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A review by writtenontheflyleaves
The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
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
4.75
The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix π§
ππππβ¨
π The plot: Patricia Campbell is feeling stifled. Her husband works too much; her teenage daughter is shutting her out and her son is obsessed with Nazis. What keeps her sane is her book club: a group of housewives who read true crime stories about charismatic men with murderous intentions. When handsome James Harris comes to town, trailed by a string of deaths, Patricia is well-equipped to put together the truth about him - but convincing her book club and their husbands that her suspicions are more than a bored housewife's fantasy will be harder than she imagined...
Let's not beat around the bush: Grady Hendrix is bloody good. I love how he uses horror tropes to unpack everyday issues - in My Best Friend's Exorcism it was teenage female friendship; in HorrorstΓΆr, it was work; in this book, it's domestic misogyny.
From the start, Patricia is dismissed and belittled and bullied, by the ordinary men around her as well as the supernatural one who infiltrates their community. It took my breath away at times how exactly Hendrix described her experiences of sexism and the power dynamics at play when men decide to disbelieve women.
But although Hendrix gives his women characters their moments of weakness and failure, ultimately his books are about the many ways that there are for women to be strong.
Triumph over evil in a Hendrix book doesn't look like just one thing: a lone woman escaping danger. Instead, it looks like ordinary women standing up for themselves and each other. They use the strengths that have previously been dismissed as frivolous or stupid to fight back, whether that's the force of their teenage devotion to one another (like in MBFE), or the skills they learned from mothering children, cleaning houses, reading Ann Rule. Hendrix speaks directly back to misogyny in the horror genre, and it intensifies both the horror and the final triumph.
Basically, any male horror writer who's ever written a woman character as just a pair of floating tits should look at what Hendrix is doing and feel deeply inadequate x
π§ Read it if you love psychological thrillers and deep studies of sexism in suburban settings. Also if you want to read a book that validates how hardcore motherhood is.
π« Avoid it if you hate rats (don't ask, just trust me), mild gore or mention of blood and needles, and if you're avoiding content around sexual assault and rape.
ππππβ¨
π The plot: Patricia Campbell is feeling stifled. Her husband works too much; her teenage daughter is shutting her out and her son is obsessed with Nazis. What keeps her sane is her book club: a group of housewives who read true crime stories about charismatic men with murderous intentions. When handsome James Harris comes to town, trailed by a string of deaths, Patricia is well-equipped to put together the truth about him - but convincing her book club and their husbands that her suspicions are more than a bored housewife's fantasy will be harder than she imagined...
Let's not beat around the bush: Grady Hendrix is bloody good. I love how he uses horror tropes to unpack everyday issues - in My Best Friend's Exorcism it was teenage female friendship; in HorrorstΓΆr, it was work; in this book, it's domestic misogyny.
From the start, Patricia is dismissed and belittled and bullied, by the ordinary men around her as well as the supernatural one who infiltrates their community. It took my breath away at times how exactly Hendrix described her experiences of sexism and the power dynamics at play when men decide to disbelieve women.
But although Hendrix gives his women characters their moments of weakness and failure, ultimately his books are about the many ways that there are for women to be strong.
Triumph over evil in a Hendrix book doesn't look like just one thing: a lone woman escaping danger. Instead, it looks like ordinary women standing up for themselves and each other. They use the strengths that have previously been dismissed as frivolous or stupid to fight back, whether that's the force of their teenage devotion to one another (like in MBFE), or the skills they learned from mothering children, cleaning houses, reading Ann Rule. Hendrix speaks directly back to misogyny in the horror genre, and it intensifies both the horror and the final triumph.
Basically, any male horror writer who's ever written a woman character as just a pair of floating tits should look at what Hendrix is doing and feel deeply inadequate x
π§ Read it if you love psychological thrillers and deep studies of sexism in suburban settings. Also if you want to read a book that validates how hardcore motherhood is.
π« Avoid it if you hate rats (don't ask, just trust me), mild gore or mention of blood and needles, and if you're avoiding content around sexual assault and rape.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Blood, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Mental illness, Sexual content, and Violence
Minor: Domestic abuse