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A review by cyntismiles
The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
challenging
dark
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
2.0
I did finish the book but around the 70-80% mark I was reallllly thinking about DNFing this one. I really enjoyed the build-up of the book -- the women coming together and finding a way to be people outside of their "housewife" roles and all the pieces of the mystery falling into place. Then an obstacle hit and some characters (ahem the husbands and similar) did things I found irredeemable. Then the writing of specific scenes...did not feel right to me (more below). So I forced myself to finish it because I wanted to see the ending but the ending was also so drawn out in all the wrong ways...
A side note that really has nothing to do with anything: I found it really hard to remind myself that this book was set in the 90's but may be a good reminder that we aren't too far from these "old" ideals and probably still need to watch out for them.
For the majority of this book, I was leaning towards at least a 3-star rating. I enjoyed seeing the housewives exploring interests outside their families and getting to hang out together and whatnot. There were gross/disturbing scenes but it's a horror book -- I didn't love them but I didn't think a lot of it. However, what really bumped this book down in rating for me was the handling of the sexual abuse scenes. I will put a spoiler over this part of the review so it can be skipped over. Long story short, the way they were written was too graphic in all the wrong ways (?) and felt very disingenuous to survivors/real people.
The way that these scenes were handled made me feel really yucky. And sexual abuse/r*pe is yucky! I don't want to read scenes where it is glorified or made to be acceptable/nonchalant etc. I think what left me feeling really gross was the detail it was described in. I am not sure if this was to add to the horror element or the scene in general but it felt...exploitative? Like it didn't need to be described in such detail? I have read scenes about abuse that do a good job of conveying the gross, icky, disturbing feelings; empathy for the survivor; the pain and helplessness they feel; how horrible it is without describing the whole scene and specifics in such detail. I think I was just really rubbed the wrong way by the details the author chose to include? It felt like a disgusting lens if that makes sense. I did have to skip over sections of the second scene (yes I am appalled there was more than one???) because it was too detailed. I understand this may be written off as "personal sensitivity" but I'm not sure who needs to read about this in such detail, with these specific details. I am not sure who it benefits or if the story benefits from this (I don't think it does) and it felt weird knowing this was all written by a man. I'm not sure how to describe it but it felt really weird and more like a random plot point than an actual issue that happens in the real world??? Idk
The ending was okay. There was some wrapping up of certain plot points that was good but it wasn't a satisfying ending. A particular scene of the ending that may have been supposed to have been triumphant was really long and drawn out and described...too much. It really ruined the book for me. I ended up not really caring what the characters did or how they ended up after the climax (it wasn't very climatic tho??). I just felt very apathetic towards the whole thing.
At no point in this book was it going to be a 5-star book for me but the second half of the book really dragged down the experience for me (especially the last 80%) and it was almost unbearable to finish. I enjoyed the first half and read it quickly. I'm not sure how I feel for the characters in the end??? Just left feeling kind of not interested in reading a similar book again.
A side note that really has nothing to do with anything: I found it really hard to remind myself that this book was set in the 90's but may be a good reminder that we aren't too far from these "old" ideals and probably still need to watch out for them.
For the majority of this book, I was leaning towards at least a 3-star rating. I enjoyed seeing the housewives exploring interests outside their families and getting to hang out together and whatnot. There were gross/disturbing scenes but it's a horror book -- I didn't love them but I didn't think a lot of it. However, what really bumped this book down in rating for me was the handling of the sexual abuse scenes. I will put a spoiler over this part of the review so it can be skipped over. Long story short, the way they were written was too graphic in all the wrong ways (?) and felt very disingenuous to survivors/real people.
The ending was okay. There was some wrapping up of certain plot points that was good but it wasn't a satisfying ending. A particular scene of the ending that may have been supposed to have been triumphant was really long and drawn out and described...too much. It really ruined the book for me. I ended up not really caring what the characters did or how they ended up after the climax (it wasn't very climatic tho??). I just felt very apathetic towards the whole thing.
At no point in this book was it going to be a 5-star book for me but the second half of the book really dragged down the experience for me (especially the last 80%) and it was almost unbearable to finish. I enjoyed the first half and read it quickly. I'm not sure how I feel for the characters in the end??? Just left feeling kind of not interested in reading a similar book again.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape and Sexual assault
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, and Emotional abuse