Reviews tagging 'Gore'

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

857 reviews

katlynkatt's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, and Violence

Moderate: Animal death and Racism

Minor: Domestic abuse

lefthandlou's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

CONTENT WARNINGS FOR PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING

I thought this book was fantastic. Definitely a hard read, especially in certain points, and it had some really gross sections, but what a payoff! The book takes on some heavy themes: racism, the way white communities ignore the suffering of Black communities and they ways they contribute to it, the damage of patriarchal societies and restrictive gender roles. The use of a vampire tale to tell that story was genius, IMO, as is the symbolism of the ending. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death

m4rtt4's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

This was a lot darker and sadder than I had expected, but I ate it up nonetheless. Very few books have made me feel as many emotions as this one did: joy, anger, sadness, disgust, fear, and empathy can all be felt through this story, just to name a few. The husbands made me want to bang my head against a wall!! Misogyny really was one of the horror elements. The gore went a bit overboard at times, but despite the strange mixture of emotions and clashing images, I'd highly recommend this book! The trigger warnings should not be taken lightly, though.

+ Bahni Turpin's narration was absolutely brilliant!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Blood, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Racism, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Gaslighting

herelieshenry's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-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

3.5

This book is written very well, does a good job at establishing the atmosphere of dread and discomfort, and also got me invested enough that the conflict was often incredibly frustrating. I do think there is a lot of reasonable criticism of the way this book handles social issues; I have no problem with a book discussing social issues and trying to make a statement, so I don’t think it’s a problem that misogyny and racism are major factors at play in this book, but I do think they could have been handled better, particularly around it starting to tread into white savior territory (though I would call this story failed white saviorism more than anything because

of the conclusion wherein the white women only stop the vampire when he’s moved on to their own children, which I think could have been written more overtly critically too

). Ultimately, I get what Hendrix was trying to do, and the book is well-constructed, but it leaves something to be desired. I’m interested in how the TV adaptation will work with the material and hopefully improve upon it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Racism, and Rape

Moderate: Child death, Domestic abuse, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Animal death, Infidelity, Terminal illness, and Death of parent

Gentrification

snslayer's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

5.0

Good but absolutely brutal to read as a woman. Perfectly captures white women at their worst and at their best and the lives we ruin along the way. I had to put it down for a bit in the middle because I was getting so worked up about the husbands. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Dementia, Medical trauma, Stalking, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Self harm, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Toxic friendship

dailybaileyk's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I loved the first few chapters of this book and I think this is an interesting and decently told story. I found myself skimming pages waiting for action to happen as a majority of the book is building/sitting in tension. It’s an interesting take on the vampire genre but I felt if you took the vampire part out of the book and replaced with an equally dangerous “normal human” male, you could have achieved the same effect, especially since the “supernatural elements” were few and far between. My anxiety was more directed towards the misogyny, racism, and the kids being kids. This also felt like a “gaslighting your wife 101” novel. I think this book did a phenomenal job illustrating the stress and struggles of a mom trying to navigate life and keep their family safe (even if the relationship with said family is horrible at best). This was less of a vampire hunting guide and more of a testament to make sure the men in your life should respect you.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Vomit, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Misogyny, Racism, and Sexism

annamorgan27's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense slow-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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Blood, and Murder

mxicnvnilla's review against another edition

dark 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

If you enjoy reading about women who are written by men and are given no backbones, this book is for you. As a woman reading this, I felt myself getting frustrated waiting for the women in this story to stand up for themselves and fight back against the husbands who dismiss their feelings/concerns and make them feel like they are stupid women who have big imaginations. They are dismissed throughout the story and made to feel so small about themselves.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Sexual assault, and Murder

Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Mental illness, and Kidnapping

the women were right about the vampire the whole time

men do not write women well!!!

coldheartedbirch's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

i was expecting dark and gorey, but lovable moms fighting evil. what i got was actually one of the worst books i’ve read in years with ZERO likable characters. there’s really only one successful creepy/scary moment (aside from how their husbands treat them) as he’s prone to extremely overdone and campy horror scenes that were more laughable than anything. 

rampant sexism, crazy slow book into a way-too-fast, terrible wrap up, lots of things that make no sense, just not good. read Anything else. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Terminal illness, Blood, Dementia, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Forced institutionalization and Antisemitism

jenny_breul's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore

Minor: Sexual content