The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires

I've been slowly making my way through a long list of books recommended to me by a librarian I follow on social media. And seeing as how we're now in the spooky, October/Halloween season, I felt this novel would be appropriate. And the title, more than anything, is what drew me in. A bunch of middle aged southern belles fighting vampires? This I had to see. And while the horror and scares were delivered upon, it also dishes out a great deal of social commentary I wasn't expecting.Taking place in the late 1980s/early 90s, Patricia is a middle aged homemaker who lives in a quiet, South Carolina neighborhood that prides itself on retaining old fashioned Christian values. But despite everyone's sunny demeanors, all the neighborhood women gather together to read true crime and horror novels as part of their monthly book club---the one bit of excitement they get in their otherwise boring lives of taking care of kids and cleaning house. But everything changes when the nephew of one of their neighbors moves in. Although everyone is wary of outsiders, the mysterious James Harris proves to be a charming and likeable person who quickly befriends everyone in the neighborhood, and sets them up with business deals that slowly make everyone rich. But over time, Patricia starts to notice that something isn't quite right. Why are certain, random people suddenly ending their own lives? Why are children disappearing in the nearby black neighborhood? Why are Patricia's family and friends becoming people she hardly recognizes anymore? And why is James Harris at the center of it all? The same man who seems a little TOO friendly....who seems to be putting a charm on everyone around him.....whose backstory keeps changing every time he tells it....and who conducts all his business at night and is sick during the day. Realizing they may have an honest-to-God vampire in their midst, Patricia will have to use every last ounce of wit and resources at her disposal to rid the community of this supernatural menace before it's too late. But first, she'll have to convince her friends from the book club that she's not going crazy.....Despite how I titled this review, don't let it fool you---this story is highly dark and serious. It paints a vivid picture of what life was like for the average housewife circa the late 80s/early 90s, and as such, it can be at times funny and at other turns awkward to hear the women at book club talk about certain world events with our modern sensibilities---things that they take deadly serious that we, the reader, know turned out to be nothing, and other things they don't pay any mind to that we know changed history forever. As such, it's a sad irony that the book club relishes on reading true crime novels, yet pay no attention to the obvious signs around them and wind up inviting a monster right into their homes. It shows how old fashioned southern hospitality can be both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, this is a tight knit community that knows each other's business and looks out for each other. But on the other hand, everyone is so uptight and polite that they're too scared to say what's truly on their minds until it's too late. This extends to the old notion of not judging a book by its cover (no pun intended), in that everyone in this community, at first, seem to live normal, happy lives. But as time goes on, it's slowly revealed just how much tragedy is going on behind closed doors. From men who cheat on their wives, to abusing them, to bankrupting their families, every doting housewife in the book club is forced to bear the brunt of it all and keep their homes afloat. It goes to show how hard and thankless a task being a wife and mother is.Patricia is a hardworking wife and mother who remains steadfast in trying to convince her friends and family that a killer lives just down the street, and it's increasingly frustrating and sad to have no one believe her. It highlights how often women aren't taken seriously, and their fears are written off as paranoid delusions. It also stops to point out how under-privileged communities are often ignored, as attested by how an entire black neighborhood is nearly wiped out by the vampire, and the authorities barely lift a finger to help. And speaking of whom, James Harris is easily one of the most evil and manipulative villains I've come across in fiction. Being so old, he's become an expert at charming people and worming his way into people's lives to get what he wants, and robbing his victims blind before they realize what he's done. Never have I ever wanted to jump into a book so badly and strangle this monster to death, as every time our heroes thought they finally had the upper hand, the vampire would be two steps ahead of them and foil their plans again, making it all the more satisfying and triumphant when the book club ladies FINALLY defeat him.Finally, I'm not sure if this was done on purpose or was a happy accident, but if you know the story of Bram Stoker's "Dracula", then you'll find many parallels to the old novel. From a character ending up in a mental institution (ie: Reinfield), to one of the wives' husbands being a psychologist (ie: Dr. Steward), to one of the ladies knowing vampire lore (ie: VanHelsing), to one of the ladies not being from the south originally (ie: Quincey Morris), and much more. The true horror comes not from the supernatural stuff, but by the awful fact that this one man, in the span of just a few years, destroys the lives of an entire community from the inside out---a community that was once one of the last vestiges of "old fashioned values", but now, must enter the complicated, jaded modern day. For better or worse, everyone in this neighborhood will never be the same again.This is an utterly fantastic horror thriller that dares to pit a vampire against the most unexpected opponents you could think of. It's a perfect example of how to write stories with strong female characters who kick butt without losing their femininity. Proof-positive that you can clean house and bake cakes AND slay monsters.

