Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

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

69 reviews

capmorrow's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Rape, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Gore, Pedophilia, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Sexism, Body horror, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Violence

blacksphinx's review against another edition

Ever been so mad at someone you attempt suicide at them? Me neither. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Medical content, Medical trauma, Animal cruelty, Suicide attempt, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual assault, Racism, Pedophilia, Suicide, and Death of parent

Graphic: Eaten alive by a rat Moderate: Lynching, being buried alive, 10 year old white boy obsessed with Nazis.

apriltee's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Murder, Mental illness, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, Sexism, Gore, Rape, Terminal illness, Suicide attempt, Racism, and Pedophilia

eden_briar's review against another edition

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

queerfucker's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious 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

3.75

Southern ladies, a charming mysterious stranger, and missing kids with a new take on the vampire. 

This book feels like it’s aware of its privilege, but just misses the mark by having a middle aged white woman “saving” children of color from the rich white man instead of having the perspective more from Mrs Greene who seems the most aware ? I would’ve been interesting to hear Mrs Greene’s internal thoughts as a woman of color in south during the 90s.

I enjoy how Patricia and Grace are confronted with the fact they turned their backs on the murders until it threatened their own though. 

Overall a good scary story that builds up the dread perfectly in a way I rarely feel with books.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Body horror, and Gore

Moderate: Animal death, Dementia, and Racism

Minor: Medical trauma

wheelyautistic's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

I actually really enjoyed this book. The amount of times I had to put the book down because of how tense it showed just how good the writing is. 

I'm afraid I have to disagree with most of the negative reviews regarding the 3-year skip, where the main character is complacent. Many reviewers viewed it us difficult and unrealistic or annoying however they fail to realise that this book whilst it does have a vampire and the supernatural elements is far more about a serial killer and a murderer then a high energy vampire slashing book.  It feels realistic that no one would believe her or that she would become complacent and subdued because in reality any outburst could land her straight into an institute given the timing. The race aspects were necessary to indicate and portray a very real and common thing seen in real-life killers: that those deemed as less than are usually the ones killed and often their murders are overlooked. I think this book perfectly paralleled the real lids true crime books the characters read with a hind of supernatural influence to increase the severity and difficulty of the situation.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Stalking, Gore, Body horror, Toxic friendship, Torture, Sexism, Mental illness, Death of parent, Terminal illness, Blood, Grief, Animal death, Vomit, Murder, Gaslighting, Death, Child death, Violence, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Rape, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Medical content, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, and Cannibalism

Minor: Racism

brysonsmommie84's review against another edition

dark sad tense 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

1.0

I was so excited to read this. I’ve built it up for a year and I finally got to it. That was a mistake… Maybe I will update this later and make it more coherent, but for now I have wasted enough hours of my life finishing this book. Yes, finishing, all of it. Why? Because I stupidly thought it has to get better. 
I just feel sick. This book makes me so angry…

Husbands telling wives:
“The girls have something to say” 
“shake hands like a fucking adult” 
being forced to apologize… these are your wives… educated wives… the children are also treated like this. Carter is the worst character of all time! Worse than the “vampire”. 

Patricia is concerned about child molestation and you are all fucking protecting the stranger, because he has money and penis. Fuck these characters. Fuck this book. Fuck this author. They better all be under a fucking spell. 

BTW child molestation big trigger! Lots of child rape… by an old dirty “vampire”. Too detailed. Children dying/suicides. Kids killing dogs, because they have been “left under a spell”. More Rape, burning people alive… At least the racism and “classism” were finally called out, I guess… 

I will never give this author another try. The other authors that take flak for the misogyny and patriarchy in their books is bullshit in comparison and this author is being praised for this book. Fuck that shit.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Adult/minor relationship, Sexism, Medical trauma, Sexual assault, Classism, Child death, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Blood, Suicide, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, Rape, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Racism, Pedophilia, Murder, Mental illness, Death of parent, Animal death, and Animal cruelty

mohaa's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Death, Blood, Body horror, Gore, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Animal cruelty, Violence, Animal death, Child death, Emotional abuse, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Medical trauma, and Sexual assault

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

2.0

This book made me so uncomfortable at points because the writing is very visceral.  The fact that there is a time jump made everything so much worse.

I’m glad that I read it because I was interested in reading a few books by this author but I don’t think they will be for me after all.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Grief, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Body shaming, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Torture, Animal death, Classism, Gaslighting, Gore, Terminal illness, Vomit, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Excrement, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Stalking, Bullying, Chronic illness, Dementia, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Misogyny, Racism, Religious bigotry, Toxic relationship, and Violence

moosereads1's review against another edition

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