The Southern Book Club's Guide to Fighting the Undead: A Guide to Vampire Protection

Grant Ellis: I have a love hate relationship with this book. I love it for its meaty details and great visuals throughout. The relationships you develop within this cute little suburb are phenomenal. It made me angry from time to time how horrible the husbands treat their wives but that just gives credit to Grady’s story telling. That being said, the ending was horrible. It feels rushed and possibly something from a satirical comic book like Deadpool. Overall it gets 4 stars and I will definitely read more of his works but, for this one in particular, I’m glad it’s over.

United States on Sep 16, 2023

Makenzie: This book was one that didn’t know much about going into it and it wasn’t what I expected. Set in southern America, this book follows a full time mum and wife who wants some escapism so becomes part of a book club. The women read trashy thriller stories and love them until they end up living in one. When a new guy shows up in town, he seems like a neighbourly man who wants to help the husbands of the town on their financial ventures but our main character notices some odd things about him when she starts digging. This book starts of fairly ‘realistic’ but seems to spiral into fantasy/horror at a rapid pace which I wasn’t expecting but absolutely loved. It was a great Halloween read and managed to capture wit and irony as well as scaring me half to death! The first horror I’ve ever read but certainly not the last.

United Kingdom on Aug 13, 2023

Darren Perdue: Hey there book lovers! It is your old pal, Ninetoes, coming at you with a review of Grady Hendrix’s The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires. I got my thinking cap on, coffee in my system, so let’s do this!

I love vampires, the kind of vampires that will rip your head off to suck the bloody stump and not the sparkly ones. I am always on the hunt for a new take on the vampire novel, and that is exactly what I got with The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires.

Patricia is a member of a book club in Mt. Pleasant, SC. The book starts where she is a bundle of nerves because she is next to do a presentation for the book club, and she never read the book. A million reasons came up as to why she did not read it. When she falters with her presentation, she finds that she is not the only one who did not read it. The leader of the group is upset, and the group shuffles out. In the parking area, Patricia comes across a group of women who are reading a true crime book instead. The kind you find at the supermarket with pictures in the middle. They form their own club, and they are off to the races.

In the meantime, Patricia is attacked by an...

United States on Jun 22, 2023

Chelscey: “The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampire’s” is a bit of a misnomer. You don’t really get a “guide” and there is just the one “vampire”, and the lore around that particular vampire is unlike any I’m familiar with. But that was part of the fun of this book. Or, not fun, as this was an intense commentary on gaslighting, sexism, and racism in Charleston in the early 90’s. Or as intense of a commentary as a white man can make, but I think the point was infuriatingly well made. And while there is no mystery around the vampire, even if it takes these housewives awhile to see it for themselves, the writing was easy and creepy and managed to make me absolutely rage at all the right places. This book really was a look into just how vital the invisible support system of running a household is, the overlooked emotional labor, and just how overtly that gets taken advantage of, in no small part thanks to the burden of hospitality ingrained in each of these women. This was my first book by this author so I was a bit hesitant at first as horror is hit or miss for me, but I thoroughly enjoyed this satirical horror story.

I am a new mom and a big true crime...

United States on May 18, 2023

Snapdragon: I don’t care for supernatural/horror elements in novels, but this was very readable. The doughty Southern ladies who gather to discuss true crime books are very believable, not always nice to each other and face serious moral problems akin, for example, to whether a European Protestant shelters Jews in WWII. It’s life and death stuff but also about reputation and whether your children and spouse believe and esteem you. There’s also some lovely humour - mostly in the beginning, before things get serious. The racial divide comes into play when most of the white ladies draw back from the deaths of poor black kids in preservation of their comfort and privilege. Hendrix subtly conveys how this wilful blindness comes at a cost. There’s no particular mystery about who the bad guy is. What we read on to find out is what they’re going to do about it. Another theme that peeks through is how husbands treat their wives: often with quite a bit of condescension. Hopefully things have changed somewhat since the 90s.

Australia on Apr 27, 2023

C4therineJ: I was unsure about this one when I first downloaded it to Kindle - I love Vampire books but I have to be in a specific mood to read them. (Anne Rice - Completed it mate.)(This is a UK saying :-)

This is a great modern retelling of the Vampire trope - It's set in the 90s (which is now classed as Historical Fiction - can you believe it?!) I wasn't sure about the style of writing until I was about 1/4 of the way through, it's a satire, there's lots of tongue in cheek mysogyny (Sorry to people who found those bits unrealistic - I was there in the 90s - it's an accurate portrayal!)

There were also several sections of the book which made me want to fling my kindle at the wall - emotiove writing! And this made me want to continue reading in the hope that Carter, Horse and Leland got their just deserts... Great book, whether you love it or hate it, it definitely made me feel something!

There are some big horror elements, some blood and guts, and some assaults which are tough reading, and are could come as a shock as the book starts off pretty light and amusing whilst we meet all the characters, and then takes a really dark turn.

Horror comedy at it's finest,...

United Kingdom on Jan 07, 2023

Living a little by Anna - book blogger: The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires est une histoire pleine d’humour, d’horreur et de femmes déterminées à se débarrasser de leur voisin…

J’ai adoré suivre les aventures de Patricia, une femme au foyer aux USA dans les années 80-90. Sa vie ne fait pas franchement rêver : ses enfants ont l’air insupportable, son mari travaille tout le temps et ne semble pas la considérer et sa belle-mère qui est un peu folle habite avec eux. Concrètement, Patricia n’est pas heureuse. Le seul moment détendant est son club de lecture avec ses voisines où elles débattent sur des livres de true crime. Mais tout change quand elle rencontre son nouveau voisin, James.

Grady Hendrix a le don de nous faire basculer dans l’horreur progressivement. Le début du roman n’a rien d’un thriller ou d’un livre d’horreur. Nous découvrons tout simplement la vie de ces femmes au foyer pleines de stress et d’ennuie. Puis l’arrivée de James éveille quelque chose en Patricia : de la curiosité et de l’attirance. La curiosité se transforme en doute et suspicion. L’horreur arrive graduellement dans la dernière partie du roman. J’ai rarement...

France on Dec 07, 2021

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The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires is a horror novel by Grady Hendrix, who previously wrote My Best Friend’s Exorcism and Horrorstör. It was released on the 7th of July 2020 by Quirk Books. We follow Patricia a bored, middle-aged housewife who is attacked by a neighbour on the way home from a book club meeting. This brings a young man into her life who may not be as nice as he initially seems.

I love vampires. They are easily my favourite supernatural creature, so much so that my undergraduate dissertation was on the subject of vampire bites in nineteenth-century literature. I was initially drawn to this book by the similarities of this title to my favourite vampire series, The Southern Vampire Mysteries, also known as the True Blood book or the Sookie Stackhouse series, by Charlaine Harris. While Grady Hendrix’s depiction of vampires is very different from those it was such a fresh and interesting depiction. There was an erotic element, which is often present in depictions of the vampires,...

United Kingdom on Oct 14, 2020