Reviews tagging 'Forced institutionalization'

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

185 reviews

maxattack's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

“He thinks we’re what we look like on the outside: nice Southern ladies. Let me tell you something…there’s nothing nice about Southern ladies.” 

See content warnings. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Misogyny, Classism, Death, Gore, Sexual violence, and Violence

Moderate: Rape, Toxic friendship, Ableism, Antisemitism, Child death, Death of parent, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, Infidelity, Racism, Sexual content, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and War

Minor: Animal death and Fire/Fire injury

Re: antisemitism — a young boy forms an obsession with Hitler and the Nazis, which is treated by his family members as a morbid fascination and a source of annoyance rather than a major concern. There are no blatant acts of antisemitism, and apparently the boy grows out of his fascination, although he remains a major edgelord. There are themes of racism throughout, as this is set in 1990’s American Southern suburbia. I don’t believe that racist or antisemitic behaviors are being promoted in this book, but of course read with caution.

alexandramiller's review against another edition

dark funny lighthearted tense slow-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

3.0

This felt reckless and irresponsible on so many levels, none of them necessary

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Infidelity, Blood, Death, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Animal death, Dementia, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pedophilia, Rape, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

ewinnk's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Body horror, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Self harm, and Violence

corporealmystic's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Who say's a sweet southern lady can't handle the supernatural undead dark lord?

The Southern Book Club ladies and their families all seem like the perfect batch of people that most of us know. The ones who show the world the best features and hide what is truly happening behind closed doors. All that gets rocked when a mysterious stranger comes into their lovely neighborhood and shakes the very  ore of their day to day lives. Can these ladies stop the erosion of life as they know it or will everything they once held dear be ripped from their grasp? 5/5 for the plot of this novel. 

The characters all felt like people I would know in my day to day life. You felt like you were part of the book club and not just reading about their meetings and escapades. 5/5 for character development.

Sweet Southern meet Dark and Morbid, the atmosphere of this book was so tantalizing and kept you interested to the very end. You felt like you lived in the neighborhood where the story was unfolding. Like you were privy to all the things spoken behind closed doors in hushed tones. Atmosphere was a 5/5.

Grady Hendrix writing feels like you are watching a campy movie. It keeps you hooked and wanting to come back for more even though you really should be doing laundry or some other household chore. The novel stays on your mind when you aren't reading it and that to me speaks volumes on his writing. It is fast paced with day to day vocabulary that would be easy for most readers. Writing is a 5/5 for me personally.

Overall this book was a fun book to read. It was campy, horror at it's finest. The author truly put their knowledge of the time period in which they write to good use. So my Enjoyment was a 5/5 and I will be reading more by this author.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Drug use, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Suicide attempt, Addiction, Alcoholism, Dementia, Sexual assault, Violence, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Child death, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Self harm, Drug abuse, Murder, Physical abuse, Alcohol, Body horror, Gore, Medical content, and Kidnapping

hxlleann's review against another edition

challenging inspiring mysterious tense slow-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Blood, Murder, Violence, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Sexism, Child death, Death, and Sexual violence

2haileyyb's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

This book is kinda weird but it kept me wanting to read more. I also think it’s should have been set in the 50s/60s because just how it goes about racial disparities reminded me more of that time. Not to say racism and classism didn’t still exist.

I also didn’t like slicks sexual assault like why in order to transform people it has to be like that, just for it to end up killing her bffr. Also the description of his “fangs” or whatever had my kinda confused cause it like retracts and then he sucks for the leg? Idk again weird yet fascinating

I also loved all the housewives bond at the end how they come together despite the circumstances and their dumbass husbands.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Grief, Cursing, Racial slurs, Racism, Pedophilia, Murder, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Gore, Classism, Suicide attempt, Sexism, Misogyny, Infidelity, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Body horror, Rape, and Sexual assault

mantnam's review against another edition

dark funny reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

Loved it. While I didn't rate the characters as "loveable" I was still really invested in them. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Racism, Sexual violence, Death of parent, Dementia, Sexual assault, and Rape

Moderate: Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, Body shaming, Child death, Classism, Gore, Pregnancy, Suicide, Grief, Hate crime, Sexism, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

The rape was described by a character after it occurs but it's still heavy and features intense body horror. The racism is not swept under the rug, is is explicitly dealt with.

cassie7e's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

Will fully review after thinking on it. But MAN the men in this book are insufferable!

TW: Sexual assault, death, torture (kinda),  gore

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual violence, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Child death, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Medical content, Terminal illness, and Classism

Minor: Racism, Physical abuse, Fatphobia, and Animal death

hdrb's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Forced institutionalization and Sexual content

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.