Reviews tagging 'Violence'

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

509 reviews

ursimae's review against another edition

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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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corrischmorri's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad medium-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

5.0

This book was so descriptively written - some of the gory parts will be sticking with me probably forever.  
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mxbadger's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

So hard to put down. As a huge fan of true crime myself it was so easy to wrap myself up in the "what would you do?" Of it all. A little jaw dropping at times, but would definitely reccomend to modern horror fans
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mariah_g's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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beckjaeckels's review against another edition

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dark

3.0

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ecster's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny 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? No

4.0

I do love how this book went from the perfect lives of Southern suburban housewives to vampire slaying and splattering gore. The feminist vampire saga we didn't know we needed!
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ladychubb's review against another edition

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

3.0

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sophia_nicole's review against another edition

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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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mel_e_reads's review against another edition

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

3.5

Dark and violent, goes to places I was not expecting. It wasn’t the most provocative of reads but it was interesting. I think it did a good job showing what happens when people ignore bad in favor of the good things happening and what the fear of consequence does to people. It just happens to do this under a very bloody veil. 
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georgiabee's review against another edition

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

4.5

I flew through this book. I liked the writing style a lot — I was worried as I DNFed The Final Girls Support Group because I’m not a horror movie fan, but was pleasantly surprised by this one. Don’t let the pretty cover fool you, this shit gets daaaark. Like, def check out the trigger warnings for this one. 

This is a supernatural horror, so there was obviously some suspension of disbelief involved. That said,
why did no one question the rats??? Like, I know they didn’t publicize Ms Mary’s rat death a bunch because it was weird and gross, but was no one like WTF?? Where’d all those rats come from?
. I also wish we’d gotten to know more about this particular brand of vampire lore as it clearly departed from Dracula/Edward Cullen standard vamp rules.
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