Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

94 reviews

bananalion's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

A bit of a slow pace at the beginning and a few loose threads but overall a very enjoyable read!! Kept me hooked.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

billyjepma's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.25

For the first 50-100 pages, I was assuredly in this book's corner. The writing was snappy, the setting sharp, and the looming threat of something sinister palpable. It had me in the palm of its hand, and then only intermittently, and then not at all. Some of that degradation is due to the rises and falls of the suspense, which could be tiresome to wade through since Hendrix doesn't give his reader any space to second-guess the facts of what's happening in the story, lessening the suspense somewhat. It's a narrative decision I want to admire, and I did initially since it firmly places the women driving the story in the right. But after that story humiliated or tortured them for the umpteenth time, I struggled to see the point. 

There are hints of promise, specifically in the strength of female friendship and solidarity, but Hendrix's writing is so rooted in a shallow faux-feminism that it sabotages the book at every turn. For one thing, he can't help but describe women's bodies in detail, even when the context would make such specificity frivolous at best. It's a symptom of a larger problem, though, and only gets worse as the story approaches the climax, where Hendrix resorts to the threat of sexual violence or the act itself to ramp up the tension in ways I found to be distasteful. The book wants to paint a picture of how men have historically abused women, treating them like objects or tools for their pleasure or pursuit of power. I'm all for that, especially in a "vampire" period piece like this. But when that book also has a habit of treating its women the same way as the men it condemns, any semblance of commentary quickly deteriorates.

It doesn't help that the characters are predominantly defined by their genders and the traits stereotypically associated with them. Those aren't bad traits for a character to have, mind you, but I struggle to believe that women in the era were exclusively defined by their roles as wives and mothers. The insistence on defining all these characters by different shades of those characteristics was disappointing, especially since Hendrix failed to give the women any interior lives or depth beyond the basest impulses projected onto them. At the very least, though, he knows his way around the genre, and his fast-paced, zippy writing makes this an easy page-turner. He also has a knack for setting up nail-biting scenarios that gross you out just as much as they keep you flipping pages. Granted, some of those scenarios end up falling into the same problems I had with the rest of the book, but the build-up was there, at least. If Hendrix had more self-awareness about his limits and strengths, this could've been a pulpy banger of a book, but alas.

None of these problems are unique to this book, though—I recognize many of his worst impulses from some of Stephen King's earlier works, alongside plenty of other male horror writers. But we (meaning white men like myself) can do better than this, and it's frustrating when I find books that seem to tell me otherwise.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexism, Toxic relationship, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Domestic abuse and Drug abuse

klabardee's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Dementia, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Child death, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Religious bigotry, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Toxic relationship, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, and Toxic friendship

weirdow's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

This book was so good. Nothing but praise all around. Diverse, well-rounded and realistic characters. Great scares. Plot was fantastic, heart wrenching, and enraging. And important issues were touched on and drawn attention to. Grady Hendrix is such an impressive horror writer and continues to surprise, horrify, and astound me.
P.S. Everyone in this book should have gotten a divorce. 

Tw for rape

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction and Physical abuse

emmieanna's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I am so glad to say that this book is about more than just vampires. It’s about women who will do anything for their families, about sticking up for themselves and what they know to be true. It’s about getting in, getting out, about solidarity and shame. 

There is not one man in this book that observed anything about their wives. They blindly accept anything as long as a man tells them it is so and honestly they deserved everything that happened to them. 

Infuriatingly, Patricia never received the recognition she deserved for sticking to her beliefs even when everyone turned their backs. The gaslighting from her husband and friends who were meek astonish and she deserves better from everyone. Such is the life of a housewife.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Blood, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Excrement, Vomit, Dementia, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Physical abuse

fkshg8465's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Much better than I thought it was going to be, mostly because I found the title so ridiculous. Turns out that the book was a lot of fun to read and that the title is very apropos. It was a little longer than I would’ve liked - I would’ve removed some of the events, maybe even whole chapters, because the first third of the book had me rolling my eyes. But I had enjoyed How to Sell a Haunted House, so I stuck with it, and I’m so glad I did.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

apat's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

It’s a book about community that tries to revindicate housewifes. At the same time, the author decided that

rape and sexual endeavors

were the fittest plot line as punishment for the women in the book… a vampire book. 
To be fair, I did read “The Final Girl Support Group”, so I should’ve known better.
The writing in general is good, just not good enough to ignore the rest.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, and Classism

Minor: Domestic abuse and Drug abuse

ceejeffe's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Wow, this was gooood. The book starts out lighthearted and quite funny! Then gets dark gradually. It was pretty spooky but, indeed, scary! Not in a way to make you jump but definitely shocking and terrifying. The hardest part of the book, for me, was when Patricia’s friends deny what is happening and she thinks she is alone and needs to just put up with it! 

Being a Mother is HARD! But then women come together, there is nothing they can’t do!

The characters were so well done and the emotions are so well written, I’m shocked the writer is a man.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Addiction, Gore, Suicide, and Classism

Minor: Domestic abuse

jenn_amanda's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and Classism

drpeeper's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I would say check trigger warnings before reading this. not sure if it’s due to personal life struggles or the nature of the book, but this was a rough one. interesting characters and plot and some funny moments, but a pass for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Misogyny, Racism, Blood, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Hate crime, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Death of parent