Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

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

450 reviews

coldheartedbirch's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

i was expecting dark and gorey, but lovable moms fighting evil. what i got was actually one of the worst books i’ve read in years with ZERO likable characters. there’s really only one successful creepy/scary moment (aside from how their husbands treat them) as he’s prone to extremely overdone and campy horror scenes that were more laughable than anything. 

rampant sexism, crazy slow book into a way-too-fast, terrible wrap up, lots of things that make no sense, just not good. read Anything else. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Terminal illness, Blood, Dementia, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Forced institutionalization and Antisemitism

butchybats's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Genuinely scary, super tense, and I could not put it down!

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Sexual content, Medical content, and Dementia

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, and Rape

hfayereads's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

emilayday's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gore, Sexual violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Child death, Death, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Vomit, Dementia, Kidnapping, and Death of parent

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Suicide, Cannibalism, and Death of parent

caiterlenbachreads's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

em_hudson03101's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

This book brought up a lot of conflicting emotions. The 1990’s southern housewife/ hospitality culture makes you want to pull your hair out, the conversations between the book club ladies had me chuckling to myself, but then there are true moments of suspense and unease.  
The whole premise of the book is silly; a vampire gets invited to a southern ladies book club, and they need to figure out how to get rid of him.  Hendrix’s writing sucks you right into the book, and next thing you know you’ve read 30/40 pages without realizing.  The writing can be graphic and gruesome at times, but overall I felt this to be a lighter read then anticipated due to prior reviews of the read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Murder

Moderate: Child death, Death, Misogyny, Blood, and Gaslighting

Minor: Racism and Suicide

ykpachavi's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Suicide, Blood, Medical content, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

quercine's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

This book was really tough for me to read and if you are a person who might need to be aware of things before hand, please read content warnings. I would absolutely never recommend it to anyone who is not prepared to a) read not only gore but every day life disturbing content and b) really think about how this book turns Dracula on its head in terms of what a vampire represents in culture.

In Dracula, the monster related horror is just a symbol for xenophobia. In this book, the monster related horror is a symbol for how you can let someone into your lives and neighborhood and that person can truly be a person in your community. Except they have unnatural urges that harm your children and “Uncle James” is actually a predator.

This book tackles a lot of real world issues such as misogyny and racism, and how white women can suffer from misogyny but still perpetuate racism. This book also tackles the reality that people of color face in the under reporting, under investigating etc of crimes against them. I absolutely urge you to read with caution if that’s not something you want to engage with. The racism in the world of the 90s era southern US is vibrant on the page.

I’m used to vampire feeding as a symbol for

sex and sexual assault.

I wasn’t entirely prepared for the way this vampire feeds to essentially BE

child sexual assault and for how he would create a new vampire to be rape.

It was shocking, and I stewed for a long time on whether or not I think

Slick’s rape or even Destiny and Korey’s grooming and assault

were necessary (especially so explicitly). Ultimately, I think because this vampire tale is about

letting someone you trust near your community and that trust being betrayed, it fits and it isn’t another example of a male writer using that kind of violence as shock value. But as a survivor myself, it was very difficult.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Gaslighting, and Classism

Moderate: Suicide, Dementia, and Death of parent

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Domestic abuse

space__squid's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.5

 Maybe the real vampire was the white supremacist patriarchy we realized we made and upheld along the way <3

Would have given 5 stars if I wasn’t a bit iffy about the story being told from a white perspective – it’s a great story, I highly recommend it, especially if you like your horror with a fair bit of rage and social commentary, but as with many other stories it centres white people’s experiences of racialized violence rather than the people who are the victims of it.  

That said, I can't remember when I was last this engrossed in a book or this angry and invested while reading.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Sexism

Moderate: Child death, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Suicide

katenovah's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Blood, Dementia, and Death of parent

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Dementia, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, and Alcohol