If you haven’t read this book, what would you expect it to be about? If you have read it, what were you looking for when you picked it up? Based on the title, I thought it would be about a group of perhaps ladylike Southern women who have a book club where they drink some wine and chat about the newest novels. Then some weird things start happening around town, and they have to dig deep, find out how strong they really are, and knuckle up to protect themselves, their families and their community. I expected some creepy supernatural stuff, sure, but I expected it to still have a bit of a cosy feel and some humour. I wasn’t really right about much.
It does start out with a book club. There’s some interpersonal drama between some of the women, and our main character is a fairly normal housewife. Then weird stuff does indeed start happening, but then the book quickly changes tone completely. Rather than a sort of creepy (but not too much) vampire, we get a full 180 into straight up horror. There are some horrible parts to this book, right down to disgusting details about vampire anatomy and feeding habits, chilling episodes of discovery and evasion, and absolutely terrifying and gross bits involving rats nibbling on live people. Then there’s graphic content that’s sort of sexual, but also kind of not because it’s…. well, I’ll leave that there, but it’s not fun. There was so much in this book that was gratuitous – violence, sexuality, fetishization – that it became an unpleasantly uncomfortable read. It’s not cosy.
On top of all that, there are problematic elements. We’ve got sexism, problematic representations of race, and some icky stereotypes. There were so many bits that had me squirming in my seat, and not in a good way. I just didn’t enjoy it, I didn’t appreciate choices that were made, and I didn’t leave the book feeling like it’s one that redeemed itself.
And if that’s not enough, it wasn’t that well written. Some sections seemed odd, there was the whole shift in tone that was jarring, and then there were elements that were introduced at the beginning of the book and just left hanging without ever being referred back to or resolved (I can’t tell you what specifically in case you don’t want spoilers, but you’ll spot it if you do read the book). I guessed a lot of the twists before they came, and didn’t care much about the rest.
As you can probably tell by now, I didn’t like this book. It not only wasn’t what I went into it looking for, but what it did deliver just wasn’t anything I’d ever actually want to read. I kept going partly to see if I was right about my guesses, and partly because I felt like it had to get better (it didn’t). Maybe for those who are familiar with Hendrix and know what kind of book they’re getting into, and those who like graphic and raunchy horror, this could be more your speed. But as that’s not a genre I ever read, and wasn’t what I was expecting, it didn’t go over well with me. I wouldn’t recommend this one, I won’t be reading anything else by this author, and I’m pretty pleased that it was an Audible monthly extra so I didn’t pay for it!
Fried Green Tomatoes and Steel Magnolias meet Dracula in this Southern-flavored supernatural thriller set in the ’90s about a women’s book club that must protect its suburban community from a mysterious and handsome stranger who turns out to be a blood-sucking fiend.
Patricia Campbell had always planned for a big life, but after giving up her career as a nurse to marry an ambitious doctor and become a mother, Patricia’s life has never felt smaller. The days are long, her kids are ungrateful, her husband is distant, and her to-do list is never really done. The one thing she has to look forward to is her book club, a group of Charleston mothers united only by their love for true-crime and suspenseful fiction. In these meetings, they’re more likely to discuss the FBI’s recent siege of Waco as much as the ups and downs of marriage and motherhood.
But when an artistic and sensitive stranger moves into the neighborhood, the book club’s meetings turn into speculation about the newcomer. Patricia is initially attracted to him, but when some local children go missing, she starts to suspect the newcomer is involved. She begins her own investigation, assuming that he’s a Jeffrey Dahmer or Ted Bundy. What she uncovers is far more terrifying, and soon she–and her book club–are the only people standing between the monster they’ve invited into their homes and their unsuspecting community. – Goodreads
Book Title: The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires
Author: Grady Hendrix
Series: No (hopefully)
Edition: Audiobook
Published By: Quirk Books/Audible
Released: April 7, 2020
Genre: Fiction, Supernatural, Horror, Dark
Pages: 410
Date Read: October 8-9, 2022
Rating: 1/10
Average Goodreads Rating: 3.82/5 (164,756 ratings)
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