Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

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

383 reviews

therealannib's review against another edition

dark funny tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape

Moderate: Domestic abuse

houseofatreides's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

2.75

The story follows Patrica Cambell as she struggles as a stay at home mom with the bustle of life. A interesting take on the vampire trope. However in a lot of ways the boom felt over hyped, and the story felt lackluster at a lot of parts. In more ways it was a story of the unfulfilled life of Patrica less of the vampire story and of a traditionalist male dominated relationship hilt on toxicity.

James Harris a egomaniac stranger moves to her Charleston neighborhood. After a series of crosstown disappearances of children, Patrica links it to him and witness him feasting. However by this time her husband and the book clubs husband are all enamored with him.eventually with the husbands lead by Carter Cambell belittling the women. At various  stages it’s shown most of the women are mistreated in some way. Carter was in more honesty a villain do to his neglected family and wife and that lead to the dissolution of his family with Patricia attempting suicide.

the book lacked depth, Mrs.Greene a African American woman, her plot was simplified. The author tried conveying a sense  of  how crimes and harm coming to Black communities get overlooked compared to white, but in this it fell short. Most of the elements of the story are there to keep you reading. But it’s not a true horror story it’s more that with elements of horror. It’s really the journey of Patrica rediscovering her voice and meaning in life.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Suicide attempt

mohaa's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Body horror, Gore, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Animal cruelty, Violence, Animal death, Child death, Emotional abuse, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Medical trauma, and Sexual assault

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

2.0

This book made me so uncomfortable at points because the writing is very visceral.  The fact that there is a time jump made everything so much worse.

I’m glad that I read it because I was interested in reading a few books by this author but I don’t think they will be for me after all.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Grief, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Body shaming, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Torture, Animal death, Classism, Gaslighting, Gore, Terminal illness, Vomit, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Excrement, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Stalking, Bullying, Chronic illness, Dementia, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Misogyny, Racism, Religious bigotry, Toxic relationship, and Violence

limina's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-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? Yes

3.75

This book was a super quick read for me. It held my interest and I found it hard to put down, but I was also sick and therefore didn't have other obligations getting in the way. I liked this one more than My Best Friend's Exorcism but less than Horrorstör. His take on a vampire was different than typical stories, which I thought was refreshing. It did take long for the big "reveal", however. I will say, I know I threw a lot of tags/CW down below- I found it hard to categorize them all and which of the 3 content warning levels to use, so I'm sorry if that gets confusing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Sexual assault, Body horror, and Murder

Moderate: Child death, Adult/minor relationship, Dementia, Racism, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Domestic abuse and Infidelity

manujeda's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

This book made me SCREAM of anger. I wanted to punch the first man that crossed my way.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Gore

Minor: Rape, Suicide attempt, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Self harm, and Sexual assault

melodyseestrees's review against another edition

challenging 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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

This is a book full of tediously bland and aggravating characters. All members of the book club turn on each other the second someone perceived better disagrees with them. Especially if it is the husbands. The only reason the book club experiences any success against the vampire is because of Mrs. Greene who embodies the 'magical negro' trope. She is also the only person of color who is a part of the story. You see a few younger people, embodying a gang type behavior in Mrs. Greene's home community. You see a mother of one of the victims immediately lose her child- because she is a Person of Color and her daughter has what turns out to be a telltale mark on her inner thigh. Other POC characters are all victims that died via suicide, save for the one that was presumably murdered due to an interrupted feeding.
Patricia's son spends the majority of the book unhealthily attached to WW2 and Nazism. All he talks about prior to

his mother's suicide attempt

is Hitler and Nietzsche. 
There are 2 notably gory scenes. One involves rats and features dog vs rats violence and also rats snapping at the two people involved like a stereotypical school of piranha. I was not at all pleased to read about the snapping of necks and chunks taken out. The other gory scene is at the end of the book and I won't spoil it. If you can handle the rat scene you will be able to handle this scene too. It is slightly more 'meat processing' than medical. One other scene that is a bit intense is

Slick

recounting her SA by way of the antagonist. 
I did not appreciate how the majority of the victims were children, especially at the reveal that the bite creates a sexual euphoria that leads to addiction. This is described in detail for two characters, one who is an adult and the other who is in their late teens or early twenties. 
Just about all the male characters embodied stereotypes and were as present in the story as they were in their kids' lives. They either drank, beat their wives, had an abusive amount of control over their wives, or gaslit the ever-loving joy out of their wives. 
The book club are all fair-weather friends. The husbands band together to gaslight and call Patricia crazy and despite the proof they had in their hands at the time, all of the rest of the book club agree. Then at the end while four are struggling in the fight against evil one of the others shows up like she is the saving grace, despite doing next to nothing to help for the entire book. By the end all the surviving book club members seem to still be meeting up as if all were normal. There was small implication that something is going on with the dog, Patricia, and her daughter but it may have been meant as a 'some wounds never heal' kind of thing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Gore, Rape, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Sexual assault, Child death, Gaslighting, Suicide, Antisemitism, Violence, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Vomit, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Racism, Confinement, Medical content, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Drug use, Dementia, Death, and Classism

Minor: Toxic relationship, Fatphobia, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Terminal illness, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship

Several characters are stated to have committed suicide in minor detail. One character attempts, also in minor detail.

xtrasmallsnail's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense slow-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

1.0

Utterly revolting. Had to struggle to finish this book. Maybe I should not have since the last 50% of the book is absolutely crazy. Never had I read a book and putout a review with this many trigger warnings.

It's terrible to use rape in such a casual way to propel the plot. The inappropriate relationship the vampire has with the children were never commented on beside the fact the children killed themselves. It leaves a bad taste in myouth for a book that's supposed to power those who society looks down upon.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Infidelity, Rape, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual violence, Blood, Child death, Death, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Adult/minor relationship, Misogyny, Stalking, Body horror, Classism, and Sexual assault

ashlynregan's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I absolutely love it when a male author writes from a woman’s point of view about women’s societal struggles and manages to create female characters that can never do anything right. I simply love it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, Rape, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Violence, Racism, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, and Suicide attempt

fionaross's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.0

I cannot fathom saying you were inspired by love and respect for your mother and then writing THIS. 

Long, poor writing, and we never come back to any of the central motifs from the beginning of the novel. The women are cliches- not merely because of time period, but because of failed introspection of their interior lives. But thank god they get some witty one liners, what really matters is that your slay girl boss team of book club members gets to think something sassy to combat their vile husbands.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Body horror, Death, Gore, Murder, Sexual assault, Blood, Sexual violence, and Violence

Moderate: Violence, Domestic abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Animal death, Forced institutionalization, Sexual violence, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Suicide attempt, and Sexism