Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

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

173 reviews

hellokatya's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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

my expectations for this book were pretty low, when i first got it, i read some reviews that weren’t the best, so i put it off for a long time; i’m very glad i read it.
this book was pretty slow for the first 30%, but after it got really good! 
it was hard to put down, kept me wanting more, and was the (more lighthearted, circumstantially) that i needed before fall time!
would highly recommend reading this book - and pushing through the first 30% - but be sure to look at content warnings before!

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fionamatilda's review against another edition

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dark funny 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? It's complicated

3.75


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phleming's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-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? No

4.25


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asperomari's review against another edition

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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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bumblebree1903's review

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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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biddy_mackenzie's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious 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

4.25


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whatthegayle's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes

4.25

“Think of us what you will, she thought, we made mistakes, and probably scarred our children for life, and we froze sandwiches, and forgot carpool, and got divorced. But when the time came, we went the distance.

This book took me longer to read than I thought it would. I had to take a lot of breaks between reading, but it was well worth it in the end.

The woman characters were wonderful and I loved how they were all middle aged. The men absolutely sucked, and I hated all their husbands.

Overall, it was an enjoyable read about southern woman killing a vampire! 

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leahkarge's review

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1.0


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c_dmckinney's review

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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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mrskatebeach's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75


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