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

Did not finish book. Stopped at 68%.
This book is a 1.5/5 stars.

The premise is sounds so good, but the execution was terrible. It's so bad that I dont think I'll even try reading another book by this author.
It's laughable that this book was supposedly written as like a love letter to his mom considering what happens in it.

Sorry for the rant, but I can't with this book.
Let me list out a few of the transgressions:
  • Weak writing. Outside of the horror scenes, the prose felt sloppy.
  • So many racist stereotypes. The only reoccurring black character is given the "mammy" role. The next mention of other POC are shown as servants to the rich white people of the town during parties. From there, the stereotypes just continue. At points, it seemed like Grady was opening good dialogue on how racism impacts black communities in regards to their valid concerns being downplayed and ignored. However, he kept dropping the ball with it. It's like he placed the talking point in front of us then swept it aside before we could fully digest it and have a meaningful talk.
  • Why the hell does the son love Nazis? The kid is obsessed and idolizes them. It literally plays no part in the story. Why'd you add that Grady? It wasn't necessary. Why you keep bringing up Nazis. Also, why was the MC totally cool about it? Huh? Grady, why was everyone okay with Nazis? It wasn't plot relevant.
  • SO MUCH GASLIGHTING. Omfg, it made me want to rip out my hair. 
  • Hey, Grady...why did you write about the MC gaining 11 lbs as if she gained 200????? You just threw that part in there for what?
  • Hey Grady... What's with the graphic retelling of a rape scene? Why?
  • Hey.... Grady... Why did you have to include so many child sexual assault scenes... Story would've been totally cool without that. Really wasn't necessary.
  • The MC attempts suicide and its treated by everyone (even the MC) like some petty "fuck you" to her husband.
  • Also, there's just a lot of domestic abuse.
  • I was 64% through when I DNFed and literally, never once was there a part about women becoming empowered and badass, taking on vampires. It was just 7+ hours (audiobook listener here) of a woman being severely abused.
  • Not one character is likeable.
  • All the other women in this book are just misogynistic stereotypes. None of them have any actual depth of character and feel very flat.
  • The biggest horror wasn't the vampire stuff, but the husband, omfg they were the real villains.
  • apparently at the end, she only gets a divorce from this dude... I feel like she should get to kill her husband for the shit he did to her. Also, none of the other women get to fix their abusive relationships?

There is probably more than I could say, but I've ranted about this long enough.
There is very important commentary to be had with the topics of this book that would be awesome to explore further, but it only comes across as 400+ pages of women being repeatedly abused, racist, sexist, and outright terrible characters.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings