Reviews with content warning for Physical abuse - The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires

Holy cow. This book was waaayyyy more intense and gory than I thought it was going to be. When I heard it was a comedy horror I thought I’d be able to handle it, but I think the comedy is some light southern women banter and that’s about it. And the horror is HORROR. This book made me realize that I haven’t really ever read a horror book written for adults before and I underestimated my tolerance level. The psychological manipulation, sexual violence, child abuse, racism, and societal horrors of being a women in the 90s in the wealthy, patriarchal south was a lot, not to mention the physical violence and gore. I listened to the entire story…but I do have to admit there were times I had to pause and come back later. Let’s just say the raccoon scene towards the beginning was not the vibe driving into work at 7:00 AM.

I was really invested in the characters and wanted to punch all of their dumb husbands in the face pretty much every time they made an appearance — which granted wasn’t often because the husbands were pretty distant from their families due to their dumbness anyways. This was a great female power book, and I loved seeing how the women band together to keep their community safe. Amidst all of the horrors surrounding them, their friendship was the tool that helped them do what would have initially seemed impossible at the start of the book.

Overall, I liked the book. Will I read another horror book anytime soon? Probably not. Will I tell people about this book? Yes, but primarily to process my trauma from reading it. 😂

Content Warnings

hauntedantiqueshop's review

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mysterious medium-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? Yes

2.0

Grady Hendrix, you absolute buffoon. There is indeed a book club, the ladies are southern, but there is one solitary vampire and he certainly wasn’t slayed. How did he goof the damn TITLE?

Dislikes:

All the characters + the weird choices they made. Has Grady Hendrix ever met a woman?Inquiring minds want to know.
The misogyny and racism. It’s just so casually there and not addressed properly. Grady always misses the mark on these topics. Almost as if he isn’t qualified to be writing about them. Weird!
James is just a shit vampire

Content Warnings

chaseisdying's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

Why was the misogyny, racism and detailed rape necessary? Would've been a 1 star if not for the last 50 pages
Waste of time and paper

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emilywemily6's review

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dark funny lighthearted tense medium-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? No

4.25

I really enjoyed this book and found it to have many more layers than I originally expected. It started off campy and hilarious, but turned more dark and serious. There is definitely both paranormal and more domestic-style horror elements and it felt like I read two different books between the first half and the second. I really appreciated the messaging about how no one listens to POC (specifically black people in this book), women, or children. And no one cares what happens to the black people in this book, many characters turn a blind eye and just say “oh well, that’s too bad” without giving it more thought. I feel like this book could have been a 5 star if it had been written by a black person and seen from Mrs. Greenie’s perspective. She was my favorite character!! I felt like the author did a pretty good job portraying Patricia in this book, but a lot of the other characters were more superficial. This book inspired a lot of unsettled feelings, both related to the paranormal and the relationships between the characters. It felt a little long and drawn out though, especially with Patricia getting back into the James Harris issue. I wish there had been more actual book club time throughout the book and that the friends could have been better friends to each other.

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nerdie88's review against another edition

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dark funny 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? No

3.0

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lewbug's review against another edition

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I think a lot of my frustrations with this book deals with the way it was marketed. I expected a campy and funny story. I was told “Fried Green Tomatoes and Steel Magnolias meets Dracula”. What I read was horrific and gorey and graphic. It started out with funny elements and got exceedingly darker. I tried to tough it out and even got through the truly horrific rat scene (but not without gagging). I finally broke and looked up some more information and there doesn’t seem to be any light at the end of the tunnel. There should have been an EXTENSIVE list of content warning clearly marked on somewhere on this book and they should not have marketed it like they did. There is rape (I stopped before this but I hear it is horrific and awful and doesn’t add to the story at all), racism, sexism, classism, abuse, child murder, child molestation, horrific deaths, body horror, gaslighting, awful scenes with rats and apparently cockroaches later, and so much gore in disgustingly graphic detail and frankly I feel a bit betrayed because I picked this up expecting humor and maybe a little bit of light gore. I’m sure there’s an audience for this book but I am not it and I’m kind of mad I was led to believe I was

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ejlee111's review

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Too dark and random. Gruesome descriptions. Violence that didn't seem to go with the plot. SA.

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sar_she_her's review

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adventurous challenging tense

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

Entertaining, angering, and gory.

~ Entertaining at x1.2 speed.

- Fyi LOTS of gore and Trigger Warnings for many themes. In addition to numerous ones cited below, also creepy/crawly/gross out factor. (Albeit, worst gore is mostly in isolated parts of book: earlier in book as impetus for some call to action, and 1/2-2/3 through book with family endangerment, and 3/4-end with more of the same.)

+ I used to have to skip any books narrated by the much celebrated Bahni Turpin bc her performances of immature, catty, or complaining/whiny characters was too grating. But her array of performances for this book's variety of personalities and ages really impressed me and even converted me as a new fan. impressive performance!

~ While surely part of the author's intentional commentary, his representation of the male partners and how dismissive, condescending, and unaware they were was enraging. His tipping of the scales, whether feeling odds were against certain characters, or the resolution of certain conflicts, felt too steep and stacked, left unfinished or too tidily wrapped up. I wish these scenarios or interpersonal conflicts were more mixed and balanced.

~ Similarly, for better or worse, predictable. which can be helpful with scary horror, depends on readers' preferences.

+ That said I REALLY enjoyed the main protagonist, appreciated the representation of different aged women and black women, and glaring commentary around racism and classism and their effects.

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