Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

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

87 reviews

codyboteler's review

dark emotional 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

2.5

I think this might qualify as the first horror book I’ve read. It was an enjoyable (??), creepy and tense read. But it was also, like, jarringly graphic. I’m not so sure I really cared for any of the characters. The only time I actually felt an emotional response other than disgust was when the kids spent time with the dying dog. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Body horror, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Suicide attempt, Rape, and Animal death

Minor: Alcoholism

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

eden_briar's review

dark emotional mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

4.5

This book was absolutely amazing. Set in the 90’s, a book club made up of five Southern housewives in the Old Village of Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina finds themselves defending their families and homes from a new evil that’s cast itself into every part of their lives. I was NOT expecting some of the things that happened to actually happen and when I did read them I was slightly horrified. Since it does take place in the 90’s, there were a lot of topics and discussions that are still relevant to today, just a lot stronger. PLEASE be very careful reading this book because I was not aware about the potential triggers in this book going into it since I didn’t read reviews, but i still enjoyed it nonetheless thankfully. It was a really emotional story with a rather happy and slightly satisfying ending. Moral of the story: don’t mess with southern women.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Adult/minor relationship, Rape, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Sexual assault, Blood, Dementia, Gore, Medical trauma, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Kidnapping, Forced institutionalization, Sexism, Racism, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Physical abuse, Alcoholism, Infidelity, and Animal cruelty

kelseymcg20's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Racism, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Classism, Blood, Rape, Death, Dementia, Gaslighting, Murder, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Violence, and Gore

Moderate: Infidelity and Alcoholism

josalinreads's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Very well written and well-balanced between the horror elements (i.e. graphic on page scenes) and the general plot and scenes between the characters. I am not usually a fan of horror but this was recommended for my book club, and I found it hard to stop listening. 

There’s commentary in the novel regarding sexism, classism, and racism, all of which is handled with different levels of nuance and care, but overall I think Hendrix does a good job. Lots of disturbing scenes, so I recommend looking at the content warnings if you are prone to triggers. 

The final vampire scene was pretty lackluster compared to earlier scenes in the book and the vampires powers are not very consistent. I also would have preferred more comeuppance for some of the antagonists of the novel. More bloodshed would have made for a better vampire novel, in my opinion. 

Overall, true 4/5 for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Gore, Sexual assault, Murder, Gaslighting, and Rape

Moderate: Classism, Child death, Suicide, Alcoholism, Pedophilia, and Racism

Minor: Death of parent, Animal death, Dementia, and Forced institutionalization

melodyseestrees's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

2.75

This is a book full of tediously bland and aggravating characters. All members of the book club turn on each other the second someone perceived better disagrees with them. Especially if it is the husbands. The only reason the book club experiences any success against the vampire is because of Mrs. Greene who embodies the 'magical negro' trope. She is also the only person of color who is a part of the story. You see a few younger people, embodying a gang type behavior in Mrs. Greene's home community. You see a mother of one of the victims immediately lose her child- because she is a Person of Color and her daughter has what turns out to be a telltale mark on her inner thigh. Other POC characters are all victims that died via suicide, save for the one that was presumably murdered due to an interrupted feeding.
Patricia's son spends the majority of the book unhealthily attached to WW2 and Nazism. All he talks about prior to

his mother's suicide attempt

is Hitler and Nietzsche. 
There are 2 notably gory scenes. One involves rats and features dog vs rats violence and also rats snapping at the two people involved like a stereotypical school of piranha. I was not at all pleased to read about the snapping of necks and chunks taken out. The other gory scene is at the end of the book and I won't spoil it. If you can handle the rat scene you will be able to handle this scene too. It is slightly more 'meat processing' than medical. One other scene that is a bit intense is

Slick

recounting her SA by way of the antagonist. 
I did not appreciate how the majority of the victims were children, especially at the reveal that the bite creates a sexual euphoria that leads to addiction. This is described in detail for two characters, one who is an adult and the other who is in their late teens or early twenties. 
Just about all the male characters embodied stereotypes and were as present in the story as they were in their kids' lives. They either drank, beat their wives, had an abusive amount of control over their wives, or gaslit the ever-loving joy out of their wives. 
The book club are all fair-weather friends. The husbands band together to gaslight and call Patricia crazy and despite the proof they had in their hands at the time, all of the rest of the book club agree. Then at the end while four are struggling in the fight against evil one of the others shows up like she is the saving grace, despite doing next to nothing to help for the entire book. By the end all the surviving book club members seem to still be meeting up as if all were normal. There was small implication that something is going on with the dog, Patricia, and her daughter but it may have been meant as a 'some wounds never heal' kind of thing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Gore, Rape, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Sexual assault, Child death, Gaslighting, Suicide, Antisemitism, Violence, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Vomit, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Racism, Confinement, Medical content, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Drug use, Dementia, Death, and Classism

Minor: Toxic relationship, Fatphobia, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Terminal illness, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship

Several characters are stated to have committed suicide in minor detail. One character attempts, also in minor detail.

addysubtracty's review

dark emotional funny 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

3.75

This book surprised me! I liked the style more than I expected and felt so viscerally upset with how the main character was treated by her husband and the other men. I really love that the women are such complex characters who aren’t painted as good or bad people, but people who do good or bad things. Grace in particular is shown to be incredibly caring and selfless towards Patricia at some moments while still making decisions that protect her own interests, a luxury of duality not often afforded to secondary female characters.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Racism, Sexism, Gaslighting, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Rape, Child death, Suicide attempt, Alcoholism, Dementia, Gore, Grief, Medical trauma, and Sexual assault

multiplyoctopi's review

dark emotional funny tense fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Sexual assault, Animal death, Blood, Child death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Racism, and Sexism

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Dementia, Death of parent, Suicide, Adult/minor relationship, Rape, Pedophilia, Vomit, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting

Minor: Police brutality, Alcoholism, Excrement, Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, and Infidelity

camo_mila's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I liked the book. I had a fun time reading and I loved the female characters. The only problem for me was the skip of time of three years, I think it broke the pace quite a bit and it was quite abrupt. I would prefer the story to continue flowing instead of making the characters freeze in time to then have a growing opportunity. 

The ending wasn't my fave too, not that it was bad or anything, but not as interesting I guess, I expected more of the ending. But I had a enjoyable time so no regrets

Also fyi having sexist and racist characters on a book doesn't mean by proxy that the book is that, even more when it's fully criticizing the characters for it, all the damn time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Sexual violence, Self harm, Emotional abuse, Death, Rape, Gore, Violence, Pedophilia, Murder, Suicide, Misogyny, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Child death, Body horror, Animal cruelty, and Alcoholism

cde10's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Dementia, Gore, and Rape

Moderate: Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Racism

Minor: Alcoholism and Domestic abuse