Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

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

83 reviews

linneak's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Rape, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Dementia, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Terminal illness, Stalking, and Death of parent

Minor: Drug abuse, Alcohol, and Classism

marlajensine's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Grady Hendrix always has ideas for his stories that are so unique and captivating, but the execution never seems to live up to the hype of the concept; it all ends up falling a bit flat. The stakes are always made to seem higher than they end up being. Main characters are put through hell and suffer an endless list of setbacks only for things to work out in the end - usually after a final "battle" scene that just feels anticlimactic. I can appreciate a slow-paced plot to build tension, but this one seems to drag. And of course, because it's Grady Hendrix, the women are gaslit and abused in various ways, while their revenge on their abusers is never satisfying enough to justify having to endure those parts of the story. 

I do not think he *intends* to write women this way - it truly does feel like he thinks he's writing badass female leads, and I certainly appreciate the effort. But I really hope in his most recent books (which, for full disclosure, I've not yet read) he gives them more rounded characters and more satisfying endings.   

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Medical trauma, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Rape

mackdaddy's review against another edition

dark funny lighthearted mysterious tense medium-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

4.0

Truly enjoyable. Truly disturbing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Dementia, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, and Classism

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

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

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

alexisgarcia's review against another edition

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

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

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, and Suicidal thoughts

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

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

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

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