torismazarine's review against another edition

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dark 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? Yes

3.75


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gg_reads41189's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad tense slow-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


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kupids's review against another edition

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

5.0

stars ,, 5.0
cawpile ,, 9.14

this book was insane ,, i read 80% in one day which explains a lot.

i'm a sucker for 'housewife horror' so i may seem biased when i say this but ,, the characters were amazingly written. were the ignorant? yes. were they stupid at times? yes. were they selfish? yes! but that's what makes reading about them so interesting, instead of seeing people suddenly rise up to the occasion you see the internal battle of ignoring the problem or fighting against it. also, the atmosphere was phenomenal, the amount of times i actually got freaked out was embarrassing ,, and the amount of times i giggled was unsurprising. i also seem to be a sucker for books that heavily lean into horror stereotypes ,, but are extremely self aware ,, so that's always nice to know!

i'd definitely recommend this but please check the tw's before reading, it's a dark book.

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bookphilos's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.75


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eden_briar's review against another edition

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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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lord_trashcan's review against another edition

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dark tense slow-paced

5.0

I read a lot of dark/thrillers but… dear god, I have never read anything that was so viscerally uncomfortable. 

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transkidjulian's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad 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? It's complicated

3.5


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darlingunknowing's review against another edition

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

1.0

Not a good book, very shallow characters with a un-nessacary, Rape plot point. 

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josalinreads's review against another edition

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

4.0

Very well written and well-balanced between the horror elements (i.e. graphic on page scenes) and the general plot and scenes between the characters. I am not usually a fan of horror but this was recommended for my book club, and I found it hard to stop listening. 

There’s commentary in the novel regarding sexism, classism, and racism, all of which is handled with different levels of nuance and care, but overall I think Hendrix does a good job. Lots of disturbing scenes, so I recommend looking at the content warnings if you are prone to triggers. 

The final vampire scene was pretty lackluster compared to earlier scenes in the book and the vampires powers are not very consistent. I also would have preferred more comeuppance for some of the antagonists of the novel. More bloodshed would have made for a better vampire novel, in my opinion. 

Overall, true 4/5 for me. 

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brysonsmommie84's review against another edition

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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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