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A review by abby_gail_noel
The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
5.0
Y’all I absolutely devoured this book. I loved it so much to the point that I’m ready to reread it minutes after finishing it.
First off, I thought it captured southern women of the 80s and 90s so well. I’m from the south, like pretty deeply from the south, and I felt like I could really see a lot of my family members in this. Obviously our culture has evolved a lot but I definitely see aspects of these characters in day to day life from their deep roots in faith and tradition to their devotion to their families, especially their children. On the flip side of that, there are also still a lot of remnants of the pervasive racist and sexist ideology described in the book that are still alive today.
Do I think the book handled these issues perfectly? No. But it was a book about killing a vampire, so there’s that. I thought this book had a knowledge of itself and what it was, and leaned into that well. It wasn’t trying to be the most feminist piece of literature ever to grace our eyes. I thought it was more so about women coming together and finding solidarity in a bad time for women, and in a generally bad situation, and using what skills and knowledge they had as suburban housewives to kill a 400 year old vampire.
I saw quite a few reviews saying the issues of sex and race took away from the book, but I think they were necessary to a story where those kinds of characters were so central. Like I said, it wasn’t done perfectly. I especially thought there should have been a larger focus on women of color, given how they and their children were so often the victims. Aside from that, I think this book has to be applauded at least somewhat for its historical accuracy. This was not a time to be alive for women or people of color, particularly in the south, and I think the topics were broached well enough for a vampire book.
As for the plot, I was impressed. It never failed to make me feel deeply unsettled, even up until the very last page. I thought the writing was phenomenal and the characters were extremely well done. Somehow this vampire story felt plausible, and the people felt real. They interested me, they frustrated me, they scared me. They were believably human. This is probably one of the most original things I’ve read in a long, long time. I have been aching to read something original and I’m just thankful I chose to pick this up.
(P.S. I am an will forever be a Carter hater, he was such an awful, gaslighty, manipulative man <3)
First off, I thought it captured southern women of the 80s and 90s so well. I’m from the south, like pretty deeply from the south, and I felt like I could really see a lot of my family members in this. Obviously our culture has evolved a lot but I definitely see aspects of these characters in day to day life from their deep roots in faith and tradition to their devotion to their families, especially their children. On the flip side of that, there are also still a lot of remnants of the pervasive racist and sexist ideology described in the book that are still alive today.
Do I think the book handled these issues perfectly? No. But it was a book about killing a vampire, so there’s that. I thought this book had a knowledge of itself and what it was, and leaned into that well. It wasn’t trying to be the most feminist piece of literature ever to grace our eyes. I thought it was more so about women coming together and finding solidarity in a bad time for women, and in a generally bad situation, and using what skills and knowledge they had as suburban housewives to kill a 400 year old vampire.
I saw quite a few reviews saying the issues of sex and race took away from the book, but I think they were necessary to a story where those kinds of characters were so central. Like I said, it wasn’t done perfectly. I especially thought there should have been a larger focus on women of color, given how they and their children were so often the victims. Aside from that, I think this book has to be applauded at least somewhat for its historical accuracy. This was not a time to be alive for women or people of color, particularly in the south, and I think the topics were broached well enough for a vampire book.
As for the plot, I was impressed. It never failed to make me feel deeply unsettled, even up until the very last page. I thought the writing was phenomenal and the characters were extremely well done. Somehow this vampire story felt plausible, and the people felt real. They interested me, they frustrated me, they scared me. They were believably human. This is probably one of the most original things I’ve read in a long, long time. I have been aching to read something original and I’m just thankful I chose to pick this up.
(P.S. I am an will forever be a Carter hater, he was such an awful, gaslighty, manipulative man <3)