Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

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

10 reviews

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

kendralyris's review against another edition

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? No

I thought this book might be bad at about 30%. By 50% I was sure it was bad. I was shocked at 75% when it somehow got worse.  The characters are flat and emotionless.

 The main character, a housewife with no personality, and an emotionally abusive husband, befriends what she later find out is a “vampire” but the kind that is a moth I guess since it has a proboscis of all the stupid shit. When she tries to fix it, she is thwarted by toxic masculinity in the form of every single man in town and she makes a suicide attempt. Rather than spend any time with the internal emotional world of this doomed character, the author decides to skip ahead, and in the last 20% of the book attempts to bootstrap some weird sexual tension between this monster and the main character. Don’t worry though, he didn’t forget to include rape! Nor did he forget to include an absolutely plot-point scene where the main character sees her high-school student daughter naked with the vampire. Oh, and one of the characters is obsessed with Nazis. No one has any personality or interests except the one kid who likes to read about nazis. 

And I wouldn’t be that mad except that the author decided to include a preface to his book going into his process and how he essentially wrote it to honor his own southern stay at home mom, whom he had apparently ignored when he was a child, shocked as he got older that she was a real person. 

This book is terrible. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Dementia, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Classism

hauntedantiqueshop's review against another edition

mysterious 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? Yes

2.0

Grady Hendrix, you absolute buffoon. There is indeed a book club, the ladies are southern, but there is one solitary vampire and he certainly wasn’t slayed. How did he goof the damn TITLE?

Dislikes:

• All the characters + the weird choices they made. Has Grady Hendrix ever met a woman?Inquiring minds want to know.
• The misogyny and racism. It’s just so casually there and not addressed properly. Grady always misses the mark on these topics. Almost as if he isn’t qualified to be writing about them. Weird!
• James is just a shit vampire

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Dementia, and Death of parent

Minor: Terminal illness and Antisemitism

Tagged with antisemitism due to the son being OBSESSED with nazis. It’s weird and no one addresses it correctly.

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

slow-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

2.0

This book made me so uncomfortable at points because the writing is very visceral.  The fact that there is a time jump made everything so much worse.

I’m glad that I read it because I was interested in reading a few books by this author but I don’t think they will be for me after all.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

cozylifewithabby's review against another edition

I thought the Stepford wives, things are not what they seem, gaslighting slow pace,  but things have now gotten disgusting. I can't do body horror. I wanted to try something new, but horror is not for me. (For reference the horror I can stomach: Stepford Wives, Dracula, Frankenstein, Turn of the Screw, We Have Always Loved in the Castle, Mexican Gothic, and anything Neil Gaiman)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Dementia, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Child death, and Abandonment

huldasif's review against another edition

dark funny lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

This book is kind of like The Stepford Wives meets Salem's Lot meets Fried Green Tomatoes, but it was funnier.  The first chapter was hilarious in fact. I was laughing my head off, it was so funny. I was a little disappointed the book didn't continue on like that, but the book was still good. It became less funny as the horror built up, naturally. It would have been too much of a reprieve and taken away the suspense if it had kept on being so funny I guess. Plus, it just doesn't do to be laughing while children are dying on the next page. It was more creepy than scary though. The husbands were just as creepy as the vampire actually, which I thought was pretty clever of the author. I almost wanted to do them off too, they made me so mad. I'll definitely be reading My Best Friend's Exorcism too! But I sure hope Grady Hendrix writes a comedy if she hasn't already, because she is the funniest writer I ever came across. That first chapter was the best.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, and Violence

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Dementia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment

Minor: Hate crime and Infidelity

greatexpectations77's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious 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

4.5

This book is INTENSE. Kinda hit all of the trigger warnings on the way down. I was surprised how much I liked the author's characterization of the women, though.

But damn, I was so ready for Patricia's husband to bite the dust. He was on my last nerve.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Dementia, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Confinement, Fatphobia, Pedophilia, Self harm, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Cancer, Drug abuse, Drug use, Abortion, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

ruthmoog's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

4.75

This gave me chills. Once I was invested I whizzed through the story, whisked up by the relentless challenge to overcome the vampiric.

The group use their women's work skills to fight, but this was a bit cliché for me - and you could play content warning bingo with it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Vomit, Abandonment, and War

Minor: Car accident

Nazism

lilawsahar's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

This book was surprising good and woke for a white man. The title is very misleading. The book focuses a lot more of race, class, and gender than vampire slaying. It makes you hate men even more than you probably already do. And it brings to light the difference between black women and white women in the feminist movement. The feminist movement should include all women but white women put black women down and ignore WOC ‘s pain. This book is a wonderful piece of social commentary. If vampires don’t entice you then read it for that.  

Ps gaslighting is 90 percent of the book. 

Pps After finishing this book, I hate to throw up and cry. But in a good way? I feel very emotionally raw.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Classism

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Death, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, and Dementia

snowforest's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Medical trauma, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Minor: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Chronic illness, Cursing, Fatphobia, Xenophobia, Gaslighting, and Abandonment