Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

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

84 reviews

ricareviews's review against another edition

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sad slow-paced
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No

2.0

I finally finished it! It took me a whole month, but I somehow did it. I wanted this book to be campy, exciting, and entertaining. It was everything but that. I got a mixture of everything I despise in a book: one-dimensional characters, weird pacing, boring plot, and prose that is too descriptive. A lot of scenes just made my heart boil. There was no reason to include them because they served no purpose to the story - at least that's how I see it. The book's aim to be disgusting and vomit-inducing was accomplished, but at what cost? I could have lived without having read this and I wouldn't have regretted it one bit. Perhaps the greatest sin this book committed was that of being forgettable and ultimately really dull.
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kristynpittman's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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thereadingwells's review against another edition

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dark sad tense medium-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

3.75

I ordered this book from a small, local, independent book store several months ago after recommendations from several sources - and while wanting something a little darker to read around Halloween. 

To my surprise, when I first picked it up to read, I could not get into it and ended up putting it down to read other things. It starts slow. Like, really slow. It also begins and remains within one of my least favorite tropes: the underestimated and unappreciated housewife(s) who's subservient to her husband(s). 

Overall, once the book gets going, it's well written and engaging. There are both loveable and hateable characters.  It's dark, mysterious, and intense. 
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tinytrashqueen's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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miserablesplendor's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced
  • 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


Patricia Campbell may have lived the exciting life of a nurse, but now she’s just a homemaker and manages the lives of her rebellious children, workaholic husband and dementia-ridden mother-in-law.

So when she joins a new not-book-club dedicated to discussing the trashiest of crime novels — rather than high literature — she didn’t expect that her fellow book readers would become her closest allies when a vampire unexpectedly moves into the small town.

Set against the backdrop of the late 90s in suburban American, strange things have been happening in the neighbourhood and black children are steadily going missing or killing themselves for no reason, and Campbell suspects her new neighbour, James Harris, is at the center of it all.

But Harris is a respected figure among the town’s, and friends and family start to turn against Campbell for her campaign against him.

The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires is not a novel for the lighthearted. Hendrix is talented at describing gore and horror; there were moments in the book where I found myself clutching at my own skin so I could be sure nothing was happening to me in real life.

And it isn’t just physical horror, the violence in this book touched me on both a physical and mental level, and there are moments that were hard for me to swallow. Survivors of rape and abuse should be aware there is content that could be triggering for them.

I had originally picked up this book for its seeming humorous premise, but Hendrix goes beyond any vampiric trope and builds a realistic universe that takes a hard look at the latent misogny of the 90s and the systemic racism black people continue to face to this very day.

The protagonists of The Southern Book Club are multifaceted but still likeable. In fact, I enjoyed Campbell’s protrayal so much — and found her so well developed — that I was shocked when I found out that the book was written by a man.

I vacuumed this book up while I was at a three-hour-long nail appointment (slightly ironic considering the themes of the book) and I definitely annoyed the person doing my nails because I refused to put it down. During the moments where both my hands were occupied and I was unable to turn the page, not gonna lie, I was tempted to remove my hand from the UV lamp just so I could keep reading.

But even throughout its horrific moments, the book still found its moments for softness and empathy and there are twists towards the end that tugged at my heart strings. I came extremely close to tears.

I think I can safely say as the year comes to the end, The Southern Book Club is the best book I have read in 2020. If this is the last book I read this year, I’ll be satisfied.
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cd87's review against another edition

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emotional reflective tense medium-paced
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I read this book as part of a discord book club, I likely wouldn't have picked it up otherwise. I'm glad I did though because this was good! It's a fast read, and not super scary for a notorious wimp like me. I think this book serves its purpose as a metaphor for the "monsters" that women and people of color face in everyday life and the fact that they are routinely ignored by those with privilege. The insistence of the white men in the story that the danger did not exist in their community mirrors the denial of systemic racism and sexism.
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mandigolightly's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious medium-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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alreads13's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced
  • 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

Very fun and terribly disgusting. Couldn’t put it down. 
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nerdybirdy101's review against another edition

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adventurous reflective medium-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


