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Reviews tagging 'Gore'
The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
783 reviews
j3rkin's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Whoa. What an experience this book was. In addition to the graphic descriptions expected with a horror/ vampire book, I found myself totally captured by the side character storylines. There is so much potential for group discussion, that makes it a great pick for book clubs. I just wish the pace was faster. It felt like so much build up before I actually took interest.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Domestic abuse
meganparsec's review against another edition
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Outing, Sexual violence, Violence, Animal death, Dementia, Gaslighting, Gore, Sexual assault, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Blood, Body horror, Death, and Rape
afterplague's review against another edition
dark
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
3.25
I think people have strong feelings about The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, but I just don't really have those strong feelings. I didn't think it was amazing, and I didn't think it was terrible. I've seen some people speaking negatively about the portrayal of women or black people in the story. I can't speak for the black community because I'm white as the driven snow, but I think the portrayal of women was well done.
Each of the women had their own personalities and their own voice, but the novel is about disempowerment. These women are housewives, and when faced with a threat their husbands don't stand behind them and they bow to the pressures. The black characters in the story are further disempowered, and the white characters step away from the troubles the black community is facing because they are able to do so without consequence. It would be difficult to stand against their husbands and community to help those who are more disenfranchised, so they don't. They only care when their own are threatened.
I could understand some of the criticism. This is a story about white women (mostly), and the black characters are killed more and disregarded more than the white characters. I do think that this was the point and it tied into the overall theme. However, again, I am not black, so if those who are still feel like this representation was offensive I fully default to them.
I'm going to go into some spoilers below so be warned.
Patricia is our main character, and she's your typical suburban housewife. The book club she joins reads a lot of true crime and thriller books, so this is where my first disappointment comes in.
Based on the title you already know there's a vampire in this story, and Patricia is the first to encounter him in a vampiric form. However, she does not tell her book club that he's a vampire until the 85% mark. So this is not a story about a group of suburban housewives desperately trying to figure out a way to kill this vampire. It's a story about Patricia trying to convince her friends that James Harris is a drug dealer/pedophile and get him chased out of town or put in prison.
It's a little disappointing, and not what we were promised based on the title. There is eventually some vampire slaying that goes on, and I really enjoyed seeing them all come together and get him in the end. It just takes a really long time to get there.
Something else I wasn't really a fan of was a three year time skip in the middle of the book. Things have been escalating and escalating, and finally Patricia is driven to the edge. Her husband won't stand behind her, all of her friends have abandoned her, and even her kids are calling her crazy, so she makes an attempt on her life. Directly afterwards the story skips three years ahead, and Patricia has basically given in. She's friendly with James Harris and her family are very close to him etc. It just cuts a lot of the tension that the story was building. We essentially have to watch Patricia go through the same motions of convincing herself of the fact that James Harris is a vampire and getting all of her friends on board again. It's repetitive.
As far as the scares go in this novel, I think Grady Hendrix peaked WAY too early with the horror. The raccoon scene at about 15% in is the best horror in the book. I listened to it and I was scared, grossed out, and excited for more, but nothing really reached the same level of horror afterwards.
There was the cockroach scene at 70% that literally had me in tears, though I think that's just because I have a phobia of cockroaches. I think most people wouldn't have found it as frightening as I did. I had my boyfriend listen to it, and he thought it was gross, but he didn't have any reaction really and he's not a horror guy at all, so take that as you will. I just think I should've been more scared as the story went on but I wasn't.
There's another thing that makes this book contentious and I want to talk about that a little. Slick's sexual assault. A lot of people are saying that it was just done for shock value, and I don't know if I believe that. I really don't like reading about rape, and I try to avoid it when I can. Most stories that involve rape, didn't need to, in my opinion. I think the same of this book. It didn't need to happen.
I do understand it, however. Slick is a women who is extremely religious and has only ever been with her husband before. When she threatens James Harris with a photo of him forever young in the 1920s, he is insulted and wants to get back at her and intimidate her. It makes sense that the way he would do so would be to assault her and threaten her. It's a show of power as a man, and I don't think something like this is unrealistic. I think James Harris is a narcissist and he understands that this is how he can most hurt Slick. Contextually, it makes sense. If you're still upset about it, you're valid! I don't like reading about it either, but that's my opinion.
I think this book is fine. I don't think it was particularly frightening, but I have a pretty high tolerance. The writing was pretty good and the atmosphere was serviceable.
