Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

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

755 reviews

mommacusses's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Gore, Pedophilia, Rape, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Medical trauma, and Mental illness

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

4.0

I have mixed feelings about this book. Overall I would say I enjoyed it but I also HATED some parts of it. 

My main issues with this book were:
1. The extreme feeling of frustration during the first ~2/3s of the book. I  had a pit in my stomach while reading, not due to the horror elements or tense moments, but because I was just SO frustrated with how everyone was treating the main character. While I understood that the other characters needed to mistrust her for the plot, it often felt too extreme too quickly and drove me crazy. I would’ve preferred a little less mistrust and gaslighting, especially coming from the people closest to the main character. That or I wish there were more in depth/reasonable explanations for why some of these characters were not on her side since it didn’t always seem justified.
2. The unnecessary sexual violence against women and children. I mean, I just don’t think this was needed? It felt like it was included for the shock value more than the author having anything meaningful to say about rape/sexual assault, which is something I really do not appreciate in books, especially coming from a male author. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Body horror, Suicide, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Racism and Sexism

hygge77's review against another edition

This book is horrifying and it has nothing to do with the vampire. The characters say a lot about the author. This book contains antisemitism, racism, misogyny, pedophilia and sexual assault/rape. None of which has anything to do with the plot  and it’s all discussed as if it’s all no big  deal. I was disgusted by this book. I was hoping it would be a cute story, given the description but the further in I got, the more disgusted I became. This is probably the worst book I’ve ever read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Suicide attempt, Emotional abuse, Racism, Rape, Gaslighting, Pedophilia, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Misogyny

hayleyjames24's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Really wish I liked this book just a little bit more. 
I finished it and just closed it and went on my phone hahah, it won’t stay with me. 
I did like most of the characters and thought they were well fleshed out, each with their own problems and desires (even if those desires and problems were a bit annoying) Slick was probably my fave and I did really enjoy James Harris. The writing was super easy to read and raced by for me but felt like it spent a lot of time dithering in the middle - dunno if 400 pages was necessary to tell the story. It was very obvious what was happening a short while into the book and then you were just waiting around for someone to believe this housewife. 

There was a fair bit of racism and sexism in here as well. Check some trigger warnings. 

It got gory and kinda body horror-y at the end and I did like that it wrapped up the way it did. Probably won’t pick up this authors books again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Domestic abuse and Drug abuse

ladychubb's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Death of parent, Dementia, Gaslighting, Self harm, Classism, Toxic friendship, Sexism, Violence, Death, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Domestic abuse, Rape, and Sexual assault