I have seen the hype for this book since it came out and after reading it I totally agree! This book was fabulous! I stayed up later than I should finishing this book and might fail a huge test Friday, but it was so good! I definitely recommend this book if you are able to read semi-horror/thriller books.
The characters are fabulous! The Book Club women are spectacular, they come together as a group but are all still individuals and I love it. The main character who the book follows is Patricia and that woman is so smart and everyone just brushed her to the side. All the wives were housewives and I loved how the author played with stereotypes, the wives are definitely smarter than their husbands. The husbands are a mixture of good and bad ideals, mostly bad and I wanted to punch most of them at one point or another. If you read this book and do not get frustrated by the husbands, then you need to get your priorities checked. Now the newcomer starts out as an angel and then he shows his devil side, which was so interesting to see! The children are entertaining because you could see how they have the child/teenage angst.
The plot was fabulous! I loved how the story was constructed. The story did take place over a number of years which I found semi-frustrating but a lot of things happened so there needed to be a progression of years to make it realistic.
I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars because it was so entertaining and I absolutely loved it! The only issue I have is with some of the characters (which the author wrote so well) and how they had to stick with their morals. There is one death that I definitely think should have been someone else. I highly recommend this book!
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hebrideanreader's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

In the late 80s, Patricia Campbell finds her people, forging a “not a book club” book club with 4 other very different women, all of whom have a penchant for true crime books and thrashing out their personal problems. Their lives are predictable, and set in societal stone, governed by etiquette and manners.

Some years later Patricia is brutally attacked by an elderly neighbour, leading to the woman’s mysterious grand-nephew, James Harris swaggering into her life. He is funny and handsome and well-read and utterly magnetic for the women of the book club. But as children start to die in strange ways Patricia begins to suspect that her charming, handsome new neighbour is not what he appears to be, and that he is actually a monster previously only found in fiction.

I devoured this story (pardon the pun). It was compelling and horrifying and nail-biting. There are moments of gore and horror that make you want to turn away. And fair warning, there is a particularly dark incidence of rape, although the focus is on the aftermath, and the care provided by women, as opposed to the actual attack.

Where the genius of this book lies however is not only in the surface horror – which is tense and palpable (there’s one moment early on involving a hand where I genuinely felt my skin crawl) – but in the allegory. 

James Harris is able to slip into their lives, their communities and devastate them from the inside out because of the institutional racism and misogyny that permeates the Charleston communities: The societal systems which cause “good people” to turn the other cheek, shrug and think “Oh well that’s just the way it is” rather than standing up for what’s right. 

White powerful men are offered power and money on a silver platter to distract them and seduce them while their children are groomed, and the poor and minority areas of their community are ravaged,  and they are only too willing to reach for the gaslight if the women in their lives dare to ask questions. The real horror that turns the stomach are the subtle moments where you watch how easily James’ hold on the communities brings out the hate and selfishness in people, how quickly family relationships curdle, and how easily people are corrupted. 

In the 20s he wrapped his hold around the hearts of men who scapegoated their own failings onto vulnerable black men and had them lynched as a way to divert from their own evil choices. In the 80s and 90s he schmoozes and charms his way into being a pillar of the community, where he finds the existing darkness in people’s hearts and twists it until it grows beyond their control: Men become power hungry at the expense of all those around them; Women become fractured and suspicious; the racial barriers in the community are shored up with mistrust and betrayal as the rich elite ignore the pain of and suffering of the black communities; Blue and his minor (yet still uncomfortable) interest in World War two is steadily led down the path of fanaticism; children are seduced and corrupted while their parents look the other way. James Harris is not just a blood sucking monster, he is the hate, and darkness and sin that creeps and lurks, hooks onto the already existing dark spots in people’s hearts and insidiously grows until communities are unrecognisable. James Harris is Naziism personified. And despite warnings from Miss Mary, who lived through his terror before, he is invited in under the assumption that he can be controlled and befriended.

It is only when the members of the book club learn to trust each other and work together as a team, when they admit their mistakes and find their voices to stand up for each other and what is right that they can begin to route out the evil now embedded in their homes.

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