I see what the author was trying to do with the themes, and I found them relatively successful, but I would like to know what you think actually.
Each of the women had their own personalities and their own voice, but the novel is about disempowerment. These women are housewives, and when faced with a threat their husbands don't stand behind them and they bow to the pressures. The black characters in the story are further disempowered, and the white characters step away from the troubles the black community is facing because they are able to do so without consequence. It would be difficult to stand against their husbands and community to help those who are more disenfranchised, so they don't. They only care when their own are threatened.
I could understand some of the criticism. This is a story about white women (mostly), and the black characters are killed more and disregarded more than the white characters. I do think that this was the point and it tied into the overall theme. However, again, I am not black, so if those who are still feel like this representation was offensive I fully default to them.
I'm going to go into some spoilers below so be warned.
Patricia is our main character, and she's your typical suburban housewife. The book club she joins reads a lot of true crime and thriller books, so this is where my first disappointment comes in.
Based on the title you already know there's a vampire in this story, and Patricia is the first to encounter him in a vampiric form. However, she does not tell her book club that he's a vampire until the 85% mark. So this is not a story about a group of suburban housewives desperately trying to figure out a way to kill this vampire. It's a story about Patricia trying to convince her friends that James Harris is a drug dealer/pedophile and get him chased out of town or put in prison.
It's a little disappointing, and not what we were promised based on the title. There is eventually some vampire slaying that goes on, and I really enjoyed seeing them all come together and get him in the end. It just takes a really long time to get there.
Something else I wasn't really a fan of was a three year time skip in the middle of the book. Things have been escalating and escalating, and finally Patricia is driven to the edge. Her husband won't stand behind her, all of her friends have abandoned her, and even her kids are calling her crazy, so she makes an attempt on her life. Directly afterwards the story skips three years ahead, and Patricia has basically given in. She's friendly with James Harris and her family are very close to him etc. It just cuts a lot of the tension that the story was building. We essentially have to watch Patricia go through the same motions of convincing herself of the fact that James Harris is a vampire and getting all of her friends on board again. It's repetitive.
As far as the scares go in this novel, I think Grady Hendrix peaked WAY too early with the horror. The raccoon scene at about 15% in is the best horror in the book. I listened to it and I was scared, grossed out, and excited for more, but nothing really reached the same level of horror afterwards.
There was the cockroach scene at 70% that literally had me in tears, though I think that's just because I have a phobia of cockroaches. I think most people wouldn't have found it as frightening as I did. I had my boyfriend listen to it, and he thought it was gross, but he didn't have any reaction really and he's not a horror guy at all, so take that as you will. I just think I should've been more scared as the story went on but I wasn't.
There's another thing that makes this book contentious and I want to talk about that a little. Slick's sexual assault. A lot of people are saying that it was just done for shock value, and I don't know if I believe that. I really don't like reading about rape, and I try to avoid it when I can. Most stories that involve rape, didn't need to, in my opinion. I think the same of this book. It didn't need to happen.
I do understand it, however. Slick is a women who is extremely religious and has only ever been with her husband before. When she threatens James Harris with a photo of him forever young in the 1920s, he is insulted and wants to get back at her and intimidate her. It makes sense that the way he would do so would be to assault her and threaten her. It's a show of power as a man, and I don't think something like this is unrealistic. I think James Harris is a narcissist and he understands that this is how he can most hurt Slick. Contextually, it makes sense. If you're still upset about it, you're valid! I don't like reading about it either, but that's my opinion.
I think this book is fine. I don't think it was particularly frightening, but I have a pretty high tolerance. The writing was pretty good and the atmosphere was serviceable.
