Reviews tagging 'Ableism'

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

14 reviews

grace_reads_sometimes's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious reflective 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Gore, Violence, and Sexism

Moderate: Sexual assault, Racism, Rape, Ableism, and Pedophilia

Minor: Domestic abuse and Injury/Injury detail

levanthium's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad 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? No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Kidnapping, Adult/minor relationship, Rape, Hate crime, Racism, Animal death, and Misogyny

Moderate: Toxic friendship and Classism

Minor: Domestic abuse and Ableism

maxattack's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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

4.0

“He thinks we’re what we look like on the outside: nice Southern ladies. Let me tell you something…there’s nothing nice about Southern ladies.” 

See content warnings. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Misogyny, Classism, Death, Gore, Sexual violence, and Violence

Moderate: Rape, Toxic friendship, Ableism, Antisemitism, Child death, Death of parent, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, Infidelity, Racism, Sexual content, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and War

Minor: Animal death and Fire/Fire injury

Re: antisemitism — a young boy forms an obsession with Hitler and the Nazis, which is treated by his family members as a morbid fascination and a source of annoyance rather than a major concern. There are no blatant acts of antisemitism, and apparently the boy grows out of his fascination, although he remains a major edgelord. There are themes of racism throughout, as this is set in 1990’s American Southern suburbia. I don’t believe that racist or antisemitic behaviors are being promoted in this book, but of course read with caution.

leahkarge's review against another edition

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Murder, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child death, Classism, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Medical content, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Vomit

astareads's review against another edition

WTF, this book was pure anxiety. Toxic masculinity, racism, gaslighting, references to the ADHD-"craze" of the 90s, with hardly any actual vampire action. I think there was an effort to be like Dracula?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, Dementia, Gaslighting, Gore, Mental illness, Sexism, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Murder, Classism, and Racism

Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Alcoholism, Cannibalism, and Child abuse

absolutelyfatal's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.75

3.75 ⭐ I am not giving this book a full review but notice the content warnings of rape, racism, sexism, and ableism. The author wrote those into the story deliberately, and pretty heavy-handedly, there's no hiding them. We are supposed to be disgusted at the racist, rapist vampire, we are supposed to be disgusted at the rich white people ignoring the blight on the black community and we are supposed to also be disgusted at the rich, white women's husbands being sexist and ableist (and the legitimate gaslighting of Patricia). Each of those things are supposed to bother us, each of those things are supposed to give us complex feelings about the book. And it's totally okay if you don't want to read those things in your fiction! However, it's a totally separate thing to call the author racist/sexist/ableism because his characters are... That's not the same thing at all. 

Further note: this is definitely a different type of vampire story than we are used to: the author essentially took an amalgam of serial killers and made it into a vampire. It's effective but I tend to like a romanticized-but-still-dangerous versions of vampires (ie The Vampire Chronicles).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Ableism, Antisemitism, Racism, Sexism, and Rape

Moderate: Animal death

poeths's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I am not going to give it 5 stars just because that rape scene was horrible. For me it didn't make sense. I am tired of men not knowing how to actually write a rape scene. But also, why it has always to be rape? Why it's always sexual violence against women? He was doing so well, you don't need that to make it more horrific. Nor to make someone a vampire, you don't have to rape them. Just as you don't have to drink from their thigh... In that sense, with violence against women and little kids that was pretty sexual, just like when he is basically having ¿¿sex?? with a minor... I don't know man but like, we have moved on past that. It made me disappointed on the author, as he talks about gaslighting and sexism and racism and he depicts very different and interesting female characters... I am just sad because of that, overall the writing it's amazing, the grotesque elements are chilling, the book is raw and you hate the villain so much.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Animal cruelty, Murder, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Classism, Death, Gore, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, Blood, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Child death, Body horror, Rape, Vomit, Toxic relationship, Racism, Suicide attempt, Misogyny, Animal death, Sexism, Suicide, Violence, Sexual assault, Self harm, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, and Mental illness

fanboyriot's review against another edition

dark 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

3.0

I have some mixed feelings about this book.  I liked the plot, a bunch of true crime loving housewives starting a book club, reading their way through all the major serial killers.  Only to be met with a new guy to town, a guy who doesn't like the sun and who is all too charming once it sets.

It started out well though I would have liked to read more about some of the side characters.  I loved Mrs. Greene and would have liked to see more of her.  It was at the halfway mark or about there that things kinda went down hill for me.  Patricia was slowly being backed into a corner and the more she found out about her charming new neighbor the less people in her life believed her.

There are obviously some major issues within this book I'll add some content warnings that I think apply but I suggest looking them up if you're considering reading this.

The major problems I had with thus book were pretty self-explanatory.  The misogyny, sexism, and child molesting really popped off in this book.  I understand this took place at a time were housewives were seen as less than human and were it was common for misogyny and sexism.  That doesn't mean I wanna read a book about it.  And onto the child molesting vampire.  What was the point of that?  It wasn't like he could only feed off kids.  So why add that to the book?  It's absolutely disgusting.  And lastly what was with all the world war ii stuff?  Like dude your kid is drawing a swastika on their notebook and you're not worried?!  It just seemed really random to add.

I will say that it ended decently and I really liked the small town setting.  The kind of neighborhood that was safe enough to leave your doors unlocked all the time, and where the people who lived there would welcome you with some kind of food only to drop it off and learn your whole life story, that part was written really nicely.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Misogyny, Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, Gore, Sexual violence, Sexism, Rape, Gaslighting, Violence, Sexual assault, Body horror, Classism, Toxic relationship, Racism, and Death

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Child abuse, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Animal death, Kidnapping, Antisemitism, Self harm, Hate crime, Torture, Ableism, Dementia, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, and Drug abuse

Minor: Pregnancy, Grief, Bullying, Cursing, War, Vomit, Suicide, and Domestic abuse

nialiversuch's review against another edition

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

ugh1ife's review against another edition

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