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debussy 's review for:
The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires
by Grady Hendrix
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I don't really know where to begin with this book. It was entertaining! The pages flew by! I loved the concept! Southern ladies slay a vampire--sign me up. And so much of it was really good. The lush details of the Deep South meshed so well with the bored-but-busy attitude of all the women and their vigilance about the safety of their (rich, white, coastal) neighborhood.
Patricia is a bored housewife, but at her book club she reads true crime and gets that taste of excitement, even though that isn't really enough for her. When a stranger, James Harris, arrives in a white van to take care of his sick great-aunt--who is found gnawing on a raccoon some time later--Patricia's interest is piqued. At first she's all Southern lady hospitality, but then it starts taking a turn. James Harris's white van has been places it shouldn't be. The nearby Black (poor, inland, "scary at night") community has missing children. Patricia is concerned. Shouldn't she be concerned? They're children, after all, and it could be her children next.
So much of the book involves convincing other people to believe Patricia, which became frustrating. I had thought I was in this to see Southern women bound by friendship ridding their town of a vampire, but really the book falls into all sorts of mess about what Patricia believes and who is going to step up to believe her.
The Southern book club is not as tightly knit as I wanted it to be if we had to suffer through two major attempts to convince them to act. A ton of time passes with Patricia in a patriarchy-induced haze, and the book does little to explain how she can justify that. Probably there's a parallel to Ann Rule in there somewhere, but it's still surprising. I understand that shrugging off all the societal expectations is hard, and the book somewhat touches on that, but it never really goes all in because there is cleaning to be done.
The book drops plotlines when the plots are no longer convenient. Child/parent strife? Gone. It touches on huge issues like racial inequality and segregation and gentrification, but doesn't fully explore them or allow the white, rich, Southern ladies to have a full reckoning about being seemingly resigned to a growing pile of Black bodies. I do feel like if that's a major thread of the book, they could have had a serious conversation about why they preferred ignorance. For a book about a group of women acting, they really didn't seem to want to at all.
The horror is well done. The men are, without question, completely horrific. The author is gifted at writing gore and animal attacks, but the part that made me truly upset was the men. The gaslighting, the forced institutionalization, the betrayal, the abuse. Patriarchy at its finest, right there. But even in the horror there are plot questions with resolutions I didn't really find plausible or satisfying.
So I really did like this, but also felt that it was introducing big concepts in the surface level horror that it didn't or wouldn't drill into, which left me feeling a little empty. The book sets up for a potential sequel, but works just fine on its own.
Patricia is a bored housewife, but at her book club she reads true crime and gets that taste of excitement, even though that isn't really enough for her. When a stranger, James Harris, arrives in a white van to take care of his sick great-aunt--who is found gnawing on a raccoon some time later--Patricia's interest is piqued. At first she's all Southern lady hospitality, but then it starts taking a turn. James Harris's white van has been places it shouldn't be. The nearby Black (poor, inland, "scary at night") community has missing children. Patricia is concerned. Shouldn't she be concerned? They're children, after all, and it could be her children next.
So much of the book involves convincing other people to believe Patricia, which became frustrating. I had thought I was in this to see Southern women bound by friendship ridding their town of a vampire, but really the book falls into all sorts of mess about what Patricia believes and who is going to step up to believe her.
The Southern book club is not as tightly knit as I wanted it to be if we had to suffer through two major attempts to convince them to act. A ton of time passes with Patricia in a patriarchy-induced haze, and the book does little to explain how she can justify that. Probably there's a parallel to Ann Rule in there somewhere, but it's still surprising. I understand that shrugging off all the societal expectations is hard, and the book somewhat touches on that, but it never really goes all in because there is cleaning to be done.
The book drops plotlines when the plots are no longer convenient. Child/parent strife? Gone. It touches on huge issues like racial inequality and segregation and gentrification, but doesn't fully explore them or allow the white, rich, Southern ladies to have a full reckoning about being seemingly resigned to a growing pile of Black bodies. I do feel like if that's a major thread of the book, they could have had a serious conversation about why they preferred ignorance. For a book about a group of women acting, they really didn't seem to want to at all.
The horror is well done. The men are, without question, completely horrific. The author is gifted at writing gore and animal attacks, but the part that made me truly upset was the men. The gaslighting, the forced institutionalization, the betrayal, the abuse. Patriarchy at its finest, right there. But even in the horror there are plot questions with resolutions I didn't really find plausible or satisfying.
So I really did like this, but also felt that it was introducing big concepts in the surface level horror that it didn't or wouldn't drill into, which left me feeling a little empty. The book sets up for a potential sequel, but works just fine on its own.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexism, Blood, Murder, Gaslighting
Moderate: Child abuse, Misogyny, Racism, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Stalking, Suicide attempt
Minor: Rape