Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

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

88 reviews

apestforwrens's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

3.75

Grady Hendrix always makes you think with his writing. Sometimes that thought is " I wouldn't have made that narrative decision" and sometimes that thought is "this is a super creative take on the vampire story".
Hendrix is fantastic at pulling you into his main character's head and forcing you to see why they are reacting to their situation the way they are. This is a horror book and contains some potentially upsetting stuff. I'd definitely recommend checking the trigger warnings before starting if you're worried about that.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Rape, Classism, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child death, Suicide attempt, Death, Death of parent, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Vomit, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Dementia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Adult/minor relationship, Terminal illness, Violence, Pedophilia, Murder, Misogyny, Medical trauma, Medical content, Kidnapping, Forced institutionalization, Grief, and Gaslighting

Minor: Drug use, Fatphobia, and Drug abuse

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

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.

kier__'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny reflective 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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Grief, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Body horror, Car accident, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Drug use, Gore, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexism, Sexual content, Blood, Dementia, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Panic attacks/disorders, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Cursing, and Death

linneak's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Murder, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Violence, Rape, Gaslighting, Medical content, Medical trauma, Child death, Death, Dementia, Gore, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Stalking, Sexism, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Terminal illness, and Misogyny

Minor: Classism, Drug abuse, and Alcohol

loongbooy's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Gore, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Child death, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Torture, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, and Murder

hannahsbookrambles's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• 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 assault, Murder, Death, Suicide attempt, Kidnapping, Blood, Animal death, Addiction, Gore, Adult/minor relationship, Rape, Sexual violence, Drug abuse, and Domestic abuse

imogenlj'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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Hendrix places the horrific so well in the everyday- reading this gave me mental whiplash a few times when the scenes’ tones shifted dramatically to become sinister or sometimes genuinely unpleasant. I meant to spread the reading over a week but devoured it in a day! Excellently set against the backdrop of 90s  South Carolina and mixes real horrors with fantastical ones.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Blood, Death, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Rape, Sexism, and Child death

Moderate: Dementia and Stalking

Minor: Domestic abuse, Cursing, Drug abuse, Body shaming, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

tothetomes'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? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Suicide attempt, and Gore

Moderate: Drug abuse

fanboyriot's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

3.0

I have some mixed feelings about this book.  I liked the plot, a bunch of true crime loving housewives starting a book club, reading their way through all the major serial killers.  Only to be met with a new guy to town, a guy who doesn't like the sun and who is all too charming once it sets.

It started out well though I would have liked to read more about some of the side characters.  I loved Mrs. Greene and would have liked to see more of her.  It was at the halfway mark or about there that things kinda went down hill for me.  Patricia was slowly being backed into a corner and the more she found out about her charming new neighbor the less people in her life believed her.

There are obviously some major issues within this book I'll add some content warnings that I think apply but I suggest looking them up if you're considering reading this.

The major problems I had with thus book were pretty self-explanatory.  The misogyny, sexism, and child molesting really popped off in this book.  I understand this took place at a time were housewives were seen as less than human and were it was common for misogyny and sexism.  That doesn't mean I wanna read a book about it.  And onto the child molesting vampire.  What was the point of that?  It wasn't like he could only feed off kids.  So why add that to the book?  It's absolutely disgusting.  And lastly what was with all the world war ii stuff?  Like dude your kid is drawing a swastika on their notebook and you're not worried?!  It just seemed really random to add.

I will say that it ended decently and I really liked the small town setting.  The kind of neighborhood that was safe enough to leave your doors unlocked all the time, and where the people who lived there would welcome you with some kind of food only to drop it off and learn your whole life story, that part was written really nicely.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Misogyny, Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, Gore, Sexual violence, Sexism, Rape, Gaslighting, Violence, Sexual assault, Body horror, Classism, Toxic relationship, Racism, and Death

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Child abuse, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Animal death, Kidnapping, Antisemitism, Self harm, Hate crime, Torture, Ableism, Dementia, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, and Drug abuse

Minor: Pregnancy, Grief, Bullying, Cursing, War, Vomit, Suicide, and Domestic abuse