Heard a little buzz but ended up disappointed in this promising concept. Everyone said it was a slow burn but it had a practical zombie biting off the main character's ear in the first fifty or so pages. And I'm personally grossed out that the author made old women's bodies more gross and disturbing than the reveal near the end of the book of the vampire feeding on an underaged teen girl in a very sexual way (also not cool). What's with the swallowable proboscis thing anyway?

I received a copy from the publisher via Netgalley for an honest review.

This book was so many things, funny, witty, ridiculous (in a totally good way) and talked about so many different books too! This novel focuses on a group of housewives in the 80s and 90s who decide to make a change in their book club choices and it leads them to seeing the world very differently. I don't want to give anything away but this was quirky and quite enjoyable. This is definitely a new take on a different kind of vampire and I love ALL my different vampires (yes sparkly to crazy creepy to the original Dracula) so it is always fun seeing the different ways authors interpret vampires and that was probably why I immediately wanted to read this novel.

I am going to be entirely honest, I did NOT like Grady Hendrix's previous book, My Best Friend's Exorcism but I really wanted to give this a try since it just sounded like a fun read and I do not regret it at all. I think I would absolutely be willing to read another adult book by this author, maybe not a YA though.

This is my new favourite book by him, his writting just keeps getting better. This was a quick read that I couldn't put down. Can't wait to see what he comes up with next. Highly recommended for horror fans.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance read, I voluntarily read and reviewed all opions are my own.

Ultimately, this book wasn't for me. I loved the writing style but I couldn't relate to the characters and found certain representations problematic. I also didn't grow up in the US so I wasn't entirely "in" when it comes to the culture described.

Grady Hendrix has done it again! He swept me into his world of paperback throwback horror with My Best Friend's Exorcism, had me laughing out loud with Horrorstor, and created a gnarly world of heavy metal and soul sucking demons with We Sold Our Souls. And now, with The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, he's stolen my heart once and for all.

This is his most mature, straightforward novel compared to his previous writings, since it has a slower pace that pairs perfectly with the lowcountry locale. Since I grew up in Mount Pleasant, I was delighted to read about crossing the Cooper River Bridge, taking a drive down Rifle Range Road, and passing by the houses in Old Village. These references were as sweet as the Breyer's vanilla ice cream that is a staple of our protagonist's home. Each one of Hendrix's previous books have been written in a style that pairs with the plot, with Horrorstor starting each chapter with an ikea-like catalog description, and Southern Book Club is no exception. The plot moves through a span of a few years and focuses more on family and injustice rather than gore and mayhem like his previous books.

The women in the book club are perfect archetypes of the southern mothers and neighbors that Hendrix must have experienced in his youth. He also paints a contrast between the rich "old money" and "new money" of Old Village with the families that live on Six Mile further down the road and have lost much of their land. The novel is a social commentary, and there's no way to not notice it. I highly recommend this to my lowcountry friends, and to those who love a good slow burn vampire story! Also, keep your Goodreads account open because you will want to add all of the titles the ladies read to your Want to Read List!

Whoa!! I'm not a horror fan, in movies or books. But this book, omg! I laughed and cringed and all-around loved it! The juxtaposition of the quaint, polite southern ladies against the gore: it was just perfection.

Wow, just wow.

For fans of classic horror with a great 80's/ campy feel, gander over at "The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires" by Grady Hendrix. This book is both fun and thought provoking revolving around a group of southern book club mothers who utilize knowledge from true crime to try and vanquish a vampire... all while getting dinner on the table by 5. With themes of race, class, and gender smartly woven in, Hendrix does an amazing job using classic horror as a doorway to talking about societal issues of the late 80's- early 90's, with questions such as "why would a vampire target poor black people in a southern town?" I highly recommend this book to classic horror fans and lovers of deep books alike. This was definitely one of my favorite books of 2020.

Absolutely fantastic! Stepford wives meets Fright Night. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time and my mind was doing summer saults!

I really enjoyed this. It's not the most horrific or atmospheric books but the horror parts it did include were done well. I liked the focus on sexism and then how sexism intersects with racism. I'd be curious to find out what black readers feel about about the representation.

The husbands were so awful in this book and I hate them all. I realised paranormal romances have broken my brain when it comes to vampires. At the start I was like "Yes sleep with the clearly vampire guy, your husband sucks." Then I remembered this is a horror and he could actually kill her. Eventually I started hating the vampire because he was also awful. I thought the vampires character was constructed really well, really slimy and manipulative. I hated him a lot.

Dracula meets the Stepford Wives set against the backdrop of Charleston SC and racial divided. This creepy book kept me turning the pages.

I ended this book with a bit of awe. It felt like seeing a movie or a TV show and by the end I could take a calming breath. It was just so expertly told and the tension was laid out so well. It has such a great way of mixing humor and legit horror. There were parts in the book that literally made me stop in fright and then three pages later I would be laughing. It’s a really interesting mix done well.

