Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

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

91 reviews

asperomari's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-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? It's complicated

2.0

Thought I was gonna get a bunch of badass southern moms fighting vampires like The Lost Boys: milf edition. But this, certainly wasn’t that. 

I’m not gonna say it’s bad because it wasn’t, but it was definitely underwhelming. The story had so much potential but it fell flat because for most of the book NOTHING HAPPENED. 

By far the most infuriating thing about this book is the incredibly stupid actions of the book club members. You’re telling me that this group of women who spend their free time reading true crime and are very knowledgeable about the psychology and behaviour of serial killers are just going to completely disregard all that knowledge when they’re faced with one? Even going as far as comparing him to Ted Bundy then going, ‘Nah, I’m just gonna ignore this.’ 
As someone who went through a phase of loving true crime themself, if that man was my neighbour, I’d move.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dementia, Gaslighting, Body horror, Rape, Blood, Gore, Pedophilia, Child abuse, Murder, Sexual assault, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Death of parent, Death, Kidnapping, Medical content, Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Animal death, Drug use, Medical trauma, Sexism, and Racism

there is a graphically detailed scene in which two people and a dog are attacked by a swarm of rats, it is incredibly graphic and disturbing. There is also a scene in which a cockroach crawls inside a person’s ear while they’re hiding and unable to move, once they can move they cannot pull the cockroach out so they kill it inside their ear.

bumblebree1903's review

dark mysterious sad tense medium-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

4.5

Whenever I read a book by a man lead by women, I’m always a little nervous. So let me just say I was more than pleasantly surprised to find a realistic view on women and their struggles from this book.

The book moving from a more lighthearted and occasionally comedic tone at the beginning before moving into the darker contents of the story was done so well. The shift was well executed and prose that once had ny laughing and smiling soon had me on the edge of me seat with anxiety and dread. Such a wonderful picture of emotions and conflict was painted and so much of it felt like something myself or my fem presenting friends would talk about struggling with.

The nuance and care in telling a story about sexism and racism in the 80’s-90’s and the deep south was appreciated. While I myself am white and can’t speak for the experience of POC reading this book, the angle on sexism and women’s struggles in that was very well done. It felt like each character face and struggled with societies poor views on women in their own way. While I wish we had seen more of the other women than just our leading lady Patricia, each one felt like nuance and care had been put into her character. I specifically remember telling my friends and praising how well the author captured what it feels like to be talked down to and condescended by men in your life. Every bit resonated with me and I cannot praise the author enough for managing to capture the experience.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Racism, Rape, Blood, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Gore, Misogyny, Dementia, and Mental illness

Moderate: Medical content and Child death

Minor: Domestic abuse

leahkarge's review

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Murder, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child death, Classism, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Medical content, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Vomit

c_dmckinney's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Gore, Grief, Dementia, Death of parent, Stalking, Body horror, Child death, Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Classism, Self harm, Kidnapping, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Child death, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Racism, Terminal illness, Sexism, Sexual content, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Sexual violence

Minor: Infidelity, Medical content, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Addiction, Religious bigotry, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Fire/Fire injury

a child is obsessed with Nazis and starts being unkind to animals, multiple children are preyed on by a literal monster

astareads's review

WTF, this book was pure anxiety. Toxic masculinity, racism, gaslighting, references to the ADHD-"craze" of the 90s, with hardly any actual vampire action. I think there was an effort to be like Dracula?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, Dementia, Gaslighting, Gore, Mental illness, Sexism, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Murder, Classism, and Racism

Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Alcoholism, Cannibalism, and Child abuse

madiison's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Death, Dementia, Murder, Rape, Gore, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Racism, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Vomit, and Gaslighting

art_books_chemistry's review against another edition

emotional lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Sexual violence, Blood, Child death, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Misogyny

Moderate: Animal death, Classism, Racism, and Rape

Minor: Alcoholism, Police brutality, Cannibalism, Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, Infidelity, and Adult/minor relationship

linneak's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Murder, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Violence, Rape, Gaslighting, Medical content, Medical trauma, Child death, Death, Dementia, Gore, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Stalking, Sexism, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Terminal illness, and Misogyny

Minor: Classism, Drug abuse, and Alcohol

my_weird_bookish_heart's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Body horror, Violence, Physical abuse, Classism, Child death, Animal cruelty, Suicide attempt, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Rape, Murder, Misogyny, Mental illness, Medical content, Gore, Sexual violence, Forced institutionalization, and Death

chezler24's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

4.75

A book that puts a new spin on vampires and their victims. It offers believable social circumstances with race, gender, and wealth disparity that proved to be the perfect grounds for the vampire-like being to swoop in and place everyone under his thumb. As with other Grady Hendrix novels, you're going to have those scenes which unsettle and gross you out. (Perfect for horror fans although not everyone's cup of tea.) I enjoyed the progression throughout the book and how Hendrix paced things time-wise. It would have been interesting to see a bit more of the other book club members' thoughts, but, because everything was from only Patricia's pov, we had to balance the book club members, her family members, and various other townspeople who popped up along with her inner dialogue. With that being said, I felt at peace with the ending. To me, it made sense and answered most of the questions about how the ladies carried out their plans; however, I was left wanting to learn more about what exactly the vampire creature was - that's just personal curiosity though. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Rape, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Suicide, Murder, Medical content, Infidelity, Gore, Torture, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Dementia, Death, Child death, and Blood