Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

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

308 reviews

rachellenbecker's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Blood, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

krows_ink's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-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? It's complicated

4.75

boy oh boy. I don’t really read horror and this book was way darker than I thought it was going to be. That being said. I really enjoyed it. The commentary is well done and the take on vampires is new and absolutely sickening.

This book had me saying “oh hell no” as I listened and did the dishes. The narrator, Bahni Turpin, did a phenomenal job. Truly made the book come to life.

My only complaints really come from me not reading the content warnings and some minor things.

I read a lot of reviews that spoke of the way Hendrix wrote women in this. I didn’t think it was actually distasteful. He described their bodies, but he also described the James Harris’ body at the end when he was naked as well. It didn’t feel like over specialization to me. I also think men are often critiqued too much in how they write women because I’ve read number plus books written by women where the women are portrayed horribly and worse than a lot of authors who are men.
On the topic of rape and CSA: I think that it did its job at making the reader uncomfortable. I do think the book could have benefitted from a sensitivity reader because a few lines were just off for me and sat wrong. That being said I don’t think it was anything too bad. Books about these topics and featuring these topics shouldn’t be banned by any means nor should we enforce a purity culture around topics that make us uncomfortable.

I do with that Mrs Green has been a more prominent character and that we had seen more of her and from her perspective. I also wish that the ending had a little more context, although it wasn’t bad by any means. Overall this was a great book but due to the content warnings I would advise people to read them before reading.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Terminal illness, Violence, Vomit, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Miscarriage

brie__774's review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-paced

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

This book is marketed and presented as if it will be a dark comedy about women in a book club taking down vampires.

Instead it is super dark, they aren’t even really friends, they don’t do a lot of vampire slayings (he’s not even a vampire?), they don’t  protect anybody, and it should have a lot of trigger warnings. 

I thought it was going to be a more Stranger Things meets Pride and Prejudice and Zombies vibe and it was more like a Stephen King’s IT vibe.

It’s a book you need to be prepared to read and I was not prepared. 

Not my thing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Child death, Rape, Sexism, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Gaslighting

Minor: Dementia

lunarcat101's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Gore, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Blood, Antisemitism, Dementia, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

turrean's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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? No

4.0

A terrifying, thrilling read. There are horror scenes aplenty, but the author also shows us a devastatingly accurate—and equally horrifying—depiction of how sexism and racism distort everything in our society. Some of the most chilling parts of the narrative deal with “real world” societal issues: the men in the story belittle and demean the women they (supposedly) love, and in the process, nearly destroy themselves and their community; doctors, police officers, other town authorities, and plenty of “good” Christian folks are utterly indifferent to a threat to black children. 

I rolled my eyes every time the author referred to a brassiere instead of a bra. Is that a male author thing? Or is that a southern thing?  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Blood, Dementia, Grief, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

blueghost's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Violence, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Death of parent

sannesbooks's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

4.25

This was a really enjoyable read. It was easy to read and fast to get through. The book started kinda slow, but once you are halfway you can't stop reading. I appreciated the time jumps in between. I think this was a good way to make the pacing right.

I liked the characters in this book. My only complaint is that the women in the bookclub had kind of the same personalities. This made it sometimes hard to follow, and you will mix up characters. 

I loved the depiction of womenhood / friendship. It was frustrating to read about the sexism and misogyny, but I think it is realistic for that time period and it calls for reflection. It was interesting to see how different characters responded to injustice and misogyny. I also appreciated the description of rich vs poor neighbourhood and white vs colored people, discrimination that is still happening today. I enjoyed to see how the characters reacted to the differences in treatment. 

Patricia's son, Blue, had an obsession with Nazis. I kinda think it is weird to include that because it didn't do anything for the storyline. I thought and wished this was a set up for something bigger but it wasn't and therefore I think this is an unnessecary 'story line'. I think the writer just want to add something to make the kid seem creepy but at the end of the book he portrait as creepy, so there was basically no point.

Another thing that was, in my opinion, only included for shock value was the thigh blood sucking. The vampire only drank blood from the inner thighs of people. In the book, it also clearly states that this blood sucking makes its victims sexually aroused. Also, the victims were naked during this for no reason. Unnessecary in my opinion, especially because his victims were minors! There was also no explaination for why it should have to be done this way, so I think it was just unnessecary.
 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Blood, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Animal death, Racism, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, and War

dailybaileyk's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I loved the first few chapters of this book and I think this is an interesting and decently told story. I found myself skimming pages waiting for action to happen as a majority of the book is building/sitting in tension. It’s an interesting take on the vampire genre but I felt if you took the vampire part out of the book and replaced with an equally dangerous “normal human” male, you could have achieved the same effect, especially since the “supernatural elements” were few and far between. My anxiety was more directed towards the misogyny, racism, and the kids being kids. This also felt like a “gaslighting your wife 101” novel. I think this book did a phenomenal job illustrating the stress and struggles of a mom trying to navigate life and keep their family safe (even if the relationship with said family is horrible at best). This was less of a vampire hunting guide and more of a testament to make sure the men in your life should respect you.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Vomit, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Misogyny, Racism, and Sexism

caiterlenbachreads's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

vagaybond's review against another edition

4.0

I really loved this book and the way that it specifically called out the cowardice of white parents and the misogyny within suburban households toward mothers. I wish Ms Greene was given more due credit, and also that we learned how the actual core book club folks fared after in terms of their book club itself.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Dementia, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Infidelity