Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

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

410 reviews

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

underscoresyd's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Rape, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, and Classism

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Child abuse

kouran94's review against another edition

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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, and Violence

Moderate: Rape and Sexism

Minor: Terminal illness

castomb13's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Racism, Rape, Toxic relationship, and Suicide attempt

katlynkatt's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, and Violence

Moderate: Animal death and Racism

Minor: Domestic abuse

herelieshenry's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-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? Yes

3.5

This book is written very well, does a good job at establishing the atmosphere of dread and discomfort, and also got me invested enough that the conflict was often incredibly frustrating. I do think there is a lot of reasonable criticism of the way this book handles social issues; I have no problem with a book discussing social issues and trying to make a statement, so I don’t think it’s a problem that misogyny and racism are major factors at play in this book, but I do think they could have been handled better, particularly around it starting to tread into white savior territory (though I would call this story failed white saviorism more than anything because

of the conclusion wherein the white women only stop the vampire when he’s moved on to their own children, which I think could have been written more overtly critically too

). Ultimately, I get what Hendrix was trying to do, and the book is well-constructed, but it leaves something to be desired. I’m interested in how the TV adaptation will work with the material and hopefully improve upon it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Racism, and Rape

Moderate: Child death, Domestic abuse, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Animal death, Infidelity, Terminal illness, and Death of parent

Gentrification

mxbenjaminrose's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Sexual violence, and Murder

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Rape, Sexual assault, and Violence

Minor: Animal death and Blood

nodoze's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Pedophilia, and Rape

annamorgan27's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Blood, and Murder

kyliesh's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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

4.25

Another great read by Gracie Hendrix. I loved this story and Hendrix always paints his MCs beautifully, but I did knock it a few points because I felt that around page 300 or so it took a somewhat unexpected turn that I wish I had content warning for. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Suicide attempt