Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

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

55 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.

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

marlatalksbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-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

3.0

Grady Hendrix always has ideas for his stories that are so unique and captivating, but the execution never seems to live up to the hype of the concept; it all ends up falling a bit flat. The stakes are always made to seem higher than they end up being. Main characters are put through hell and suffer an endless list of setbacks only for things to work out in the end - usually after a final "battle" scene that just feels anticlimactic. I can appreciate a slow-paced plot to build tension, but this one seems to drag. And of course, because it's Grady Hendrix, the women are gaslit and abused in various ways, while their revenge on their abusers is never satisfying enough to justify having to endure those parts of the story. 

I do not think he *intends* to write women this way - it truly does feel like he thinks he's writing badass female leads, and I certainly appreciate the effort. But I really hope in his most recent books (which, for full disclosure, I've not yet read) he gives them more rounded characters and more satisfying endings.   

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicide, Blood, Violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Body horror, Gore, and Murder

Moderate: Rape

mackdaddy's review against another edition

dark funny lighthearted 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? Yes

4.0

Truly enjoyable. Truly disturbing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Classism, Body horror, Racism, Excrement, Dementia, Animal cruelty, Blood, Rape, Misogyny, Medical trauma, and Gore

aiyam's review

challenging dark emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Body horror, Animal cruelty, Blood, Classism, Death, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, and Forced institutionalization

aliciamarvinetz's review

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Murder, Sexual assault, Self harm, Violence, Classism, Misogyny, Mental illness, Animal cruelty, Gore, Gaslighting, Rape, Suicide attempt, Sexual violence, Animal death, and Blood

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Excrement, Infidelity, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Dementia, Medical trauma, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

alexisgarcia's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

while there are many parts of this book that i didnt like, that was kinda the point. this was gross, absurd, and just downright disturbing. i could not put this down and have not been able to stop thinking about this despite reading it like a week ago. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Medical content, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Body horror, Child abuse, Classism, Cursing, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Sexism, Emotional abuse, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Animal death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gore, Violence, Stalking, Blood, Child death, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, and Toxic relationship

mojjaroa's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Murder, Sexual content, Blood, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, and Child death

Minor: Animal cruelty

madyou's review

dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

2.5

I’m not sure how to rate this book because on one hand I felt a lot of strong emotions. There was disgust, annoyance, anger…but on the other hand I feel like that was the point. It’s confusing me that this takes place in the 90s and the women were watered down to being housewives. It would make more sense if this took place earlier if the author wanted to write about housewives. Then again, their town sounds pretty small so perhaps they just didn’t want change like the rest of the world was doing.
 
The husbands annoyed me to no end, and so did Patricia’s children. I also felt like the main antagonist could have been so much more if only he didn’t feed the way he did. I wasn’t ready for that but that’s my fault for going into this book without reading the trigger warnings. Either way, this book was gripping despite its slow pace. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Death, Kidnapping, Murder, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Gore, Suicide attempt, Sexism, Medical trauma, Rape, and Medical content

joyfulfoodie's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

2.0

This was the darkest, goriest book I have read, possibly ever. I don’t even know where to start with the trigger warnings. I HAD to finish it so I could have some resolution, something to replace some of the awful images from early in the book. But I won’t say I enjoyed it. A lot of this book had me staring in horror at the page with my eyebrows knit together and my mouth curled in disgust. Not for the squeamish, and I thought I was pretty strong. Apparently I can watch the gory shows and movies but not read the gory books. Who knew. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Body horror, Animal cruelty, Suicide attempt, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, Bullying, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Vomit

Rats. Bugs. Droppings from both.