“The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampire’s” is a bit of a misnomer. You don’t really get a “guide” and there is just the one “vampire”, and the lore around that particular vampire is unlike any I’m familiar with. But that was part of the fun of this book. Or, not fun, as this was an intense commentary on gaslighting, sexism, and racism in Charleston in the early 90’s. Or as intense of a commentary as a white man can make, but I think the point was infuriatingly well made. And while there is no mystery around the vampire, even if it takes these housewives awhile to see it for themselves, the writing was easy and creepy and managed to make me absolutely rage at all the right places. This book really was a look into just how vital the invisible support system of running a household is, the overlooked emotional labor, and just how overtly that gets taken advantage of, in no small part thanks to the burden of hospitality ingrained in each of these women. This was my first book by this author so I was a bit hesitant at first as horror is hit or miss for me, but I thoroughly enjoyed this satirical horror story.I am a new mom and a big true crime fan so already the ladies in this book resonated with me. These moms, despite being very different from one another, are all easy to like and root for. And it’s also very easy to wish every single one of their husbands would burn in a fire. And that’s before the “villain” shows up. But really, James isn’t just a vampire. He’s a symbol of the socio-economic divide between communities. The fact that no one cared about what he did in the poorer, predominately Black neighborhoods until it started to affect the upper-class white neighborhoods, for example. It would have been nice if Mrs. Greene was more of a main character for that very reason, but as Patricia was the only main character in the entire book club, I’ll try not to get hung up on it too much. This book is satire, and while some people may claim it feels more like the 1950’s instead of the 1990s, I KNOW a lot of places in the South still operate the way Hendrix portrays this community (I lived in a suburb of New Orleans for a few years and can attest to that). Hendrix may be the only male writer I’ve read that really captured the utter rage and frustration of how these women are constantly talked over and how condescending their husbands are to them. I honestly went to bed mad so many times because of it, but that was also the point, so kudos to the author there.However the book is a bit slow in the middle. Which is why I am giving it 4 stars; the pacing was my only real issue. It felt like it took such a long time for the housewives to go up against James in, as Hendrix says, “Dracula vs. my mom” once Patricia knows what she’s up against. When the showdown did happen, it was perfectly gory and unsettling and Patricia and Kitty were so clutch that I was mentally clapping for them the entire time. Even Slick and Grace, who I liked the least, had my sympathy at the end and I wanted nothing more than for them to win. Well, maybe not Grace so much, but I liked how Ms. Greene called her out, too. The ending was a little bittersweet, but it also felt right for the characters and their families, as well. All this to say, not only did I really enjoy this book, but I’m excited to read more by this author in the future!

El libro llegó excelente

Autumn is my favorite time of year for curling up and reading books that will scare the bejesus out of me. This book came highly recommended to me. My husband has been singing its praises for over a year now. He kept telling me that this book would be just the thing to keep me awake at night. He was right.The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires grabbed my attention right from the get-go with its entertaining writing and fabulous characters. This book took me back in time to the ‘90s, to a book club of Southern housewives with a fascination for true-crime thrillers, serial killers, and mysteries.When a mysterious stranger moves to their neighborhood, local children start going missing, and horrific things start occurring. Is it Patricia Campbell’s overactive imagination from all of these book club selections or is this newcomer to blame? She's bound and determined to find out, she has to protect her family, after all.When I started reading it, I spent a good bit of time laughing out loud and reading passages to my husband. While I enjoy being amused by my reading choices, I must admit that I wondered if it was going to be scary or just humorous.Well, there was no need to worry whether this book would satisfy my craving for an eerie, creepy reading experience. Yes, it’s absolutely frightening! It had my pulse pounding, had me cringing and looking through my fingers with some of the gorier scenes, and I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough.I was at about 84% when I had to charge my Kindle. Nooooooo! Putting this book down was the last thing that I wanted to do. My heart was racing, my nerves were frayed, and I desperately wanted to find out what was going to happen.The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires was just the book that I was looking for. It kept me on the edge of my seat from beginning to end, had me invested in the characters, and had me adding more books by Grady Hendrix to my to-be-read list.

For a gift so I won’t be reading it, I might borrow it after. The delivery person left it outside as I instructed but I stupidly forgot it had been delivered and it got a bit damp in the rain which was my own fault. I managed to dry it out successfully with the help of YouTube and it looks like new again

Imagino que se a obra prima de Bram Stoker tivesse um filho com Desperate Housewives, o resultado seria algo como esse livro! (Como fã de ambas, esse é um baita elogio)Num pacato subúrbio americano onde nada muito fora do comum jamais acontece, Patricia, que havia abandonado sua carreira para dedicar-se à família (que constantemente não a valoriza, a desacredita, a invisibializa), só deseja que sua vida tivesse um pouco da emoção das histórias fantásticas de seu clube de leitura. É, Patricia, cuidado com o que você deseja...O livro consegue equilibrar muito bem mistério, diversão e terror, tornando-se uma daquelas leituras que você mal pode esperar pra saber como vai terminar. Tem uma protagonista forte, que é uma voz da razão em meio ao negacionismo que a rodeia (alô Brasil 2020/21?) e um antagonista que figura mais como uma ameaça, pairando e exercendo sua influência sobre a vida de Patricia e das mulheres do clube – ele raramente revela sua verdadeira face, mas quando a revela, são cenas absolutamente aterrorizantes.Esse foi meu primeiro contato com a escrita do Grady Hendrix e eu já estou de olho em seus outros livros! Recomendo bastante essa original e muito bem vinda adição à literatura vampiresca!

Someone recommended the book to me, and though I'm not at all into vampire lore, I loved the book. It is mostly about mothering, with all the fears and mistakes that come along. The action is dense, and well written.