

transkidjulian's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Rape, Sexual assault, and Pedophilia

maegenll's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No

0.25

Should have DNF it

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Rape, Violence, Suicide attempt, and Terminal illness

andreanneveillette's review against another edition

1.5

Killing the dog in the last pages was uncalled for and didn’t do anything for the story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Sexual violence, Forced institutionalization, Suicide, Violence, Rape, Gaslighting, Gore, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Child death, Child abuse, and Body horror

fullybookedkatie's review against another edition

dark funny tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Very anticlimatic ending tbh but such a compelling read and one I wont forget for a while. As a Southern female, I enjoyed a lot of the dialogue and small jokes too.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Gore, and Mental illness

Moderate: Suicide attempt

Minor: Infidelity and Kidnapping

queerfucker's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Southern ladies, a charming mysterious stranger, and missing kids with a new take on the vampire. 

This book feels like it’s aware of its privilege, but just misses the mark by having a middle aged white woman “saving” children of color from the rich white man instead of having the perspective more from Mrs Greene who seems the most aware ? I would’ve been interesting to hear Mrs Greene’s internal thoughts as a woman of color in south during the 90s.

I enjoy how Patricia and Grace are confronted with the fact they turned their backs on the murders until it threatened their own though. 

Overall a good scary story that builds up the dread perfectly in a way I rarely feel with books.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Body horror, and Gore

Moderate: Animal death, Dementia, and Racism

Minor: Medical trauma