Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

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

402 reviews

gaylelabreche's review

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

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

sweetsouthwest's review

mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

Very clearly women written by a man, especially with the gratuitous inclusion of rape.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, and Death

Moderate: Child death, Suicide, and Child abuse

Minor: Misogyny and Pregnancy

beetsbydwight's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Sexual violence, Suicide, and Gore

muffycantread's review against another edition

dark 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? It's complicated

1.5

I enjoyed this book a little until about halfway through the book. Not the vampire slasher you want. Reading this made me feel like I was slowly drowning and not in a suspenseful, enduring way. Most of the "thrills" are pretty predictable anyway. Would rate 1 star if I wasn't truly enjoying the first 200 or so pages. It had so much potential... I will not be reading another Grady Hendrix and I think he'll be fine. >:( 
 

the amount of graphic sexual assault and domestic abuse of women and children ultimately seemed completely unnecessary for telling the story!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Rape, Child death, Gore, Sexism, and Suicide

urnee's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny sad tense medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Religious bigotry, Child death, Sexual assault, Animal death, Blood, Domestic abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, and Gore

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

marypetrushko's review against another edition

dark tense medium-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gore

Minor: Suicide

hayleyjames24's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

Really wish I liked this book just a little bit more. 
I finished it and just closed it and went on my phone hahah, it won’t stay with me. 
I did like most of the characters and thought they were well fleshed out, each with their own problems and desires (even if those desires and problems were a bit annoying) Slick was probably my fave and I did really enjoy James Harris. The writing was super easy to read and raced by for me but felt like it spent a lot of time dithering in the middle - dunno if 400 pages was necessary to tell the story. It was very obvious what was happening a short while into the book and then you were just waiting around for someone to believe this housewife. 

There was a fair bit of racism and sexism in here as well. Check some trigger warnings. 

It got gory and kinda body horror-y at the end and I did like that it wrapped up the way it did. Probably won’t pick up this authors books again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Domestic abuse and Drug abuse

khandle3's review

dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? No

i’m a big fan of vampires but a hater of men masking sexism as transformative feminism or a white person writing the suicide of Black children and referencing it here and there 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide