Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

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

227 reviews

aheinicke27's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional 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

Holy cow. This book was waaayyyy more intense and gory than I thought it was going to be. When I heard it was a comedy horror I thought I’d be able to handle it, but I think the comedy is some light southern women banter and that’s about it. And the horror is HORROR. This book made me realize that I haven’t really ever read a horror book written for adults before and I underestimated my tolerance level. The psychological manipulation, sexual violence, child abuse, racism, and societal horrors of being a women in the 90s in the wealthy, patriarchal south was a lot, not to mention the physical violence and gore. I listened to the entire story…but I do have to admit there were times I had to pause and come back later. Let’s just say the raccoon scene towards the beginning was not the vibe driving into work at 7:00 AM. 

I was really invested in the characters and wanted to punch all of their dumb husbands in the face pretty much every time they made an appearance — which granted wasn’t often because the husbands were pretty distant from their families due to their dumbness anyways. This was a great female power book, and I loved seeing how the women band together to keep their community safe. Amidst all of the horrors surrounding them, their friendship was the tool that helped them do what would have initially seemed impossible at the start of the book. 

Overall, I liked the book. Will I read another horror book anytime soon? Probably not. Will I tell people about this book? Yes, but primarily to process my trauma from reading it. 😂

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apriltee's review against another edition

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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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hauntedantiqueshop's review against another edition

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mysterious medium-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? Yes

2.0

Grady Hendrix, you absolute buffoon. There is indeed a book club, the ladies are southern, but there is one solitary vampire and he certainly wasn’t slayed. How did he goof the damn TITLE?

Dislikes:
  • All the characters + the weird choices they made. Has Grady Hendrix ever met a woman?Inquiring minds want to know.
  • The misogyny and racism. It’s just so casually there and not addressed properly. Grady always misses the mark on these topics. Almost as if he isn’t qualified to be writing about them. Weird!
  • James is just a shit vampire

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leegray's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense
  • Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

At no point was this story boring. The narrator did a wonderful job bringing each of the characters to life. 

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emilywemily6's review against another edition

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dark funny lighthearted 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? No

4.25

I really enjoyed this book and found it to have many more layers than I originally expected. It started off campy and hilarious, but turned more dark and serious. There is definitely both paranormal and more domestic-style horror elements and it felt like I read two different books between the first half and the second. I really appreciated the messaging about how no one listens to POC (specifically black people in this book), women, or children. And no one cares what happens to the black people in this book, many characters turn a blind eye and just say “oh well, that’s too bad” without giving it more thought. I feel like this book could have been a 5 star if it had been written by a black person and seen from Mrs. Greenie’s perspective. She was my favorite character!! I felt like the author did a pretty good job portraying Patricia in this book, but a lot of the other characters were more superficial. This book inspired a lot of unsettled feelings, both related to the paranormal and the relationships between the characters. It felt a little long and drawn out though, especially with Patricia getting back into the James Harris issue. I wish there had been more actual book club time throughout the book and that the friends could have been better friends to each other. 

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jessiphillips's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Overall it was kind of icky 😬 during the first half of this book I was thinking it would be a five star read, however the second half was so horrific that I don’t even want to give it three. 

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depmythmoon's review against another edition

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mysterious 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? It's complicated

2.5

 This book was okay. It kept me interested and wanting to know what happened, and how the girls got themselves out of certain situations. It started a bit slow for me at first, but it’s understandable to try and get you to understand their dynamic. It had me feeling emotions, and I am impressed with how this author managed to create a character (I’m not gonna name names, but iykyk he sucks) that I genuinely dislike. Every time he was mentioned, I found myself upset, and that was great.

I will say, the pacing does change noticeably near the final 1/4 of the book. It’s like the author realized they were edging everyone too long with subtle clues, and they finally had to get into the meat of the conflict. The true horror doesn’t begin until near the end as well.

There was a part of the book that made me want to stop reading, and (!!!!!!!!TWTWTWTWTW!!!!!!!) it’s when the author throws the SA in there. It’d be a different story if it served some kind of meaningful purpose, but it really doesn’t. It’s like another “horror” element that didn’t sit well with me. I only finished it because I was really curious about the resolution which…. tbh wasn’t as satisfying as I had hoped.

Overall, it kept me turning pages, and I at least felt something. I’m teetering between a 2.5-3 stars. 

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therealmsroth's review against another edition

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adventurous funny inspiring lighthearted mysterious 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? No

4.25

Great character development! I love how Grady Hendrix writes his female MCs. Fun premise, delightful friends in the book club, awful husbands, descriptive gore and body horror, novel twists on old vampire lore, psychic grannies, racial awareness... What more do you want?

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ejlee111's review against another edition

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Too dark and random. Gruesome descriptions. Violence that didn't seem to go with the plot. SA.

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sar_she_her's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging tense
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

Entertaining, angering, and gory.

~ Entertaining at x1.2 speed

- Fyi LOTS of gore and Trigger Warnings for many themes. In addition to numerous ones cited below, also creepy/crawly/gross out factor. (Albeit, worst gore is mostly in isolated parts of book: earlier in book as impetus for some call to action, and 1/2-2/3 through book with family endangerment, and 3/4-end with more of the same.)

+ I used to have to skip any books narrated by the much celebrated Bahni Turpin bc her performances of immature, catty, or complaining/whiny characters was too grating. But her array of performances for this book's variety of personalities and ages really impressed me and even converted me as a new fan. impressive performance!

~ While surely part of the author's intentional commentary, his representation of the male partners and how dismissive, condescending, and unaware they were was enraging. His tipping of the scales, whether feeling odds were against certain characters, or the resolution of certain conflicts, felt too steep and stacked, left unfinished or too tidily wrapped up.  I wish these scenarios or interpersonal conflicts were more mixed and balanced.

~ Similarly, for better or worse, predictable. which can be helpful with scary horror, depends on readers' preferences.

+ That said I REALLY enjoyed the main protagonist, appreciated the representation of different aged women and black women, and glaring commentary around racism and classism and their effects. 


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