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

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

4.5

NB: This book deserves a host of content warnings before reading. If you are a sensitive reader, please check those before starting this book - it escalates the deeper you get. It is not a "light" read.

General overview: A book that is, actually, about a vampire, though not in the way you might expect - pitted against a community and a group of women (the 'book club') who are deeply flawed and fail several times, at a great cost, before finding the courage to do what is right. Strong themes of racism, sexism/misogyny, and child predation. 

Emotional impact: I loved this book, despite not being able to love its characters. The main cast, and protagonist, are flawed, sometimes very deeply. They do show growth over time, while many of the side cast do not (or deteriorate), and it works - but they never truly become heroes. I spent a lot of reading time being angry and incensed, not toward the villain, but toward the main characters of the book, and the families that surrounded them. I feel like that's part of "the point."

Visceral impact:   The body horror, and gore, did make my skin crawl, but never felt explicit enough to make me want to stop reading.  The author sometimes went a little 'over the top' with the terrible events that happened in the novel, to the point of unbelievability and disgust. Spoilers/CW for child death:
Most of the children's suicides were remarkably unbelievable, outside of the boy that jumped in front of a truck. The evil rat infestation was also extremely supernatural to unbelievability, despite the fact that the supernatural was the ultimate explanation. No one would find these events to be credible, even in the 1990's southern American world.



Counter thoughts to some criticism:
  • On the 'Stepford wife' nature of these wives and mothers in the 1990s: I found this not only believable, but incredibly realistic. I grew up in the 90s with a southern-trained mother and a southern grandmother, and around many families who had the same 'sensibilities' drilled into them. The way that these women acted in the book felt like a genuine flashback to what it felt like growing up around women who played pleasantries and kowtowed to men and never wanted to disturb the status quo. While I can see why they might not come off as believable to those who haven't experienced what I have, I felt it was authentic. CW (suicide/minor spoilers):
    My mother didn't protect me from the predator in my own family, and she dismissed my earnest pleas for help when I was battling depression and suicide as a teenager. My father always knew what was best to the point he'd become threatening if he was questioned. They wouldn't have protected me from a vampire.
  • On the misogyny: See above - this felt very real to me thanks to my own lived experiences. Of course there are good men. It's just that none of these husbands were good men. It would have been nice to have a good man join the women to counter the culture around them - one husband who really did believe his wife and didn't fall for the trap - and that does feel like a disservice.  I can also see that the author was trying to really lean in to the power of women and their shared bonds, so it could be a tricky balance to find while keeping the message the same.
  • On the racism and racist stereotypes: As a white person, I can't and won't speak to representation of the POC in the novel.  I do feel, however, that the quiet racism that was expressed by the white women in the book was genuine and called into question several times. These white women do not ever go through a full anti-racist transformation, but they are confronted and, I believe, do make some steps of growth. We're never shown anything more than a reckoning with their unspoken attitudes and the result of those actions, though. 
  • On animal death: I thought that the final animal death scene was touching, actually, and made both sense rationally and plot-wise. That's not for everyone though: if you don't like pets dying, you're going to hate that portion of the book. 

Additional criticism: Addressed in my content warnings, but there is a side plot during which the main character's son is becoming increasingly obsessed with Hitler + Nazis. This isn't treated seriously at all by the characters in the novel and is not resolved by the end of the book. This should have either been dropped or handled with more severity, and that's a major lack of sensitivity to the implications the author adds with this plot element.

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