Review – The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix (4/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Paranormal/Horror
Length: 408 pages
Publisher: Quirk Books
Release Date: April 7, 2020
ISBN-13: 978-1683691433
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Review Book From Quirk Books
Rating: 4/5 stars
“Patricia Campbell’s life has never felt smaller. Her husband is a workaholic, her teenage kids have their own lives, her senile mother-in-law needs constant care, and she’s always a step behind on her endless to-do list. The only thing keeping her sane is her book club, a close-knit group of Charleston women united by their love of true crime. At these meetings they’re as likely to talk about the Manson family as they are about their own families.
One evening after book club, Patricia is viciously attacked by an elderly neighbor, bringing the neighbor’s handsome nephew, James Harris, into her life. James is well traveled and well read, and he makes Patricia feel things she hasn’t felt in years. But when children on the other side of town go missing, their deaths written off by local police, Patricia has reason to believe James Harris is more of a Bundy than a Brad Pitt. The real problem? James is a monster of a different kind—and Patricia has already invited him in.
Little by little, James will insinuate himself into Patricia’s life and try to take everything she took for granted—including the book club—but she won’t surrender without a fight in this blood-soaked tale of neighborly kindness gone wrong.”
Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Story (4/5): This story is set from the mid 80’s to the mid 90’s. It’s about a housewife who suspects her new neighbor is something not quite human. As things slowly begin to degenerate for her she finds out how dangerous this new neighbor really is. She ends up calling on the assistance of her book club for help. I really enjoyed the beginning of this book, it was darkly humorous and highly entertaining. As the book continues it just gets more and more creepy and flat out sad at points.
In general I liked this and found it fairly engaging to read. While I don’t mind overly graphic horror scenes, I am not a huge fan of rape and humans just generally being really ugly to each other and there’s quite a bit in this book. However, I did enjoy the irony throughout and the depiction of life in the late 80’s, early 90’s.
Characters (4/5): The characters were fine but the majority of them are pretty ugly to each other in this book. They weren’t my favorite but Patricia was pretty well done.
Setting (4/5): I enjoyed the small town setting set in the 80’s to 90’s. It was fun to look back and see how much attitudes and the world in general has changed since then. That’s the time period I grew up in, so it was fun to see it through the author’s eyes.
Writing Style (4/5): The book is generally well written and easy to read. The first part of the story is fun and snappy, but it starts to get too serious and grim in the second half for my tastes. This book also feels a bit long as a whole, but the ending feels kind of rushed. A bit more consistent pacing and editing would have improved this quite a bit. Previous to reading this I had read “Horrorstor” by Hendrix which I really enjoyed because of the ironic gory humor throughout.
My Summary (4/5): Overall I am glad I read this but it’s not something I would re-read. I also don’t think I will read more of Hendrix’s full length books because parts were just a bit too vicious and flat out yuck for me. If you want to read a truly vicious vampire book this is the book for you. If you don’t enjoy humans (and non-humans) being manipulative and vicious to each other I would skip this.
