Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - Guía del club de lectura para matar vampiros

Really wish I liked this book just a little bit more.
I finished it and just closed it and went on my phone hahah, it won’t stay with me.
I did like most of the characters and thought they were well fleshed out, each with their own problems and desires (even if those desires and problems were a bit annoying) Slick was probably my fave and I did really enjoy James Harris. The writing was super easy to read and raced by for me but felt like it spent a lot of time dithering in the middle - dunno if 400 pages was necessary to tell the story. It was very obvious what was happening a short while into the book and then you were just waiting around for someone to believe this housewife.

There was a fair bit of racism and sexism in here as well. Check some trigger warnings.

It got gory and kinda body horror-y at the end and I did like that it wrapped up the way it did. Probably won’t pick up this authors books again.

Content Warnings

ahyshia's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Content Warnings

editorsansserif's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

4.5

NB: This book deserves a host of content warnings before reading. If you are a sensitive reader, please check those before starting this book - it escalates the deeper you get. It is not a "light" read.

General overview: A book that is, actually, about a vampire, though not in the way you might expect - pitted against a community and a group of women (the 'book club') who are deeply flawed and fail several times, at a great cost, before finding the courage to do what is right. Strong themes of racism, sexism/misogyny, and child predation.

Emotional impact: I loved this book, despite not being able to love its characters. The main cast, and protagonist, are flawed, sometimes very deeply. They do show growth over time, while many of the side cast do not (or deteriorate), and it works - but they never truly become heroes. I spent a lot of reading time being angry and incensed, not toward the villain, but toward the main characters of the book, and the families that surrounded them. I feel like that's part of "the point."

Visceral impact: The body horror, and gore, did make my skin crawl, but never felt explicit enough to make me want to stop reading. The author sometimes went a little 'over the top' with the terrible events that happened in the novel, to the point of unbelievability and disgust. Spoilers/CW for child death:

Most of the children's suicides were remarkably unbelievable, outside of the boy that jumped in front of a truck. The evil rat infestation was also extremely supernatural to unbelievability, despite the fact that the supernatural was the ultimate explanation. No one would find these events to be credible, even in the 1990's southern American world.

Counter thoughts to some criticism:

On the 'Stepford wife' nature of these wives and mothers in the 1990s: I found this not only believable, but incredibly realistic. I grew up in the 90s with a southern-trained mother and a southern grandmother, and around many families who had the same 'sensibilities' drilled into them. The way that these women acted in the book felt like a genuine flashback to what it felt like growing up around women who played pleasantries and kowtowed to men and never wanted to disturb the status quo. While I can see why they might not come off as believable to those who haven't experienced what I have, I felt it was authentic. CW (suicide/minor spoilers):
My mother didn't protect me from the predator in my own family, and she dismissed my earnest pleas for help when I was battling depression and suicide as a teenager. My father always knew what was best to the point he'd become threatening if he was questioned. They wouldn't have protected me from a vampire.
On the misogyny: See above - this felt very real to me thanks to my own lived experiences. Of course there are good men. It's just that none of these husbands were good men. It would have been nice to have a good man join the women to counter the culture around them - one husband who really did believe his wife and didn't fall for the trap - and that does feel like a disservice. I can also see that the author was trying to really lean in to the power of women and their shared bonds, so it could be a tricky balance to find while keeping the message the same.
On the racism and racist stereotypes: As a white person, I can't and won't speak to representation of the POC in the novel. I do feel, however, that the quiet racism that was expressed by the white women in the book was genuine and called into question several times. These white women do not ever go through a full anti-racist transformation, but they are confronted and, I believe, do make some steps of growth. We're never shown anything more than a reckoning with their unspoken attitudes and the result of those actions, though.
On animal death: I thought that the final animal death scene was touching, actually, and made both sense rationally and plot-wise. That's not for everyone though: if you don't like pets dying, you're going to hate that portion of the book.

Additional criticism: Addressed in my content warnings, but there is a side plot during which the main character's son is becoming increasingly obsessed with Hitler + Nazis. This isn't treated seriously at all by the characters in the novel and is not resolved by the end of the book. This should have either been dropped or handled with more severity, and that's a major lack of sensitivity to the implications the author adds with this plot element.

Content Warnings

mermaidstories's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

This book has so much potential to be great, but there were a lot of misses that I simply could not overlook. For instance, I knew there were some rumblings about the representation of Black people in this story, so I wasn’t surprised by some of the cringey moments I came across. But, then we get to the welfare queen trope…and then having a Black woman refer to herself and her people as coloreds…in the 90s??? That’s where you start to lose me…had the story taken place in the 50s/60s, then i’d understand. between that and having the only other representation of Black people being that they’re waitstaff for the suburbanite parties is egregious. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate that Grady was making an attempt to highlight the differences in urgency when it comes to threats towards white children vs Black, but it loses steam when you still uphold harmful tropes.

Another thing i take issue with is the

sexual assault

. What did it add to the story in any way? The same outcome could have been met. Not to mention the scene with

James Harris “feeding” on Korey—both being naked and she is a minor.

If not for the aforementioned issues, I probably would have rated this story a 3.75. In terms of conveying how thankless it is to be a housewife, i’d say Grady did well with doing so in a realistic way for the most part. Although i do wish there would have been more of a resolution with

confronting Carter with his infidelity, gaslighting, and general mistreatment and lack of appreciation.

. that, along with

Ragtag dying—what was even the point of including that after everything? totally unnecessary.

brought the rating even lower.

Otherwise, the dynamic between the women of the book club seemed very authentic. They’re moments of anger, betrayal, misunderstandings, but also a strong friendship overall. They cared for and understood each other, flawed as they all were. i feel like he did well with showing the facets of their friendship. so overall, i give it a 2.5.

Content Warnings

krholin's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional 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

5.0

Content Warnings

cepramas's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark funny tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

Really enjoyed this! My main issue is

that the only character of color takes on a disproportionate amount of the labor!!!

Content Warnings

mimesatwork's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous sad tense slow-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I loved the set up, I liked the writing style, but I had a lot of issues with how this resembled more a screenplay than a novel.

I wasn't fond of the ghost either.

Edited after looking at other reviews here: I'm very confused as to what people consider a "diverse cast". The cast here is specifically and deliberately not diverse. They are all around the same age, white, able-bodied SAHMs (presumed straight). One major side character is not white. Don't pick this up if you want a diverse cast.

Content Warnings

capmorrow's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

More...