Reviews with content warning for Racism - The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires

Reviews tagging 'Racism'

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

533 reviews

blfrankwriter's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious tense slow-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

3.5

Content Warnings

kimbaudelaire's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

A bit of a slow burner but overall entertaining. The gaslighting and marriages were way scarier and bone chilling than the monster itself.
Miss Greene was my favorite character.

Content Warnings

cepramas's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark funny tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

Really enjoyed this! My main issue is

that the only character of color takes on a disproportionate amount of the labor!!!

Content Warnings

justmys's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

Content Warnings

badlucklaura's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark funny mysterious fast-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

4.0

Content Warnings

justgraceanne's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot

I finished this book a week ago, and it's time for a review

My favorite part of the book? The author's note.
Hendrix mentions how he wanted to pit Dracula against his mom and how it wasn't "a fair fight."
That got me HOOKED.
I enjoyed the first half of this book well enough, but it takes a TURN in the second half.

One important thing I have to emphasize is this:

CW: gore, violence against women, lynching, rape, murder, gaslighting, sexual violence, domestic abuse, child molesting, and probably more things that I'm forgetting

If you have experienced any of these things or are sensitive to any of the above topics for ANY reason at all, avoid this book. Some of the scenes can be very triggering (you don't have to read the rest of my review if that resonates with you).

Let's address another issue for would-be readers -- are all of these other reviews:

Kai Spellmeier says, "I guess what's helpful to know is that the book is set in America's Deep South in the 80's and 90's. But the author took that as an excuse to push Black characters to the sidelines," and "Of course he had to make unnecessary comments about their breasts and pubes, of course horror wouldn't be horror if female characters didn't experience physical violation of their bodies in the form of rape and abuse. No, your book is not feminist just because your female characters say 'That's sexist,' once. I'm really tired of horror authors relying on tropes like the violation of women's bodies . . . to create discomfort. It's like comedians that can only be "funny" when they ridicule women and marginalized people."

And I have to be honest, I agree with him.
I wanted to see Black characters actually fleshed out and fighting vampires alongside the women (who took far too long to actually take action).
Also, the book that I had hoped would be a dark comedy that was simply about a bunch of housewives killing vampires turned VERY dark VERY fast.

This isn't to say that the book is horrendously bad, if you're wanting horror, you get horror! But there are so many other books that do the women-killing plot better.

Fiona had this to say: "Maybe if there had been one decent man in the bunch, or if the terrible men hadn't been so universally terrible (seriously, barring one man who was concerned when his wife was sick, there wasn't a decent moment given to ANY of them), then they wouldn't have felt so unrealistic. There's a reason people stay with bad partners, and it's not because they're cartoon villains who have zero dimension."

I wished we'd had a decent man, too, Fiona. That part was rough.

All in all, I can't give this book any stars. I suppose I could give it 1 star, but there were moments I felt like it was a 5 star book.

Hope this review helps! You aren't a bad person if you liked this book or a better person if you hated it. Just remember that that you should read what you love and love what you read. You deserve no less than that!

Alternative Reading Recs For:

Actual Monster-Slaying Black Women: Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark
Women Who Kill: Bad Men by Julie Mae Cohen & An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good by Helene Tursten
Vampire Myth That Follows Native American Family: Manmade Monsters by Andrea L. Rogers

Content Warnings

lunaviolet's review against another edition

Go to review page

This was not written for me. It’s one of those crime/mystery books written for middle aged white American moms, if you know what I mean. I don’t mean that in a bad way at all, I just don’t enjoy those books.

Some things that were in this book that you may want to know about in advance: the main characters son has an obsession with Nazis (no idea where this sub plot goes since I didn’t finish the book, but it’s mentioned frequently), racism (it takes place in the south in the 90s in a white community. But also, there is a

moderately graphic description of a lynching of a black man

so proceed at your own risk), a woman

bites off the ear of the main character. Like explicitly. On page.

Those are the main things that stood out to me

Content Warnings