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

Shelly's Book Corner received a review copy from Amazon Vine, Quirk Books and voluntarily provided an honest review. This does not affect the opinion of the book or the content of the review.

Steel Magnolias meets Dracula in this '90s-set horror novel about a women's book club that must do battle with a mysterious newcomer to their small Southern town, perfect for murderinos and fans of Stephen King.

Patricia Campbell’s life has never felt smaller. Her husband is a workaholic, her teenage kids have their own lives, her senile mother-in-law needs constant care, and she’s always a step behind on her endless to-do list. The only thing keeping her sane is her book club, a close-knit group of Charleston women united by their love of true crime. At these meetings they’re as likely to talk about the Manson family as they are about their own families.

One evening after book club, Patricia is viciously attacked by an elderly neighbor, bringing the neighbor's handsome nephew, James Harris, into her life. James is well traveled and well read, and he makes Patricia feel things she hasn’t felt in years. But when children on the other side of town go missing, their deaths written off by local police, Patricia has reason to believe James Harris is more of a Bundy than a Brad Pitt. The real problem? James is a monster of a different kind—and Patricia has already invited him in.

Little by little, James will insinuate himself into Patricia’s life and try to take everything she took for granted—including the book club—but she won’t surrender without a fight in this blood-soaked tale of neighborly kindness gone wrong.

Review 

This is my first time reading this author and I had no idea what I was in for when I started this book. This story takes place in a small town, about a group of housewives who are in a book club. Patricia is the main character and is wanting more from her life than cooking, cleaning the house and taking care of the kids. A new neighbor, James moves into town and that is when strange things start happening. 

So I did like the way the book started with the buildup and the introduction to the side characters from the book club. Then the book took a dive into a direction I was not expecting. This book touched on racism, sexism and classism. We had poor black kids that were going missing but because of where they lived the parents cries went unheard. The racism was blatant. Very stereotypical as well when you reach the poor black neighborhoods.  I wonder if the author has ever ventured to the “ghetto” because that scene with Patrica and Kitty was a bit over the top. 

Then the amount of sexism in this book made my head hurt. The husbands talked to their wives any kind of way. It was a mess. At one point one of the characters said this isn’t the 1920’s and we aren’t your mothers and yet the treatment still continues. Patricia let her husband Carter talk and treat her like a child at times and it was appalling. 

I felt this book was long and drawn out and after reading over 200 pages I started to lose interest in the story.  It did become a struggle to keep reading this book but since I came this far I had to keep going. I finally finished and I felt the showdown with James was lackluster. I will say I did like how the women in this book changed, found their strength and had a better understanding with each other when it was all said and done. 

Trigger warning

Rape, Suicide, Sexual abuse.