Reviews tagging 'Death'

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

527 reviews

dfram's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.25

the characters were well written and the plot was interesting! i absolutely hate men and i love that this book proves me right for it 😌 the full circle vibe on the last chapter was everything i wanted this ending to be! i was expecting more fantasy than i got

and i was expecting less girl boss energy than i got, that was a pleasant surprise

i liked the writing style and the longer chapters! i also am a big fan of all the foreshadowing!!! overall, a good pick for this month

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gaslighting, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Murder, and Rape

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Vomit, Sexism, Suicide, Domestic abuse, and Mental illness

Minor: Infidelity, Medical content, Animal cruelty, and Drug use

averageawkwardasian's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-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? No

3.5

Listened to audiobook narrated by Bahni Turpin. 

Overall fun and entertaining with a enjoyable imprecation of the vampire troupe. Love the female lead and female centric supporting cast. 

Narrator basically saved the book for me. Around the 75% mark it feels the story is dragging too long too much.

Putting a 3-year gap in the plot before the plot twist makes it difficult to stay engaged to the book.

If it wasn't for the entertaining performance of the narrator I would have dropped it. Huge kudos to Bahni Turpin.

Upon review I realized it is littered with triggers. While most are relevant to the plot, some are graphic enough I found mildly unsettling. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Misogyny, Body horror, Racism, Rape, Gaslighting, Violence, Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, Sexism, Gore, and Sexual assault

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Infidelity, Child death, Death, and Suicide

ging090803's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I didn't have any expectations. I wanted a little read and that's what I found. 
It starts pretty slow and there isn't a lot of action except by the end. There are a few disturbing scenes, especially toward the end. 
I felt one big emotion throughout the book and it was anger.

It angered me how she was always victimized, never believed, how her husband and kids treated her

. Even though there isn't a lot of action, it is still a fluid read. I wish it had been more energetic: the detective work wasn't really detective work. It was more of a "I know that's all" which was kinda "ok". Though, I liked how vampires were pictures.

Always alive/truly immortal, no fangs, can go into the sun... Not the usual vampire

and I also liked how friendship was portrayed. 
Even though most of it felt superficial

it was easy for them to turn their backs on others the minute they disagreed on something

, you can see how the women shared a deeper connection between themselves even if, by appearance, they didn't share anything in common. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Blood, Death, Dementia, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Racism, Excrement, Murder, Suicide attempt, Sexual content, Child abuse, Child death, Gaslighting, and Vomit

chelbelle122's review against another edition

DNF @ 50%

This book should come with a trigger warner for mansplaining.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Dementia, Racism, Suicide attempt, Cannibalism, Sexism, Suicide, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Body horror, Murder, Pedophilia, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Classism, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Death, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Misogyny, Violence, Child abuse, Gaslighting, and Gore

aheinicke27's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Gore, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Sexism, Stalking, Death, Murder, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Rape, Child abuse, Suicide attempt, Violence, Child death, Sexual violence, and Pedophilia

kimillecherie'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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Rape, Body horror, Death, and Sexual assault

amelia_horseman's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death of parent, Grief, Death, Dementia, Murder, Rape, Suicide attempt, Violence, Pedophilia, Gaslighting, Sexual assault, Suicide, Blood, Body horror, and Gore

_cecilie_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.5

 If someone had told me this was written by a woman, I would have said 'of course, who else could portray such a story so believably', and that is the highest praise I can give in this context. I came to this book expecting a fast-paced, thrilling and ultimately amusing read like the title suggests. Instead, I was frustrated 80% of the time, cried twice and ranted to three seperate people about the absolute gall this novel had to be actually impactful, thought-provoking and indignation-inducing despite having peaches bleeding from puncture wounds on the cover!

I will not repeat all my rantings and ravings here but compile a few of the points I thought most important. First, I really respect that this story would work almost as well if it had no fantasy in it at all and that it is frustrating but in a good, a real way. Patricia (and the other women in this story) is undervalued, not being believed, made to feel small and helpless and if you have any semblance of empathy it will make you curse and seethe on their behalf while feeling as powerless as them. Not to say that these are unproblematic characters, oh no! If you have a problem with reading about sexist or racist characters then maybe skip this one entirely, especially if you have the feeling that you need to brush up on your media literacy skills. All of these characters are flawed but at the same time distinct, fleshed out and worthy of sympathy. 

I loved (hated, but it was a good kind of hate) that all of them had to sacrifice something, that nothing was sunshine and rainbows at the end but they had to deal with real consequences. Also, I'm not saying that chopping up poeple you hate is a great way to deal with them but some just have it coming.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Gaslighting, Suicide attempt, Rape, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Pregnancy, Violence, Body horror, Classism, Gore, Grief, Sexism, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Dementia, Infidelity, Religious bigotry, Racism, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, and Stalking

paigeagainstdamachine's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

3.25

Very triggering at times. Sometimes not sure what's satire and what's inherent author bias

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Animal cruelty, and Death

Moderate: Racism, Misogyny, and Sexism

sayhar13's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Body horror, Rape, Suicide attempt, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Death, Dementia, and Blood