The husbands and the misogyny they showed towards their wives in this book were so infuriating and it really felt like the women were against the whole world. I almost was wondering if there was going to be a twist about who the bad guy really was. I loved every one of the members and their distinct personalities. Slick, Kitty, Grace, Maryellen and Mrs. Greene were all resilient in their own ways and strong.

I highly recommend.

I always love Grady Hendrix’s books because he has a little humor in his horror. This one is no exception! This is a book club I want to join. These ladies don’t need men to help them in their slaying!

Well this was kinda disappointing. The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires has been getting lots of hype lately, so I think my enjoyment of this ultimately came down to expectations. This was a snarky, witty, somewhat gory horror novel that satirically dealt with some deeper issues such as sexism, racism and class. At it's heart it has everything I'd love in a novel, but I felt like the execution wasn't quite there.

Thank you to Netgallery and Quirk Books for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

OMG! I am in love with this book! I have not enjoyed a book this thoroughly in years and am ecstatic to have that feeling again. Thank you!

I grew up in the nineties and can appreciate so much of the era, I loved all the characters and loved that I hated them some of the time too. I loved the story, the gore, the fact that I was actually scared and creeped out. I highly recommend reading at night if you can! It made me gasp, laugh, feel nauseous and cry. If you want to experience the full range of emotions, this book is the one to read.

Not for the faint of heart, but wow, does it ever remind you that you have one.

This horror novel was refreshing in that the protagonists were women dealing with everyday issues that are relatable. I love that a theme is 'what will you do to protect your children'.

I was intrigued by this book when I first saw it. It was described as "Steel Magnolias meet Dracula." It sounded like fun. It definitely was a page turner but in the end I did not enjoy reading it as much as I had originally thought I might. It was genuinely disturbing and although there were funny bits here and there, it left me feeling very unsettled. Not my kind of book although I will recommend it to horror and thriller fans should they ask.

Grady Hendrix did it again! I love this book. Review and interview with Grady forthcoming for Monster Librarian.

The Southern Book Club's Guide To Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

I won't lie, I was drawn in purely by the aesthetic of the cover of this book. As I'm sure we're all guilty of from time to time! Upon reading the blurb I thought this will be a fun little read for me as recently I've been reading quite a lot of heavier themed books.

Starting off in the 80's this story follows the life of Patricia Campbell and her fellow book club members, when a strange man comes to town offering them all their hopes and dreams on a plate in return for friendship. Around the same time children from the local, poorer communities start to go missing  and committing suicide, along with other strange happenings. Patricia is the only one who believes that the events are linked with the arrival of this new resident and does all she can to convince them that she believes it's because he is a vampire.

At first I found the story a little slow, it's about 1/4 of the way in when something substantial happens and I thought "Great! It's all gonna get messy now!" But sadly it didn't. Things backfire and it goes back to a slow pace. Then about 3/4 it really picks up again and I couldn't tear myself away!
The protagonist, Patricia, was a strong lead that I was rooting for from the very start and the way the author wrote the antagonist really made me hate him and be frustrated when things started going his way.
This is the first book I have read by Grady Hendrix and I did very much enjoy it but, I'm not sure if it was just because I downloaded the book from NetGallery, the spacing of the words, the font size and colour frequently changed throughout the book which was a little odd.

Overall I'll be giving The Southern Book Club's Guide To Slaying Vampires ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5. It is not your typical vampire story but is still worth a go nonetheless!

This book wasn't what I expected, but I liked it. I guess I thought it would be a quirky tale of women in a book club getting carried away on stories of vampires and believing the new neighbor is one and they must kill him. In a way, it was like that, but darker and the characters had more depth.

This tale was more about evil and how it reinvents itself and preys upon the weak and takes advantage of the arrogance of others. The new neighbor was mysterious and charming and a bit attractive but Patricia felt like there was something off as he manipulated her into letting him get closer to her family. Then there was the mother in law suffering from dementia who accused him of murder and called him by another name. African American children wander into the woods and behave strangely before disappearing forever.

One night, while putting her mother-in-law to bed, Patricia realizes that she is lucid and recounts the tale of how the neighbor was a young man while she was just a child and came to town and got into business with her father and the horrible things that came to pass afterward.

Patricia realizes that if she doesn't act, the same thing will happen again.

I enjoyed this story and liked the fact that the "vampire" wasn't some romantic hero. He was a monster that could only be defeated when the book club ladies got together and took him down.

There are very few male writers who can write women in a way that is believable with fully realized characters. I can only think of 2 and Grady Hendrix is one of them.
This was a fun read that made me want to give my mom a really long hug (which I'll do post-pandemic.)
This was also a hard read that lightly tackled racial and socioeconomic disparity in a manner that I wasn't expecting and could have used more of.
This was also a viscerally disgusting book (that moment with the roach has been my literal greatest fear since I was 10 so thanks for making me read that in real time) with heart and grit and that's what I want from my horror.