Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

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

127 reviews

tiernanhunter's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Dementia, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Excrement, Grief, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: Body shaming

nico_29's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child death, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

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

tomasalbanez's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Dementia, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Body shaming, Domestic abuse, and Racism

Minor: Drug use

judassilver's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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: Domestic abuse, Gore, Racism, Rape, Terminal illness, Blood, Kidnapping, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Misogyny, Violence, Dementia, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and Classism

Minor: Body horror, Fatphobia, Pedophilia, Vomit, Religious bigotry, Stalking, and Murder

lilacvictim'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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, and Blood

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Terminal illness, Violence, Dementia, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Stalking, Suicide attempt, and Classism

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Infidelity, Vomit, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

co_d33's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

A feminist masterpiece. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

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

alisonvh's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

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

3.5

I liked this book, but I think my hopes were a bit too high given all the hype surrounding this book. It’s also a lot darker than I had anticipated. The hardest parts of this book are all about the awful things people do to each other. It can be so much worse than anything a monster could do.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Death, Hate crime, Infidelity, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail