The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix – 404 pages

ARC from Quirk Books for an honest review

Book Blurb:

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.

My Review: 4 stars

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The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires may have been the first book I’ve read in the horror genre. Honestly, I can’t believe how much I enjoyed it. I openly admit that it’s the title and cover that sold me. Right away I knew that any book with this title would have some clever wit behind it.

This book has been touted as a cross between Dracula, Fried Green Tomatoes and Steel Magnolias. I get the reference but I totally would have added The Southern Vampire Mysteries as well. Many know that series as True Blood because that was the title of the TV adaptation.

On to the book. The satire and humor were spot on. The gaslighting of housewives was portrayed over and over again, yet these “ordinary” women (in their husband’s POV) showed their determination and strength. The friendships formed through book club were quite relatable. Some knew one another, but for the most part it was a group of neighbors that got together strictly for the love of books.

There was a lot of parody and humorous moments, as there were also some horrific moments, most notably one with rats and I mean lots of rats. Fortunately, I had no problem breezing through them. There was plenty of social commentary on class and race woven into the storyline, all done through a sarcastic lens. I’m glad I took a gamble on this book! Unlike anything I’ve read before.

Quotes I liked:

Sometimes she craved a little danger. And that was why she had book club.”

“Being a teenager isn’t a number, ” Maryellen said. “It’s the age when you stop liking them.”

“He thinks we’re what we look like on the outside: nice Southern ladies. Let me tell you something…there’s nothing nice about Southern ladies.”