Reviews tagging 'Pedophilia'

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

274 reviews

sar_she_her's review against another edition

adventurous challenging tense

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

3.75

Entertaining, angering, and gory.

~ Entertaining at x1.2 speed. 

- Fyi LOTS of gore and Trigger Warnings for many themes. In addition to numerous ones cited below, also creepy/crawly/gross out factor. (Albeit, worst gore is mostly in isolated parts of book: earlier in book as impetus for some call to action, and 1/2-2/3 through book with family endangerment, and 3/4-end with more of the same.)

+ I used to have to skip any books narrated by the much celebrated Bahni Turpin bc her performances of immature, catty, or complaining/whiny characters was too grating. But her array of performances for this book's variety of personalities and ages really impressed me and even converted me as a new fan. impressive performance!

~ While surely part of the author's intentional commentary, his representation of the male partners and how dismissive, condescending, and unaware they were was enraging. His tipping of the scales, whether feeling odds were against certain characters, or the resolution of certain conflicts, felt too steep and stacked, left unfinished or too tidily wrapped up.  I wish these scenarios or interpersonal conflicts were more mixed and balanced.

~ Similarly, for better or worse, predictable. which can be helpful with scary horror, depends on readers' preferences.

+ That said I REALLY enjoyed the main protagonist, appreciated the representation of different aged women and black women, and glaring commentary around racism and classism and their effects. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Pedophilia, Injury/Injury detail, Cannibalism, Animal death, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Child abuse, Body horror, and Sexism

Moderate: Child death, Suicide, Blood, Sexual assault, Racism, Addiction, Classism, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Rape

Minor: Death, Forced institutionalization, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Infidelity, Bullying, Misogyny, and Sexual violence

torismazarine's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Chronic illness, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, Gore, Animal death, Blood, Car accident, Dementia, Toxic relationship, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Medical content, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Child death, Forced institutionalization, Classism, Gaslighting, Pedophilia, Rape, Grief, Infidelity, Murder, Stalking, Misogyny, Racism, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, Violence, and Vomit

gg_reads41189's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Racism, Sexual violence, Misogyny, Toxic friendship, Suicide attempt, Torture, Religious bigotry, Infidelity, Rape, Toxic relationship, Pedophilia, and Physical abuse

kaylasbewks's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Gore, Rape, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Child abuse, and Pedophilia

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Cannibalism, and Forced institutionalization

bookphilos's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Rape, Murder, Racism, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Drug use

Minor: Pedophilia

eden_briar'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? 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Adult/minor relationship, Rape, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Sexual assault, Blood, Dementia, Gore, Medical trauma, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Kidnapping, Forced institutionalization, Sexism, Racism, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Physical abuse, Alcoholism, Infidelity, and Animal cruelty

lord_trashcan's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Domestic abuse, Sexism, Blood, and Body horror

Moderate: Violence, Suicide attempt, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, and Rape

transkidjulian's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Rape, Sexual assault, and Pedophilia

darlingunknowing's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Pregnancy, Self harm, Violence, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Sexual violence, Pedophilia, and Sexual content

josalinreads's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Gore, Sexual assault, Murder, Gaslighting, and Rape

Moderate: Classism, Child death, Suicide, Alcoholism, Pedophilia, and Racism

Minor: Death of parent, Animal death, Dementia, and Forced institutionalization