Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

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

370 reviews

kendralyris's review against another edition

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? No

I thought this book might be bad at about 30%. By 50% I was sure it was bad. I was shocked at 75% when it somehow got worse.  The characters are flat and emotionless.

 The main character, a housewife with no personality, and an emotionally abusive husband, befriends what she later find out is a “vampire” but the kind that is a moth I guess since it has a proboscis of all the stupid shit. When she tries to fix it, she is thwarted by toxic masculinity in the form of every single man in town and she makes a suicide attempt. Rather than spend any time with the internal emotional world of this doomed character, the author decides to skip ahead, and in the last 20% of the book attempts to bootstrap some weird sexual tension between this monster and the main character. Don’t worry though, he didn’t forget to include rape! Nor did he forget to include an absolutely plot-point scene where the main character sees her high-school student daughter naked with the vampire. Oh, and one of the characters is obsessed with Nazis. No one has any personality or interests except the one kid who likes to read about nazis. 

And I wouldn’t be that mad except that the author decided to include a preface to his book going into his process and how he essentially wrote it to honor his own southern stay at home mom, whom he had apparently ignored when he was a child, shocked as he got older that she was a real person. 

This book is terrible. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, Gore, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Chronic illness, Racism, Sexual assault, Classism, Dementia, Pregnancy, Sexism, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, and Sexual content

theraindiary's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Sexual violence, Death, Cannibalism, Gore, Murder, Child abuse, Misogyny, and Blood

spikytortoise's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Child death, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, and Death

rocket_dog's review against another edition

4.0

After this I'm reading about a woman eating men for fun cause I need the catharsis. 

I have one major gripe with it: 

The sexual assault in this book on Slick did not work for me. It seemed senseless from a monster that to this point used cunning and guile to stay alive for centuries. And then pregnant too ofc *EYEROLL*

I get the intent but why use the biggest cliché to make women feel powerless. Plenty of other ways to do it.

Best Friend’s Exorcism didn’t use this ‘trope’ and it’s a better book for it. I’ll check the content warnings of the author’s other works in the future cause they just don’t handle it well. 

Biiig criticism but I really liked the book overall. Properly grossed out. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Sexual assault

Moderate: Racism

crystalb0058's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Rape, Gaslighting, Blood, and Adult/minor relationship

milooo's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

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

3.0

i’ve got to be honest, i was a little bit disappointed with this book. it started out really well, the setup is expertly executed and the concept is really cool. the dark side of this book is pretty well paced in the sense that you feel this growing tension and sense of dread. the female rage and the kind of helplessness and entrapment some of these women feel is palpable and imo very well written. the frustration of the characters very easily translates to the reader (especially if you’ve been raised as a girl). however. not all is well in mt pleasant, and i think the author should’ve put a bit more time into really exploring the intersection of race and gender, especially when it comes to these rich white women not acknowledging that the only well developed black character is the woman who did the bulk of the work and was the most affected. the subject of white privilege is touched upon, but it feels a bit like it’s dismissed in the end because of how much is happening. other than that, the action takes a LONG time to happen, which is not necessarily a bad thing, it’s just that when you have this really good and drawn out setup, it’s not really satisfying to have everything be solved in a chapter. finally, and this is purely a taste thing, it got a little bit too gory and disturbing for me at some points. this type of horror is very poignant and well written, it just happened to hit every. single. one. of my phobias (being buried alive, bugs and parasites, general ‘things burrowing under your skin’ kind of stuff), so bear that in mind if you have phobias, not just fears, of these things. overall, pretty good but personally i will not be bringing this for my book club :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Sexual assault

Moderate: Suicide attempt and Rape

mariah_g's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Violence, Domestic abuse, Rape, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, and Gaslighting

gspear's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring reflective fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Torture, and Murder

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Child death

urnee's review

challenging dark emotional funny 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Religious bigotry, Child death, Sexual assault, Animal death, Blood, Domestic abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, and Gore

mushymargo's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

2.0

Lots of gross details you can tell it’s a man writing women. Lots of unnecessary naked women with WAY too many details and the sexualization of a minor

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Body shaming, Blood, Body horror, Adult/minor relationship, Mental illness, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, and Sexual assault