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A review by roocharffer
The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I enjoyed this one and breezed through it. it's definitely an odd read, and I felt like the tone really shifted half way through. to me it felt pretty campy at the beginning but got genuinely dark about two thirds of the way through in ways I was not expecting. definitely do read the trigger warnings others have left.
I was reading some of the other reviews people left, and I am confused by people calling it a sexist book. the book is constantly commenting on the horrors of sexism. there are certainly very sexist characters in it, but I feel like it's clear from the narrative that they're the baddies so to speak. perhaps people are more upset with the portrayal of the women in the book; I'm not sure. they felt like kind of average people to me (by which I mean that, yeah, they do have a lot of internalized sexism and are fairly racist themselves throughout the book). they were fleshed out enough to not feel one-dimensional imo.
I can see why people are calling this a white savior narrative. that said I do think you're meant to feel like the white women in the story are fully complicit in the continuing horror of the second half of the book--that they in fact do not do enough given their relative privilege as white people.
patriarchy and racism are more the villains of this story than the vampire. said vampire is able to get away with everything he does by praying on people he knows are vulnerable specifically because of the systematic oppression that they face.
I dunno. overall, it's well written but complicated. I can see people coming away from it with a lot of different feelings and thoughts. again, definitely recommend reading the trigger warnings to get a better idea of what you're in for. the title of the book is a little misleading.
I was reading some of the other reviews people left, and I am confused by people calling it a sexist book. the book is constantly commenting on the horrors of sexism. there are certainly very sexist characters in it, but I feel like it's clear from the narrative that they're the baddies so to speak. perhaps people are more upset with the portrayal of the women in the book; I'm not sure. they felt like kind of average people to me (by which I mean that, yeah, they do have a lot of internalized sexism and are fairly racist themselves throughout the book). they were fleshed out enough to not feel one-dimensional imo.
I can see why people are calling this a white savior narrative. that said I do think you're meant to feel like the white women in the story are fully complicit in the continuing horror of the second half of the book--that they in fact do not do enough given their relative privilege as white people.
patriarchy and racism are more the villains of this story than the vampire. said vampire is able to get away with everything he does by praying on people he knows are vulnerable specifically because of the systematic oppression that they face.
I dunno. overall, it's well written but complicated. I can see people coming away from it with a lot of different feelings and thoughts. again, definitely recommend reading the trigger warnings to get a better idea of what you're in for. the title of the book is a little misleading.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexism, and Sexual assault