Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

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

400 reviews

jhaneveauguste's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Gore, Pedophilia, Sexism, Terminal illness, Child death, Classism, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Rape, Blood, Misogyny, Racism, Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, and Suicide attempt

nicoleme1212's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Death, Sexual assault, Rape, Emotional abuse, Gore, and Blood

Moderate: Classism, Body horror, Child death, and Child abuse

randilion28's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

I read this book in 3 days. I absolutely LOVED it. Love that its set in Charleston SC, my favorite city and close to where I live so I could Invision some of my favorite things about the city while reading. Also, growing up in the late 80's and 90's this definitely took me back to my childhood days. I love the new take on Vampires - how they are described is nothing like anything I've heard before and I LOVE anything vampire related. You may dislike some of the characters to start but they 100% become BADASSES and you will be rooting for them the entire way! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Death, Violence, Gore, Murder, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, and Child death

jaos's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

2.75

The read was a mix of decent and slow. It came in waves of intense parts, and then chapters and chapters of random filler. A couple of plot holes that weren’t really touched upon. An okay Read, but wasn’t blown away by the character writing or story telling.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Blood

Moderate: Racism, Child abuse, Rape, and Self harm

ande13's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I did not like this book. I felt the pace was overall too slow, and there were a lot of graphic body horror scenes

Spoiler

including describing the naked body of a 17 year old girl

that I just wasn’t anticipating and that I felt added nothing to the story. The conclusion didn’t wrap up the story as cleanly as I had hoped and it felt rushed compared to how drawn out the rest of the story was. The other big issue I had with this story was the amount of “I’m your husband, you’ll do as I say” attitude that was woven in. I get this is set in the ‘90s and is trying to stay true to the time, but it just didn’t sit well with me reading it in 2023.

Spoiler

At least Patricia asked her husband for a divorce at the end, it was literally the only saving grace.

Most importantly, does the dog die?

Spoiler

Yes, Ragtag dies, and it felt totally unnecessary. He makes it all the way to the end of the story, just to be given a tumor and killed. I felt like they could have chosen another way for Patricia to get Korey out of the mental hospital.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, and Rape

matthewosborne's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This was one of the most terrifying books I have read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Adult/minor relationship, Suicide attempt, Blood, Classism, Dementia, Gore, Rape, Child death, Death, Gaslighting, Sexism, and Sexual assault

londibie's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad 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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Body horror, Violence, Vomit, and Blood

amycam's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Murder, Racism, Excrement, Sexual assault, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Death, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Violence

lira_the_recluse's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I have mixed feelings about this book. The vampire is evil and manipulative, as one would expect. He worms his way into town and only a few people suspect him as what he truly is. His design, motivations and behavior is well done.

There are many morbid and grotesque scenes, many with a plethora of content warnings. 

I did not feel great about the climax of the book, and how much death it took to get all the white women to band together. I also don't like how the initial part of the book came off as very white savior, but I guess the book is about the flaws of the main characters and how they are finally driven to fight the vampire.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Racism, Murder, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Sexism, Rape, Dementia, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Violence, Child death, Pedophilia, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, Grief, Death, Body horror, Animal cruelty, and Adult/minor relationship

camo_mila's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Spoiler

I liked the book. I had a fun time reading and I loved the female characters. The only problem for me was the skip of time of three years, I think it broke the pace quite a bit and it was quite abrupt. I would prefer the story to continue flowing instead of making the characters freeze in time to then have a growing opportunity. 

The ending wasn't my fave too, not that it was bad or anything, but not as interesting I guess, I expected more of the ending. But I had a enjoyable time so no regrets

Also fyi having sexist and racist characters on a book doesn't mean by proxy that the book is that, even more when it's fully criticizing the characters for it, all the damn time.

Spoiler

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Sexual violence, Self harm, Emotional abuse, Death, Rape, Gore, Violence, Pedophilia, Murder, Suicide, Misogyny, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Child death, Body horror, Animal cruelty, and Alcoholism