I see what the author was trying to do with the themes, and I found them relatively successful, but I would like to know what you think actually.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore and Animal death
Moderate: Rape and Sexual assault
allisonlessard's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-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? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Gore, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Sexual assault and Violence
meganadams2244's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
0.25
Literally so gross. At the beginning, i was a little bored and cringed out, the middle was ok, then the ending was so discusting and i could not read it anymore. I dont understand why he had to make james harris suck peoples blood through their inner thigh in a very sectual way abd describe it as being euphoric for the victim, especially because he always goes after kids, like thats so fucking discusting and does not need to be in a book. without the gross parts and the ending, i could have given it a better rating but i can not give a book with such a horendus premus a rating better than the lowest.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Pedophilia, Sexual harassment, Mental illness, Rape, Body horror, Body shaming, Gaslighting, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Blood, Child death, Animal cruelty, Gore, Murder, Racism, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Suicide attempt
hooligan_kt's review against another edition
dark
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? No
3.0
I found this book by browsing the immediately available audiobooks at the library, and thought that it was going to be mostly humorous and fun. Oops, there was actually a lot of gore and some pretty dark stuff, it's more of a horror book than anything else. There were also too many creepy, misogynistic, sexual scenes. I don't know how the author intended the book club women to come across, but I'd say they were around 20% believable interesting characters and 80% overblown male fantasy/puppet characters - and that's a generous breakdown. Overall I think maybe this book was trying to be too many things at once. Is it a horror story? A commentary on gender relations? A commentary on racism? A story about female friendships? Satiric? Funny? Disturbing? I think it would have been a more enjoyable book if it had picked one or two lanes and stayed there.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Violence, and Blood
Moderate: Racism, Rape, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Death, and Domestic abuse
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.
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.
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
ursimae's review against another edition
This book is a 1.5/5 stars.
The premise is sounds so good, but the execution was terrible. It's so bad that I dont think I'll even try reading another book by this author.
It's laughable that this book was supposedly written as like a love letter to his mom considering what happens in it.
Sorry for the rant, but I can't with this book.
Let me list out a few of the transgressions:
The premise is sounds so good, but the execution was terrible. It's so bad that I dont think I'll even try reading another book by this author.
It's laughable that this book was supposedly written as like a love letter to his mom considering what happens in it.
Sorry for the rant, but I can't with this book.
Let me list out a few of the transgressions:
- Weak writing. Outside of the horror scenes, the prose felt sloppy.
- So many racist stereotypes. The only reoccurring black character is given the "mammy" role. The next mention of other POC are shown as servants to the rich white people of the town during parties. From there, the stereotypes just continue. At points, it seemed like Grady was opening good dialogue on how racism impacts black communities in regards to their valid concerns being downplayed and ignored. However, he kept dropping the ball with it. It's like he placed the talking point in front of us then swept it aside before we could fully digest it and have a meaningful talk.
- Why the hell does the son love Nazis? The kid is obsessed and idolizes them. It literally plays no part in the story. Why'd you add that Grady? It wasn't necessary. Why you keep bringing up Nazis. Also, why was the MC totally cool about it? Huh? Grady, why was everyone okay with Nazis? It wasn't plot relevant.
- SO MUCH GASLIGHTING. Omfg, it made me want to rip out my hair.
- Hey, Grady...why did you write about the MC gaining 11 lbs as if she gained 200????? You just threw that part in there for what?
- Hey Grady... What's with the graphic retelling of a rape scene? Why?
- Hey.... Grady... Why did you have to include so many child sexual assault scenes... Story would've been totally cool without that. Really wasn't necessary.
The MC attempts suicide and its treated by everyone (even the MC) like some petty "fuck you" to her husband. - Also, there's just a lot of domestic abuse.
- I was 64% through when I DNFed and literally, never once was there a part about women becoming empowered and badass, taking on vampires. It was just 7+ hours (audiobook listener here) of a woman being severely abused.
- Not one character is likeable.
- All the other women in this book are just misogynistic stereotypes. None of them have any actual depth of character and feel very flat.
- The biggest horror wasn't the vampire stuff, but the husband, omfg they were the real villains.
apparently at the end, she only gets a divorce from this dude... I feel like she should get to kill her husband for the shit he did to her. Also, none of the other women get to fix their abusive relationships?
There is probably more than I could say, but I've ranted about this long enough.
There is very important commentary to be had with the topics of this book that would be awesome to explore further, but it only comes across as 400+ pages of women being repeatedly abused, racist, sexist, and outright terrible characters.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism, Death, Body horror, Blood, Domestic abuse, Toxic friendship, Dementia, Gaslighting, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Child death, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Racism, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Self harm, Confinement, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, and Grief
Minor: Bullying, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, and Fatphobia
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Sexual violence, Death, Cannibalism, Gore, Murder, Child abuse, Misogyny, and Blood
gaylelabreche's review against another edition
4.75
Genuinely terrifying. Delightfully creepy as hell. I loved all the characters SO MUCH.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Dementia, Racism, Sexual assault, Blood, Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Suicide attempt, Gore, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Child death, and Death