Reviews tagging 'Antisemitism'

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

39 reviews

quirkyaquarian'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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Murder, Pedophilia, Gaslighting, Gore, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Child death and Rape

Minor: Antisemitism, Animal death, and Racism

sourcherryyy's review

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? It's complicated

5.0

absolutely loved this book!! i found myself audibly gasping and felt very uneasy during graphic portions at the end of the book. i read this because im a big vampire media fan and this did not disappoint! i would recommend to absolutely everybody :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Rape

Moderate: Antisemitism

voilajean's review against another edition

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Blood, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Infidelity, Classism, Racism, Drug use, Antisemitism, Body shaming, and Fatphobia

lexi17d's review

dark medium-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

2.5

Uhhh okay I have mixed feelings about this book. I didn’t really like any of the characters, wasn’t a fan of the ending, and I felt like a lot of parts were only put in as a shock factor, and for no other reason. Completely unnecessary, and left a bad taste in my mouth.

It was fairly suspenseful, and I felt the drive to continue reading to find out what happens, but the last 1/4 ruined the book for me.

I also have a lot of unanswered questions.

-Why did James’ aunt go savage? Was she really his aunt if he’s immortal?
-Were they able to kill the thing growing inside Slick? They just said she’d be cremated, but it seems like burning a vampire won’t kill them, and they never followed up on that.
-I don’t think they’d be able to clean his entire pristine white house completely free of any blood or stains. I know many of them clean houses for a living, but with how graphic they described the house to be, seems pretty impossible to clean the whole thing in a matter of a couple hours. 
-Why did all the husbands basically accept the fact that James just up and left? 
-What happened with the dead body in the attic? Nothing came of that?
-Why the heck was Blue so obsessed with Nazis?! That was so unnecessary and came off as very antisemitic. And Patricia just didn’t care at all about his obsession with that? Why was that necessary? 

The more I’m writing out my thoughts, the less I like this book. I may end up changing my rating lower in the future, but we will see. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Adult/minor relationship, Antisemitism, Blood, Sexism, Suicide attempt, Animal death, Classism, Misogyny, Murder, Sexual violence, Suicide, Child abuse, Child death, Gaslighting, Gore, and Rape

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, and Drug use

angelsfw's review

dark emotional sad 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? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, Antisemitism, Body horror, Classism, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Death, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, and Violence

megob's review

adventurous 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Suicide attempt, Violence, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, and Body horror

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Antisemitism, Death of parent, Drug use, and Terminal illness

pclairx's review

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Gaslighting, Rape, and Antisemitism

Moderate: Classism, Cannibalism, Racism, and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Stalking, Vomit, and Alcoholism

arosereads's review

dark tense slow-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

2.0

This book had potential and completely fell flat. The author tried to make social commentary about race, class, and gender, and the parallel between vampirism and gentrification was promising, but it completely fell flat. While the author was trying to make commentary about misogyny, ultimately the female characters are two dimensional stereotypical personalities rooted in misogyny rather than fully fleshed out characters with development. For a novel that centers the pain of a Black community, it is very much glossed over and ultimately there is only 1 recurring Black character (Mrs. Greene) who doesn’t even get a first name until 2/3 of the way through the book. She is also constantly cleaning up after the white protagonists and doesn’t get centered in the narrative enough.

There are other aspects that made me very uncomfortable too, not limited to the multiple graphic depictions of sexual assault (one of which is a minor), the casual fatphobia/body shaming, the obsession that the son has with N*zis which is never dealt with and only used to show Patricia is a “bad mom” (?????), the trivialization of suicide and mental illness (the symptoms of the “sickness” the kids get seems to parallel addiction and the subject matter isn’t approached with the sensitivity it deserves), and then the demonization of mental health professionals (Carter is HORRIBLE and uses his psychology expertise to manipulate his family and Patricia pulls her daughter from the mental hospital and the novel makes a point of saying it’s against doctors orders etc), and domestic violence is brought up and glossed over and ultimately the butt of a weird joke? Overall, there are a lot of complex and delicate topics covered in this book, and none of them are really done well or appropriately.

I only gave 2 stars because while the pacing was slow, I did really like the author’s descriptions in the horror scenes. The part in the attic was very visceral and gave me chills and the gory scene at the end was well written and descriptive. It’s clear that Grady Hendrix should stick to icky horror stuff and leave the social commentary to those who are more well equipped to handle it properly.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Violence

Moderate: Suicide, Domestic abuse, Adult/minor relationship, and Gaslighting

Minor: Misogyny, Antisemitism, Racism, and Fatphobia

peachberrypie's review

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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Murder, Gaslighting, Racism, and Rape

Moderate: Body horror, Blood, Child death, Death, and Dementia

Minor: Dementia, Domestic abuse, Antisemitism, Animal cruelty, Classism, and Adult/minor relationship

literaturenut's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I'm having difficulty articulating why this book didn't quite sit right with me. First, I must say it deserves ALL the trigger warnings. I thought that the book would be a little bit of a horror-comedy and even the beginning of the book sets that tone and tenor. But it's hard to find humor when the book is full of gruesome acts and not just monsters.

All that said, the book uses systemic racism as a plot device in a way that felt very much like a white author profiting from the pain of Black people. And what's more, the white saviorism in the book made it feel even more like Black pain was just a tool used to allow the MC to grow, especailly when the only Black side character with any real time on the page is truly the hero of the book in all aspects. And the brutality of some of the horror aspects sat at odds with the humor and light tone of the book and made the brutality feel more like torture porn than necessary plot elements.

I don't need all my books to have happy endings, but this ending felt so unsatisfying. Maybe because the author didn't develop the characters well enough for me to be emotionally invested in their survival? It didn't feel chilling or poignant or triumphant. It just felt hollow and forced.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Child abuse, and Racism

Moderate: Antisemitism and Gaslighting

Minor: Domestic abuse