Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

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

70 reviews

aiyam's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Body horror, Animal cruelty, Blood, Classism, Death, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, and Forced institutionalization

alicia_m_andrews's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Murder, Sexual assault, Self harm, Violence, Classism, Misogyny, Mental illness, Animal cruelty, Gore, Gaslighting, Rape, Suicide attempt, Sexual violence, Animal death, and Blood

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Excrement, Infidelity, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Dementia, Medical trauma, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

alexisgarcia's review

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

while there are many parts of this book that i didnt like, that was kinda the point. this was gross, absurd, and just downright disturbing. i could not put this down and have not been able to stop thinking about this despite reading it like a week ago. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Medical content, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Body horror, Child abuse, Classism, Cursing, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Sexism, Emotional abuse, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Animal death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gore, Violence, Stalking, Blood, Child death, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, and Toxic relationship

froyobaggns's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Murder, Sexual content, Blood, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, and Child death

Minor: Animal cruelty

madyou's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

2.5

I’m not sure how to rate this book because on one hand I felt a lot of strong emotions. There was disgust, annoyance, anger…but on the other hand I feel like that was the point. It’s confusing me that this takes place in the 90s and the women were watered down to being housewives. It would make more sense if this took place earlier if the author wanted to write about housewives. Then again, their town sounds pretty small so perhaps they just didn’t want change like the rest of the world was doing.
 
The husbands annoyed me to no end, and so did Patricia’s children. I also felt like the main antagonist could have been so much more if only he didn’t feed the way he did. I wasn’t ready for that but that’s my fault for going into this book without reading the trigger warnings. Either way, this book was gripping despite its slow pace. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Death, Kidnapping, Murder, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Gore, Suicide attempt, Sexism, Medical trauma, Rape, and Medical content

joyfulfoodie's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

2.0

This was the darkest, goriest book I have read, possibly ever. I don’t even know where to start with the trigger warnings. I HAD to finish it so I could have some resolution, something to replace some of the awful images from early in the book. But I won’t say I enjoyed it. A lot of this book had me staring in horror at the page with my eyebrows knit together and my mouth curled in disgust. Not for the squeamish, and I thought I was pretty strong. Apparently I can watch the gory shows and movies but not read the gory books. Who knew. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Body horror, Animal cruelty, Suicide attempt, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, Bullying, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Vomit

Rats. Bugs. Droppings from both.

soulpromise's review against another edition

I just couldn’t finish this because I didn’t like how the bad things that happened to the black members of the community seemed to be mere plot points furthering the main white character’s story that we are supposed to just accept. It was just  traumatizing, and triggering horrible real-world problems that are not addressed in real life society, just like in this book (up to the point I read) which is not enjoyable. Maybe things turn around later, but I didn’t want to live the disappointment of that not happening.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Murder, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Death

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, and Suicide

nialiversuch's review

dark funny mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Ableism, Alcohol, Classism, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Cursing, Kidnapping, Medical content, Sexual assault, Xenophobia, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Bullying, Suicide attempt, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Drug use

wayward's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious tense slow-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Sexism, Sexual assault, Racism, Physical abuse, Medical trauma, Infidelity, Death, Blood, Toxic friendship, Murder, Body horror, Rape, Misogyny, Gaslighting, and Dementia

ugh1ife's review

dark emotional reflective 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

4.25

This book was a ride! First thing to know, these women are SOUTHERN. I was cringing a lot at the blatant classicism/racism/misogyny/etc. But the book did a decent job at criticizing it. AND BOY does the black community get the short end of the stick. Also, this book does kind of fall into the trope of having a black character (Mrs. Greene) do the brunt of the work especially in the aftermath. She also has to be the one to point out the obvious instances of prejudice which the other characters acknowledge in the moment but don’t really do anything about it?

At the end they admit that the black community was hurt the most but it’s in passing. And then that’s it. Like I think it’s meant to reflect that these characters are prejudiced and stuff, as a lot of rich suburb southerners are. There is also graphic violence depicted against black characters and straight up racism. So, this particular aspect fell short for me. Also, I am not black so I can only say the issues that I found with it

All the characters are extremely flawed, and so much of it had me furious (especially the husbands). It was also a deep dive into what being a “housewife” is really like and the learned helplessness of these women who have/had accepted their roles. I really think this book is for the parents: it does a great job at detailing the common worries that parents experience and their short comings. 

A short summary of the book?: a group of southern ladies form a book club that follows true crime novels. Patricia, a typical housewife in a strained marriage, befriends a newcomer to their tight night community. However, she begins to notice strange things happening and becomes increasingly convinced that their little home is in danger. 

The sexual content was a bit hard to get through, but I understand why it was there so I don’t really fault the book on it. Just be warned! 

SO SO SO MANY TRIGGER WARNINGS. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Classism, Death of parent, Gore, Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Racism, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual content, Child death, Colonisation, Death, Physical abuse, Slavery, Body horror, Gaslighting, Violence, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, Animal death, Blood, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, Police brutality, Rape, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Stalking, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Ableism, Dementia, Drug abuse, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical content, Sexual assault, and Suicidal thoughts