Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

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

278 reviews

rachelmerrie's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

2.0

I’m unsure how to feel, but I know it wasn’t a pleasant experience. 

-What was the point of the son’s personality traits? Nothing came of it. 
-The “friendships” between these women were surface level and them coming together in the end gave me zero comfort in their “unbreakable bond”. These women sucked just as much as the men did. 
-Why did the children randomly choose to live with the mom after hating her the entire book?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Racism, Self harm, Classism, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Suicide, and Torture

historybabe's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny lighthearted 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? It's complicated

5.0

I listened to the audible book for this novel. I loved this story. The sassy, well-mannered southern women were just what this story called for. I enjoyed the very different take on vampirism. I laughed, cringed, almost vomited, and said "F**k you Carter" at least 10 times. This is a perfect read for anyone who needs a good chuckle with a pinch of murder mystery and a dash of gore thrown in.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Blood, Child death, Gore, Murder, Animal death, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Death, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, and Grief

roxfoxreads89's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I thought this book was a blast! I wasn’t expecting much from a vampire novel, but was just looking to get into the spooky season. This was perfect, now I’ve started My Best Friend’s Exorcism to get more Grady Hendrix.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Blood, Rape, and Sexism

hellokatya's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

4.0

my expectations for this book were pretty low, when i first got it, i read some reviews that weren’t the best, so i put it off for a long time; i’m very glad i read it.
this book was pretty slow for the first 30%, but after it got really good! 
it was hard to put down, kept me wanting more, and was the (more lighthearted, circumstantially) that i needed before fall time!
would highly recommend reading this book - and pushing through the first 30% - but be sure to look at content warnings before!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Death of parent, Gore, Sexual assault, Self harm, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Body horror, Rape, Blood, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Stalking, Animal death, Classism, Infidelity, and Misogyny

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Drug use

spacebeyonce's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gore, Rape, Domestic abuse, and Child abuse

corrin_takara's review against another edition

dark sad 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? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Death, Dementia, Body horror, Cancer, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, and Sexual content

Minor: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Sexual violence, Rape, and Suicidal thoughts

asperomari's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

2.0

Thought I was gonna get a bunch of badass southern moms fighting vampires like The Lost Boys: milf edition. But this, certainly wasn’t that. 

I’m not gonna say it’s bad because it wasn’t, but it was definitely underwhelming. The story had so much potential but it fell flat because for most of the book NOTHING HAPPENED. 

By far the most infuriating thing about this book is the incredibly stupid actions of the book club members. You’re telling me that this group of women who spend their free time reading true crime and are very knowledgeable about the psychology and behaviour of serial killers are just going to completely disregard all that knowledge when they’re faced with one? Even going as far as comparing him to Ted Bundy then going, ‘Nah, I’m just gonna ignore this.’ 
As someone who went through a phase of loving true crime themself, if that man was my neighbour, I’d move.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dementia, Gaslighting, Body horror, Rape, Blood, Gore, Pedophilia, Child abuse, Murder, Sexual assault, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Death of parent, Death, Kidnapping, Medical content, Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Animal death, Drug use, Medical trauma, Sexism, and Racism

there is a graphically detailed scene in which two people and a dog are attacked by a swarm of rats, it is incredibly graphic and disturbing. There is also a scene in which a cockroach crawls inside a person’s ear while they’re hiding and unable to move, once they can move they cannot pull the cockroach out so they kill it inside their ear.

morag's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

4.75

This is Grady Hendrix at his best. A highly effective horror novel that tackles class, race, and sexism through a tale about a vampire infiltrating an upper class southern neighborhood in the eighties.

Everything about this novel works. The characters are each distinct, rounded, fully-realized people with their own lives and struggles. The setting feels real, not just a backdrop for the characters. The villain is chilling and infuriatingly devious. The tone and pacing are carefully crafted to create the perfect roller coaster of fear and dread.

This book is great because it makes you feel. All the dread, the disgust, the hopelessness, the terror - I've rarely ever been affected by a book like this before. You really feel like you're experiencing all these things with the characters instead of just observing them. A lot of this can be attributed to how well-crafted and real the characters feel. The villain is a prime example of this. This is one of the few times in my life where I've ever felt genuine hatred and fear towards a fictional villain. Though the same could be said for the main character's husband. Christ, that fucker. I had to put the book down multiple times because the husband specifically made me want to start punching holes in the drywall.

Grady Hendrix peaked with this book. A must-read for any horror fan. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Rape, Child death, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Racism, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, and Misogyny

leahkarge's review against another edition

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Murder, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child death, Classism, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Medical content, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Vomit

c_dmckinney's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Gore, Grief, Dementia, Death of parent, Stalking, Body horror, Child death, Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Classism, Self harm, Kidnapping, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Child death, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Racism, Terminal illness, Sexism, Sexual content, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Sexual violence

Minor: Infidelity, Medical content, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Addiction, Religious bigotry, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Fire/Fire injury

a child is obsessed with Nazis and starts being unkind to animals, multiple children are preyed on by a literal monster