Reviews tagging 'Antisemitism'

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

43 reviews

pclairx's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Antisemitism, Suicide attempt, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Racism, Cannibalism, and Classism

Minor: Alcoholism, Vomit, and Stalking

arosereads's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

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

2.0

This book had potential and completely fell flat. The author tried to make social commentary about race, class, and gender, and the parallel between vampirism and gentrification was promising, but it completely fell flat. While the author was trying to make commentary about misogyny, ultimately the female characters are two dimensional stereotypical personalities rooted in misogyny rather than fully fleshed out characters with development. For a novel that centers the pain of a Black community, it is very much glossed over and ultimately there is only 1 recurring Black character (Mrs. Greene) who doesn’t even get a first name until 2/3 of the way through the book. She is also constantly cleaning up after the white protagonists and doesn’t get centered in the narrative enough.

There are other aspects that made me very uncomfortable too, not limited to the multiple graphic depictions of sexual assault (one of which is a minor), the casual fatphobia/body shaming, the obsession that the son has with N*zis which is never dealt with and only used to show Patricia is a “bad mom” (?????), the trivialization of suicide and mental illness (the symptoms of the “sickness” the kids get seems to parallel addiction and the subject matter isn’t approached with the sensitivity it deserves), and then the demonization of mental health professionals (Carter is HORRIBLE and uses his psychology expertise to manipulate his family and Patricia pulls her daughter from the mental hospital and the novel makes a point of saying it’s against doctors orders etc), and domestic violence is brought up and glossed over and ultimately the butt of a weird joke? Overall, there are a lot of complex and delicate topics covered in this book, and none of them are really done well or appropriately.

I only gave 2 stars because while the pacing was slow, I did really like the author’s descriptions in the horror scenes. The part in the attic was very visceral and gave me chills and the gory scene at the end was well written and descriptive. It’s clear that Grady Hendrix should stick to icky horror stuff and leave the social commentary to those who are more well equipped to handle it properly.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Suicide, and Gaslighting

Minor: Fatphobia, Misogyny, Racism, and Antisemitism

peachberrypie's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Death, Blood, and Dementia

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, Antisemitism, Dementia, and Classism

literaturenut's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I'm having difficulty articulating why this book didn't quite sit right with me. First, I must say it deserves ALL the trigger warnings. I thought that the book would be a little bit of a horror-comedy and even the beginning of the book sets that tone and tenor. But it's hard to find humor when the book is full of gruesome acts and not just monsters.

All that said, the book uses systemic racism as a plot device in a way that felt very much like a white author profiting from the pain of Black people. And what's more, the white saviorism in the book made it feel even more like Black pain was just a tool used to allow the MC to grow, especailly when the only Black side character with any real time on the page is truly the hero of the book in all aspects. And the brutality of some of the horror aspects sat at odds with the humor and light tone of the book and made the brutality feel more like torture porn than necessary plot elements.

I don't need all my books to have happy endings, but this ending felt so unsatisfying. Maybe because the author didn't develop the characters well enough for me to be emotionally invested in their survival? It didn't feel chilling or poignant or triumphant. It just felt hollow and forced.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Racism, and Rape

Moderate: Antisemitism and Gaslighting

Minor: Domestic abuse

girlwiththeheadphones's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Rape, Sexism, Sexual content, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Antisemitism, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Domestic abuse

labinsky's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-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

2.5

first off there are just so many content warnings for this book so check that because you think you know what you’re getting into and the contents of the book does NOT match the tone of what’s on the tin.

this book is definitely a page turner, it’s over 400 pages and i finished it in under a day and i’m definitely not a fast reader. but just because it’s a page turner doesn’t make it good or mean that this book is well executed. it’s supposed to be a social commentary about racism and sexism and the way we accept the stuff of horror stories because we live in an unjust society. and it almost does that. but it’s written by a white man who capitalises southern and not Black. 

of course a horror novel is going to be graphic. of course it’s going to be gory and isn’t for the faint-hearted.

but there’s graphic depictions of lynching, rape, statutory rape, suicide, and suicide attempts. the main character’s white, christian adolescent son has an obsession with nazis that is entirely unnecessary, treated as only slightly concerning by his parents, and was stomach-churning for me to read as a jewish person.

and there’s plenty of run of the mill horror genre gore on top of this, which i fully expected going in, but everything else felt like when tarantino writes himself into a movie and his character says the n-slur with the hard r at least a dozen times. 

if someone with the lived experience of racism and sexism had written this book and if it was told from the perspectives of multiple characters (ie, mrs greene), it would have been a better book. it could have made the point it was trying to make. but instead of being a commentary about not only the horror genre but the society we live in, hendrix missed the mark.

in his version, a single vampire, not the world we live in, is identified the source of the violent racism and sexism and it goes away when they slay the vampire.

it falls short and it’s so frustrating because it could be such a good book, but it isn’t.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism, Fatphobia, Sexism, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Antisemitism, and Death of parent

beeskneesreads's review against another edition

dark emotional informative 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Blood, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Antisemitism

Minor: Animal cruelty

cate_with_a_c's review against another edition

It was good until it wasn’t. I didn’t like that all the men didn’t believe their wives when they were concerned for their children. Lots of sexism and fat phobia. I got bored about the half way point and couldn’t justify finishing it. Seemed like the women start out strong and the obvious abuse from some of the husbands was unnecessary and upsetting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Dementia, Cannibalism, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, and Antisemitism

elliesberrie's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, and Antisemitism

howl's review against another edition

dark tense

• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

3.0

This entire book felt like the scenes near the beginning of a horror movie in which the husband doesn’t believe his wife when she tells him their house is haunted 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Racism, Rape, Antisemitism, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, and Gaslighting