Scan barcode
A review by sklus
The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
TW: The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires has themes of sexual assault, sexual assault of children, murder, racism, and a minor mention of police brutality.
Despite being a quintessential suburban mother's book, I absolutely adored it. I'm sure there are parts of this book that would hit harder if I was actually a suburban mother, and not just the post-grad equivalent of one. For example, I do not have a teenaged daughter who is distancing herself from me. Nor do I have a workaholic husband.
What I do have is a love for the history of feminist movements and women supporting women. And this book hits both of those points hard. In a lot of ways the book reminds me of Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique as the protagonists are majority educated white women living a less than satisfactory life as a housewife. And the main antagonists are the men in their lives. I was flabbergasted when I realized that the author of this book is a man, because there is not a single good man in this entire book. Men in this book are gas-lighters, abusers, or just incompetent. And I can't tell you how validating it is to read about men's abuse in a negative light. Which is why I recommend reading this book if you're even the slightest bit fed up with middle class white men (obligatory not all men are like this blah blah blah). That being said, after reading several reviews and trying to figure out if this book is problematic or not, a not-insignificant number of reviewers found the women in this book to be flat and one-dimensional or act like they're from the 50s instead of the 90s. I was between 0-2 in the 90s, so I'm not sure if this statement is accurate.
I feel it's also important to mention that racism is a major theme in this book. Most of the victims in this story are young black kids. However, most of the antagonists in the book are white women. The only black character who is present throughout the book is Mrs. Greene. So I believe this book could be read as a white savior story, which we certainly do not need any more of but I'm not certain that it is.But it could be, which is why I'm going to do more thinking and reading reviews over these next few days. I do know that like second wave feminism, this book lacks women of color, LGBT+ women, and poor women. So on one hand, I find the lack of representation and the focus on middle class white women's struggles to be problematic, but on the other hand it did discuss racism and the failures of white people to address any issue not directly affecting their community. I've been trying to find POC reviewers to see what their take on the book is, but after scrolling through 10 pages of reviews on goodreads I did find any. It could be because it is midnight and I'm tired so my reading comprehension is poor, but I'm going to try to find more in the morning because I feel like this could be a learning experience. So despite all my praise for this book, I don't think it's perfect and understand why someone wouldn't want to give it a chance.
Despite being a quintessential suburban mother's book, I absolutely adored it. I'm sure there are parts of this book that would hit harder if I was actually a suburban mother, and not just the post-grad equivalent of one. For example, I do not have a teenaged daughter who is distancing herself from me. Nor do I have a workaholic husband.
What I do have is a love for the history of feminist movements and women supporting women. And this book hits both of those points hard. In a lot of ways the book reminds me of Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique as the protagonists are majority educated white women living a less than satisfactory life as a housewife. And the main antagonists are the men in their lives. I was flabbergasted when I realized that the author of this book is a man, because there is not a single good man in this entire book. Men in this book are gas-lighters, abusers, or just incompetent. And I can't tell you how validating it is to read about men's abuse in a negative light. Which is why I recommend reading this book if you're even the slightest bit fed up with middle class white men (obligatory not all men are like this blah blah blah). That being said, after reading several reviews and trying to figure out if this book is problematic or not, a not-insignificant number of reviewers found the women in this book to be flat and one-dimensional or act like they're from the 50s instead of the 90s. I was between 0-2 in the 90s, so I'm not sure if this statement is accurate.
I feel it's also important to mention that racism is a major theme in this book. Most of the victims in this story are young black kids. However, most of the antagonists in the book are white women. The only black character who is present throughout the book is Mrs. Greene. So I believe this book could be read as a white savior story, which we certainly do not need any more of but I'm not certain that it is.