Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

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

449 reviews

sasoif's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? N/A

3.0

Very strange book. At times very disturbing with child deaths, suicides, child sexual abuse, rats and bugs eating people. Five women in a book club start investigating the new man in town after things just don't add up about him. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Sexual assault, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

cravebooks's review against another edition

dark tense fast-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? Yes

0.25

i think this might be the worst book i have ever read. the insane irony of hendrix talking about how “men know everything and never shut up” and yet is constantly trying to write stories from an empowered female perspective as if he has any idea what that feels like?? 

this is the second book i’ve read by him and i only forced myself to finish it because, ironically enough, it was for a book club. this book was graphic and gory purely for shock value and had no real explanation for why Harris was the way he was which made all of his inane actions seem cheap, disgusting, and just highly implausible. 

this is obviously supposed to be an allegory for how women feel sucked dry in their mundane housewife lives by their husbands and their wifely duties, but my god you didn’t have to punch me in the face with it. 

also…what the hell is this dude’s obsession with pubic hair???

i have never felt so unsettled and disgusted after finishing a book, and it wasn’t even worth it because it was just all for shock value to get a reaction out of the reader. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Racism

sydneynorman's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Death of parent

Moderate: Misogyny, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Classism

thegillbird's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Gore, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Blood

Moderate: Infidelity, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Minor: Animal cruelty and Vomit

nolawords's review against another edition

adventurous 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? It's complicated

5.0

Okay. Grady Hendrix, are you one of my new favorite authors? In the spirit of spooky season, this book absolutely nailed it!

The Southern women, the friendship, the gore / ick, the mystery-building, the book club (!) - it all fit so seamlessly together to create a narrative I have not encountered before. This felt like Fried Green Tomatoes with a large swig of dark supernatural evil afoot. While not usually a horror fan, I thought Hendrix balanced well the overarching plot, punctuated by these fabulously horrific and visceral scenes. I found the writing terrific and the characters well-developed.

Quickly adding more of Hendrix's works to my TBR...

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Gore, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Rape, Suicide, Terminal illness, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Minor: Infidelity, Racism, and Sexism

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

kelkelkelkelly's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

As delightful as a horror novel gets. Interesting characters, gripping plot, subtext of patriarchy being the real monster. Lots of graphic, dark horror with some fun and absurdity thrown in at the right moments. A good time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Suicide

samanthaleereads's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and Gaslighting

Minor: Pedophilia

danyell_russell's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicide, and Violence