The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires: A Novel

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I actually found much of this book to be so problematic that it makes me feel part flabbergasted and part infuriated at the whole thing. I'm just not seeing what so many people like about this book and my head is spinning trying to wrap itself around what I’ve just read, so I will discuss my problems with this book with the utilization of a numbered list. Laser-Guided Karma: The Book Club finally deliver this to James at the end of the book after him getting away with murdering at least one person a year for literal centuries. At the same time, the husbands, all of whom took James's side and stopped their wives from bringing him to justice, are financially devastated by getting involved in his housing development. I guess I should mention the good things about this book, but I'm going to make it brief. I enjoyed the writing and the dialogue. I also thought it was a good story, albeit executed poorly. Oh, and I enjoyed how the sections were broken down by what book they were reading that month. And some of the horror elements were pretty cool and well written. And that's all folks!

When a handsome stranger moves to town, Patricia is intrigued and oddly enough, he seems interested in joining the conversation. I truly deeply madly in love with this book! More than five gazillion stars! Somebody has to stop my fingers adding entire books of the author to my nearly collapsing Mount TBR! But I cannot stop with only one book. Can I? Then Patricia sees things she can't un-see! Is it too late to do anything about it? Who would believe her? Is she no longer safe? And, what about her family? This book had me at the description of it being a cross between Fried Green Tomatoes, Steel Magnolias and Dracula! What’s not to love about that? The book is adamant that housewives and mothers are often, and stupidly, underestimated, that there is strength in numbers, and that you should never ever apologize for your reading material. There’s a lot of trauma to get through before the celebrating, though. Patricia faces losses for a long time before she garners any victories. James Harris, with a polite voice and a smile on his face, befriends her children, gets all the husbands of her friends financially entangled in his investments, and convinces everyone, sometimes even including Patricia, that she is mentally unstable and unreliable. Worst of all, he ingratiates himself into Patricia’s beloved book club, turning it from a safe space for women to yet another event which men control and dominate.Well, this one is not for everyone I do highly recommend giving it a try. You might find yourself as surprised as I did! And Patricia begins to wonder...what if it was all true? What if that "nice" neighbor is a monster? But marriage changed all that. She's now a stay-at-home mom and with the way her husband treats her...it is a sobering thought, the life that's ahead of her.

Patricia Campbell remembers what life was like before she gave into motherhood - she was an amazing nurse and strong-willed. This is not one of Hendrix’s lighter books. This is hardcore, graphic, physically and psychologically violent, gory horror. The gory parts are hard to read and the psychological horror even tougher. There are some funny moments but it’s not humor and it sure isn’t romance. And this book had the dumbest, most slow-witted characters I have ever read. When presented with evidence of something strange going on, they just refused to believe, over and over. Sure, in real life, if someone told me there's a vampire loose and they had evidence, I would be skeptical. But this is fiction! I don't want to spent 80% of the book reading about non-believers doubting and naysaying. What a downer. 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.

New in Series

The End... Or Is It?: Patricia visits one of the graves for James's dismembered body parts and can still hear him scrabbling around.

The tone is wildly inconsistent. Speaking of satire... The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires tries to be funny. None of it felt funny to me. Thank you, Grady Hendrix, for adding to my already infinite TBR with some of these True Crime titles. Delightful read that reads like Dracula set in the ’90s American South….Perfect for fans of horror and real-life crime alike.”— Good Housekeeping

Recent Comments

there are definitely standout scenes that get intense. like v.c. andrews, everything that happens in the attic is gross and wrong and full of things going into places they have no business going. i’ve always had squeam when it comes to eye-horror, but this is my first time ever squirming over ear-horror, which was not the ear-biting referenced in that opening quote. you'll know it when you read it.

Of course we care,” Kitty said. “But we’re a book club, not the police. What are we supposed to do?” Well, sometimes you just need to do what needs to be done. Because, as we learn, in the end, “there’s nothing nice about Southern ladies.” i liked it more than it sounds like i did here, but less than i expected to like it. but again, everything is broken, so it's probably me reading it wrong. you will tell me how wrong i am. There is an artful way to weave comedic satire with heavy topics like racism, misogyny, and sexism, but Hendrix just didn't quite get there imho. I do respect the guy for the attempt, but man, I expected this to be so much better than it was. I loved that Hendrix said he didn't appreciate what all his mother did for him until he got older and understood how much she sacrificed. That's so sweet. I mean that.

Media Reviews

This book is not easy, entertaining reading! It is so smart, gruesome, wild, bloody blended with dark humor, sarcasm, criticizing of the role of wives and structures of marriage. But I may tell you this is epic and darkly heart wrenching women friendship book. Their bonding reminded me of Thelma and Louise’s last scene and filled my eyes in tears! Patricia, in good-neighborly spirits, invites him along to her Book Club. After all, how much harm could his presence bring?