Title: The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires
Author: Grady Hendrix
Released: April 07, 2020 (Hardcover)
Series: N/A
Trigger Warnings: Animal death, animal mutilation, antisemitism, assault, attempted suicide, cheating (mentioned), child sexual abuse, death (including a child, parental, and loved ones), dismemberment, domestic abuse (physical, emotional), gaslighting
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Description: 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.
Please keep in mind that this review contains spoilers for the entire work. Read with caution. If you click on “Read More”, it is under the assumption you either don’t care about spoilers or you’ve already read the book.
This is a type of book that’s easy to pick up, and easy to get engrossed in, but it can be easy to put it down. There were multiple moments when I couldn’t wait to see what happens next and how Patricia was going to handle everything on top of the kids and her shitty husband.
But in the moments where I did manage to put it down, it’s because I like to eat while I read. And unfortunately, this book makes me regret that decision quite often.
When it comes to horror, or any fiction really, the extreme must occur in order for the plot to happen and to move forward. But sometimes I ask: is it really worth including certain details?
All in all, Grady excels in white upper-middle to middle horror because that’s simply what he knows. And he excels in the horror of losing what’s believed to be safe and what’s believed to always remain. He excels in the horror of change and makes readers see the bits and pieces that are wrong with believing everything is okay. That’s impressive that he could do that and while I’m a person of color, that type of horror isn’t exactly unique to me.
But that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy it. Patricia is truly a love letter to his mother and his appreciation for her shows. Because nothing truly terrible happens to her. Granted, being attacked isn’t anything good either and that’s not the point I’m making; because Patricia is his mother’s stand-in, and the main protagonist on top of that, she’s pretty much protected. Everyone else, though, is fair game.
And boy, Grady is not shy about showing the extremes to the other characters. I’m unsure about the payoff of Blue being so interested in Nazis (perhaps that’s part of the white horror, but it still distracted me from Patricia’s other troubles) to harming a dog for the lulz as the payoff. I’m unsure about a certain scene with a young Black girl versus a young white girl. I’m unsure about something happening to the Christian character and having nothing done about cheating husbands other than a simpering goodbye because it’s a surprisingly realistic ending on that front.
All I have to ask is: why? Why do all of these things happen if we’re meant to believe that James is the “real” villain? Why is James even the villain unless he’s meant to unearth all the white upper-middle-class secrets and horror?
Why isn’t upper-middle-class horror the main focus then? And then I must ask: what is upper-middle-class horror?
Because it feels that the plot moves forward simply because we needed something to happen. There are moments that are written so well and horrifying that I applaud him but there are other moments where I question the main intention of the scene in the first place. After all, it would be remiss of me if I didn’t admit to enjoying what I did when I did – especially when they finally killed James Harris.
It’s great to see the housewives finally stand up for themselves and use their powers for good. And while we don’t see how it affected them, truly, I think the biggest issue is how the Black characters are handled.
While I can’t fully comment on it, I will say that I realize Grady was walking on eggshells while writing those scenes. Would it have been better not to include that? But if he didn’t, then he wouldn’t be true to Charleston and its history (and current state). It’s still frustrating because Mrs. Greene felt like her character growth is stifled in favor of the white characters and I’m waiting for them to actually do something for nearly a decade about a fucking vampire in the neighborhood. The fact that James targeted Black kids and got away with it and no one cared is realistic, sure, and adds to the horror. But the frustration when their own children, the precious white children, are in danger is what finally drives them… I get it. But it doesn’t change how frustrating it is.
At the end of the day, I’m not keen on how the gore scenes occur simply to fill a quota (as a scene itself was intense enough – there’s no need to add an extreme to an already extreme situation). This is frustrating because we already have an extreme situation.
Speaking for myself, the sexual assault scenes only add to my frustration with this weird need to include them in it for the horror. Every mother’s nightmare is many and different and a mix of horrors, but expecting us to hate James – when we already do because of him murdering Black people and children – further because now he’s targeting white women and children puts disgusting bile at the back of my throat in ways that are not fun to read. Sexual assault isn’t something that should be used as an additional reason to hate him when we already have death and gore and insects roaming around as means of horror for the reader. I’m glad I was warned about it but I still wasn’t prepared for it when it did happen.
I realize the horror is for the reader and not necessarily for the characters. But we’re already horrified enough. Just kill the vampire already and stop dragging him out as a prop for all the evils when the initial evils are already enough.
Also, I fucking hate Splatterhouse horror.
Astronomy Of My Dreams 