Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

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

70 reviews

moosereads1's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

While I can't say I have the widest selection of vampire literature under my belt, I can certainly say that this is the most entertaining vampire novel I've read! The fact that the author managed to maintain a fun style while writing about gory vampire attacks is really interesting, and I had a great time reading this!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Gore, Violence, Medical trauma, Blood, and Body horror

Moderate: Rape, Animal death, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Sexual violence, Suicide, and Sexual assault

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

lindseyhall44's review

dark slow-paced

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

3.5

A book I couldn’t put down, but also one I’m not sure how I feel about. The writing and characters were phenomenal, however. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dementia, Medical trauma, Murder, Blood, Cannibalism, Rape, Sexual violence, Addiction, Medical content, Death, Stalking, Violence, Classism, Religious bigotry, Adult/minor relationship, and Animal death

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

apestforwrens's review

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Grady Hendrix always makes you think with his writing. Sometimes that thought is " I wouldn't have made that narrative decision" and sometimes that thought is "this is a super creative take on the vampire story".
Hendrix is fantastic at pulling you into his main character's head and forcing you to see why they are reacting to their situation the way they are. This is a horror book and contains some potentially upsetting stuff. I'd definitely recommend checking the trigger warnings before starting if you're worried about that.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Rape, Classism, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child death, Suicide attempt, Death, Death of parent, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Vomit, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Dementia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Adult/minor relationship, Terminal illness, Violence, Pedophilia, Murder, Misogyny, Medical trauma, Medical content, Kidnapping, Forced institutionalization, Grief, and Gaslighting

Minor: Drug use, Fatphobia, and Drug abuse

2haileyyb's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious sad 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

4.0

This book is kinda weird but it kept me wanting to read more. I also think it’s should have been set in the 50s/60s because just how it goes about racial disparities reminded me more of that time. Not to say racism and classism didn’t still exist.

I also didn’t like slicks sexual assault like why in order to transform people it has to be like that, just for it to end up killing her bffr. Also the description of his “fangs” or whatever had my kinda confused cause it like retracts and then he sucks for the leg? Idk again weird yet fascinating

I also loved all the housewives bond at the end how they come together despite the circumstances and their dumbass husbands.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Grief, Cursing, Racial slurs, Racism, Pedophilia, Murder, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Gore, Classism, Suicide attempt, Sexism, Misogyny, Infidelity, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Body horror, Rape, and Sexual assault

asperomari's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-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? It's complicated

2.0

Thought I was gonna get a bunch of badass southern moms fighting vampires like The Lost Boys: milf edition. But this, certainly wasn’t that. 

I’m not gonna say it’s bad because it wasn’t, but it was definitely underwhelming. The story had so much potential but it fell flat because for most of the book NOTHING HAPPENED. 

By far the most infuriating thing about this book is the incredibly stupid actions of the book club members. You’re telling me that this group of women who spend their free time reading true crime and are very knowledgeable about the psychology and behaviour of serial killers are just going to completely disregard all that knowledge when they’re faced with one? Even going as far as comparing him to Ted Bundy then going, ‘Nah, I’m just gonna ignore this.’ 
As someone who went through a phase of loving true crime themself, if that man was my neighbour, I’d move.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dementia, Gaslighting, Body horror, Rape, Blood, Gore, Pedophilia, Child abuse, Murder, Sexual assault, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Death of parent, Death, Kidnapping, Medical content, Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Animal death, Drug use, Medical trauma, Sexism, and Racism

there is a graphically detailed scene in which two people and a dog are attacked by a swarm of rats, it is incredibly graphic and disturbing. There is also a scene in which a cockroach crawls inside a person’s ear while they’re hiding and unable to move, once they can move they cannot pull the cockroach out so they kill it inside their ear.

linneak's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Murder, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Violence, Rape, Gaslighting, Medical content, Medical trauma, Child death, Death, Dementia, Gore, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Stalking, Sexism, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Terminal illness, and Misogyny

Minor: Classism, Drug abuse, and Alcohol

marlajensine's review

challenging dark tense slow-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

3.0

Grady Hendrix always has ideas for his stories that are so unique and captivating, but the execution never seems to live up to the hype of the concept; it all ends up falling a bit flat. The stakes are always made to seem higher than they end up being. Main characters are put through hell and suffer an endless list of setbacks only for things to work out in the end - usually after a final "battle" scene that just feels anticlimactic. I can appreciate a slow-paced plot to build tension, but this one seems to drag. And of course, because it's Grady Hendrix, the women are gaslit and abused in various ways, while their revenge on their abusers is never satisfying enough to justify having to endure those parts of the story. 

I do not think he *intends* to write women this way - it truly does feel like he thinks he's writing badass female leads, and I certainly appreciate the effort. But I really hope in his most recent books (which, for full disclosure, I've not yet read) he gives them more rounded characters and more satisfying endings.   

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicide, Blood, Violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Body horror, Gore, and Murder

Moderate: Rape

mackdaddy's review against another edition

dark funny lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Truly enjoyable. Truly disturbing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Classism, Body horror, Racism, Excrement, Dementia, Animal cruelty, Blood, Rape, Misogyny, Medical trauma, and Gore