Reviews tagging 'Murder'

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

657 reviews

angorarabbit's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.5

There is a small spoiler regarding a early plot point in this review.

 

TLDR; I’m not really into horror or thrillers so take my review with a grain of salt. Improbable plot device, flat characters, little humour. Just enough interest to keep reading, though I was thinking of dnfing at the 60% point out of frustration. 

 

Mr Hendrix tells the story as a third person narrator from the pov of the female main character. Thus we know almost nothing about the other characters, particularly the male ones. We learn almost nothing about the past of the fmc. Descriptions of places and things are also light. On the other hand the book felt too long to me, I was almost skimming when I got 60% to 80% in. 

 

I have a few complaints about the novel but I’m keeping it to three. 

 

One; If you come home from work one evening and find your elderly female neighbour is viscously attacking your spouse. In fact the neighbour has bitten your spouse’s earlobe off. When your spouse starts voicing suspicions about that neighbour’s great nephew newly arrived to take care of his now deceased great aunt do you ignore your spouse and form a friendship and business partnership with the nephew? Or do you encourage the local police to keep an eye on him and keep him out of your house away from your spouse and children?

Do your suspicions lessen or increase when a rat army invades your nice home and kills your mother? 

 

 

Secondly why is every male in this book either non-existent or a jerk? Yes, I do complain when author’s female characters are poorly drawn. This book has the opposite problem and I’m not happy about that either. 

 

Finally, there was  humour in the first 11 chapters.. The humour disappeared with the rats in chapter 12 and never returned. (Do not read chapter 12 if you have musophobia.) While I wasn’t expecting a Christopher Moore style novel the humour of the first chapters did help to humanise characters some.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Pedophilia, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Dementia, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Racism, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Grief, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Animal cruelty, Drug abuse, and Medical content

Graphic rats.

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

erzim'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
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Domestic abuse, Gore, Pedophilia, Rape, and Murder

han_elliott's review against another edition

adventurous 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault

Moderate: Murder

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

cinnamonroll42's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Blood, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Rape and Suicide attempt

annekdotes's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I don’t usually read horror novels, but this one grabbed my attention. In the introduction, the author explains that he wrote this because he wanted to see how a fight between his mother and Dracula would play out (I paraphrase, but that’s the gist), ending with the phrase “It’s not a fair fight.” That made me *very* excited and the book didn’t disappoint. The setting reminded me of a Celeste Ng novel, which I loved, and I got completely pulled into this horrifying story. I think the narrator of the audiobook also had a considerable hand in that (Bahni Turpin is the best out there!). The vampire dude was a terrifying villain, but the true horror was the misogyny these women had to deal with. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Body horror, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Minor: Death

justgina93's review against another edition

4.0

I mostly liked the part where Patricia

is hiding in the attic.

that scene just disturbed me to the core. Not sure how she was able to stay so calm with all of the

bugs creeping around her

obviously he's gonna here her heartbeat at least that's what I was thinking about that whole time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Minor: Rape

happyknitter2020's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.5

A female mid life bookclub challenge vampire, all husband's don't support them, children and people living experiencing poverty were more at risk. A fantastic story, enjoyed yhe audio reader, she brought the characters to life.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

hannahsbookshelf's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Loveable characters? No

3.5

This was a real mix of a book, starting with gathering insight into our protagonist Patricia and her group of friends who are part of a true crime bookclub in the Deep South. We find out about each of their lives, and their group dynamic. Then Hendrix starts to create little pockets of horror throughout until it crescendos towards the end.

This book deals with themes of racism, sexism and infidelity alongside the vampire storyline and shows how a charismatic outsider can worm their way into a community and start controlling the population in such a subtle way they don't even realise. 

I found it interesting as it was quite different to other books I'd read but I didn't like the characters, and the discrimination/prejudice was prehaps accurate for the time and place it is set, but I did struggle with that a little. 

I listened to the audiobook and I am a fan of the Charleston accent, so this was a plus for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, and Suicide