Reviews tagging 'Antisemitism'

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

32 reviews

marieeveparentroy's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Racism, Adult/minor relationship, Antisemitism, Blood, Body horror, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Gore, Grief, Vomit, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, and Violence

Minor: Infidelity

maxattack's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

“He thinks we’re what we look like on the outside: nice Southern ladies. Let me tell you something…there’s nothing nice about Southern ladies.” 

See content warnings. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Misogyny, Classism, Death, Gore, Sexual violence, and Violence

Moderate: Rape, Toxic friendship, Ableism, Antisemitism, Child death, Death of parent, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, Infidelity, Racism, Sexual content, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and War

Minor: Animal death and Fire/Fire injury

Re: antisemitism — a young boy forms an obsession with Hitler and the Nazis, which is treated by his family members as a morbid fascination and a source of annoyance rather than a major concern. There are no blatant acts of antisemitism, and apparently the boy grows out of his fascination, although he remains a major edgelord. There are themes of racism throughout, as this is set in 1990’s American Southern suburbia. I don’t believe that racist or antisemitic behaviors are being promoted in this book, but of course read with caution.

jukebugging's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny tense medium-paced

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

4.0

hendrix definitely seems confused and juvenile in his perception of black people and the time period he’s writing about (why does he have black people referring to themselves as colored if it’s supposed to be the 90s) but he definitely knows how to appeal to the horror genre (as well as its stereotypes unfortunately) and how to make you hate a man so much that you want to puke 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexual assault, and Antisemitism

lauren610's review against another edition

1.0

 The author steps out of his lane a bit too much in this book and it was very much not enjoyable for me. The son's interest in Nazis is not treated with appropriate concern from the parent, which was red flag #1 to me. The women are all catty and one-dimensional. Every victim is Black. It's like he picked all the weird gross parts of the 90s to include, but not to provide any meaningful commentary on them, just to have racism, antisemitism, and abuse present. As another reviewer stated so well, if the book is going to have a vampire in it, we don't need to stick to historical accuracy here. We could have a successful Black character at least? But no. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

Moderate: Antisemitism, Misogyny, and Domestic abuse

rebeccaxpaige's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny tense fast-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? N/A

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Antisemitism, Racism, Rape, Body horror, Murder, Sexual assault, and Gore

absolutelyfatal's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.75

3.75 ⭐ I am not giving this book a full review but notice the content warnings of rape, racism, sexism, and ableism. The author wrote those into the story deliberately, and pretty heavy-handedly, there's no hiding them. We are supposed to be disgusted at the racist, rapist vampire, we are supposed to be disgusted at the rich white people ignoring the blight on the black community and we are supposed to also be disgusted at the rich, white women's husbands being sexist and ableist (and the legitimate gaslighting of Patricia). Each of those things are supposed to bother us, each of those things are supposed to give us complex feelings about the book. And it's totally okay if you don't want to read those things in your fiction! However, it's a totally separate thing to call the author racist/sexist/ableism because his characters are... That's not the same thing at all. 

Further note: this is definitely a different type of vampire story than we are used to: the author essentially took an amalgam of serial killers and made it into a vampire. It's effective but I tend to like a romanticized-but-still-dangerous versions of vampires (ie The Vampire Chronicles).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Ableism, Antisemitism, Racism, Sexism, and Rape

Moderate: Animal death

surprisebear's review against another edition

I can't get into the subplot of "my son loves nazis and I let him talk about nazis with this new guy in town, but I just don't have the time to talk to him abut nazis. I sure hope this phase passes!"

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism

fanboyriot's review against another edition

dark slow-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

3.0

I have some mixed feelings about this book.  I liked the plot, a bunch of true crime loving housewives starting a book club, reading their way through all the major serial killers.  Only to be met with a new guy to town, a guy who doesn't like the sun and who is all too charming once it sets.

It started out well though I would have liked to read more about some of the side characters.  I loved Mrs. Greene and would have liked to see more of her.  It was at the halfway mark or about there that things kinda went down hill for me.  Patricia was slowly being backed into a corner and the more she found out about her charming new neighbor the less people in her life believed her.

There are obviously some major issues within this book I'll add some content warnings that I think apply but I suggest looking them up if you're considering reading this.

The major problems I had with thus book were pretty self-explanatory.  The misogyny, sexism, and child molesting really popped off in this book.  I understand this took place at a time were housewives were seen as less than human and were it was common for misogyny and sexism.  That doesn't mean I wanna read a book about it.  And onto the child molesting vampire.  What was the point of that?  It wasn't like he could only feed off kids.  So why add that to the book?  It's absolutely disgusting.  And lastly what was with all the world war ii stuff?  Like dude your kid is drawing a swastika on their notebook and you're not worried?!  It just seemed really random to add.

I will say that it ended decently and I really liked the small town setting.  The kind of neighborhood that was safe enough to leave your doors unlocked all the time, and where the people who lived there would welcome you with some kind of food only to drop it off and learn your whole life story, that part was written really nicely.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Misogyny, Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, Gore, Sexual violence, Sexism, Rape, Gaslighting, Violence, Sexual assault, Body horror, Classism, Toxic relationship, Racism, and Death

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Child abuse, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Animal death, Kidnapping, Antisemitism, Self harm, Hate crime, Torture, Ableism, Dementia, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, and Drug abuse

Minor: Pregnancy, Grief, Bullying, Cursing, War, Vomit, Suicide, and Domestic abuse

renpen's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, and Sexism

Moderate: Antisemitism, Dementia, and Racism

bingo_banjo's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious tense slow-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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Gaslighting, Dementia, Rape, Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Animal death, Death, Murder, Gore, Child death, Sexual assault, Infidelity, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Sexual violence, Excrement, and Blood

Moderate: Body shaming, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Violence, Animal cruelty, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Terminal illness, Religious bigotry, Antisemitism, and War