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A review by rowancdewit
The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
Man. I'm really disappointed by the ending of this book. Albeit the last eighty pages, I WAS LOVING THIS BOOK. I am not a horror novel fan, but I really liked Hendrix's "How to Sell a Haunted House" and upon reading the title of this book, I gave it ago.
The first two thirds of the book just felt like a funny, satirical take on being a housewife in a southern community. The concept, so fun. A book club of women addicted to their true crime novels, when one woman in the group watches a supernatural true crime novel unfold in front of her. Not only is the premise enough to make you want to keep reading, I truly feel like Hendrix has the gift of gab. Just like with his other books, I just never wanted to put this one down. I HAD to keep reading!
But, like I said at the beginning of the review, the last eighty pages really ruined this book for me, and left a bad taste in my mouth. Without spoiling, it was so sad to realize that Hendrix was writing a supernatural novel, about a supernatural being, and he resorts to sexual assault as tactic. The way Hendrix wrote it in felt extremely distasteful and just plain gross. Again, you have a whole supernatural creature, with supernatural powers to be explored, but instead, his climax of terror is three grossly described sexual scenes, all at the very end of the book. As soon as the first scene hit, I was like, "are you kidding? this is what we've been building up to?" The scenes just completely erased the whimsy and drama of the book for me, and immediately just made the book feel immature and, again, gross. And felt lazy. Like, AGAIN I SAY, we have a whole supernatural creature, we know extremely little of his powers and his backstory, but instead of exploring that and trying to create an intense powerful climax of a story.... let's just very quickly, in the last EIGHTY PAGES of this book, throw in three extremely perverse (and distastefully written) scenes that make you dislike him, without effort. Lazy, off-putting, and, again again again cannot emphasize enough, gross.
Also, hated how inconsistent the characters were. Mainly, the husband. Which, I think I could have ignored if I liked the ending of the book. But I think hating the ending is making all of my other qualms with the book this book stand out even more to me. (EDIT: After uploading this review, I'm reading other negative reviews to see if anyone else agreed with the points I've made, and realizing there were so many more issues in this book that I also didn't like. So, I think I feel pretty justified in my scoring.)
I really wanted to love this book, and I honestly really did like most of it, but the ending really just killed it for me. One start it is.
The first two thirds of the book just felt like a funny, satirical take on being a housewife in a southern community. The concept, so fun. A book club of women addicted to their true crime novels, when one woman in the group watches a supernatural true crime novel unfold in front of her. Not only is the premise enough to make you want to keep reading, I truly feel like Hendrix has the gift of gab. Just like with his other books, I just never wanted to put this one down. I HAD to keep reading!
But, like I said at the beginning of the review, the last eighty pages really ruined this book for me, and left a bad taste in my mouth. Without spoiling, it was so sad to realize that Hendrix was writing a supernatural novel, about a supernatural being, and he resorts to sexual assault as tactic. The way Hendrix wrote it in felt extremely distasteful and just plain gross. Again, you have a whole supernatural creature, with supernatural powers to be explored, but instead, his climax of terror is three grossly described sexual scenes, all at the very end of the book. As soon as the first scene hit, I was like, "are you kidding? this is what we've been building up to?" The scenes just completely erased the whimsy and drama of the book for me, and immediately just made the book feel immature and, again, gross. And felt lazy. Like, AGAIN I SAY, we have a whole supernatural creature, we know extremely little of his powers and his backstory, but instead of exploring that and trying to create an intense powerful climax of a story.... let's just very quickly, in the last EIGHTY PAGES of this book, throw in three extremely perverse (and distastefully written) scenes that make you dislike him, without effort. Lazy, off-putting, and, again again again cannot emphasize enough, gross.
Also, hated how inconsistent the characters were. Mainly, the husband. Which, I think I could have ignored if I liked the ending of the book. But I think hating the ending is making all of my other qualms with the book this book stand out even more to me. (EDIT: After uploading this review, I'm reading other negative reviews to see if anyone else agreed with the points I've made, and realizing there were so many more issues in this book that I also didn't like. So, I think I feel pretty justified in my scoring.)
I really wanted to love this book, and I honestly really did like most of it, but the ending really just killed it for me. One start it is.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Gore, Violence, and Blood