The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires
by Grady Hendrix
Summary
Fried Green Tomatoes and Steel Magnolias meet Dracula in this Southern-flavored supernatural thriller set in the ’90s about a women’s book club that must protect its suburban community from a mysterious and handsome stranger who turns out to be a blood-sucking fiend.
Patricia Campbell had always planned for a big life, but after giving up her career as a nurse to marry an ambitious doctor and become a mother, Patricia’s life has never felt smaller. The days are long, her kids are ungrateful, her husband is distant, and her to-do list is never really done. The one thing she has to look forward to is her book club, a group of Charleston mothers united only by their love for true-crime and suspenseful fiction. In these meetings, they’re more likely to discuss the FBI’s recent siege of Waco as much as the ups and downs of marriage and motherhood.
But when an artistic and sensitive stranger moves into the neighborhood, the book club’s meetings turn into speculation about the newcomer. Patricia is initially attracted to him, but when some local children go missing, she starts to suspect the newcomer is involved. She begins her own investigation, assuming that he’s a Jeffrey Dahmer or Ted Bundy. What she uncovers is far more terrifying, and soon she—and her book club—are the only people standing between the monster they’ve invited into their homes and their unsuspecting community.
GoodReads Nominee for Favorite Horror 2020
My Review
This was my first Grady Hendrix book, and I know there is a lot of hype around this author, so I was excited to finally read one of his books. I thought his writing was top-notch. He’s very engaging with his prose. It’s not lyrical, but it is immersive and charismatic. The atmosphere was creepy and eerie. I did get those unsettling and slightly disturbed feelings while reading this book. It wasn’t very scary as far as horror goes though. I’ve seen many, many horror movies, and this was pretty tame, which was a bit disappointing. However, there is some gore and pretty gross scenes. If you don’t like rats, bugs, or blood, then you may get a bit squeamish while reading this story. There is also some body horror.
Unfortunately, as for the story itself, it left much to be desired for me. I was pretty disappointed in it. I felt the title was a bit deceiving because I thought it was going to be about some badass women in a book club that fights vampires, almost like a more mature Buffy or something. But it wasn’t anything like that. I enjoyed learning about the women of this southern book club. They each had distinct personalities with their own voices. But I wish we got more of them together. We see them meeting for book club in the beginning, but then we don’t see the group much until toward the end. I wanted to see more of the friendships and dynamics between all the women. It all felt very surface-level from what we got, and I wanted more depth.
The other big letdown was the vampire element. This is NOT a vampire story. It’s a story with a vampire in it. There is a big difference. We don’t see much of the vampire, and when we do, he’s just acting and behaving like a normal guy. We don’t see many scenes with him as the blood-sucking creature he is. It’s a more subtle vampire story, where he’s lurking in the shadows, being strategic with the victims he takes, and we don’t get a lot of vampirism. This take on a vampire was not at all what I was expecting, which was a big letdown.
I enjoyed the southern setting, but couldn’t relate to it since I’m not from the South. But it had that southern charm we all think about when a story is set in the South. It’s also set in the 1990s, which was an interesting choice. I felt like the author had something to say about this time period because there is definitely commentary on race, gender, marital roles, housewife stereotypes, and economic status. It did feel a little preachy at times, which took me out of the story and made me roll my eyes. I don’t like being lectured in my entertainment.
Overall, it was just okay for me. It felt a little long when it didn’t need to be. I never got that bored with it, but the pacing could’ve been a bit better because it did drag on for a bit in the middle. It is a slow burn, and the story didn’t go where I thought it would, so it was a letdown for me. There is also a time jump that feels out of place and disjointed.
For my first impression of this author, I was not that impressed. I hope his other books are a bit better, and I do plan on trying a couple more of his books.